Door County 2014

We try to take a trip to Door County at least once a year.  We LOVE Door County!  The beach is beautiful, they are super dog friendly, and we love to hike the trails.

love the doggy heads out the window

Marley thought she was the driver

Had to make a quick stop for an Oprah Chai.  Yummy!

This year was especially exciting because it was Remi's first time enjoying the great outdoors in Door County.  We were a little worried about bringing her with because she still wasn't walking great on a leash for us and she wasn't a big fan of swimming.

Lovin' life in Door County

Well she proved us wrong!  Not only did she start swimming on her own, she also hiked a difficult trail through Peninsula State Park without stopping once!  That means she had to climb rocks, which did give her a bit of hesitation, but in some spots, she was pulling me along.

Waiting for her sisters

The water was FREEZING!

We did a little shopping and got a few things for the house.  We had some great meals out (minus one terrible experience!  Don't go to the Log Den, their service was the worst ever!).

We've been doing this every year and we always feel like we should stay for longer.  We are even considering getting a pop up camper!  I'm not a huge fan of camping, but it would be much more affordable and I think it would make it easier for traveling with the dogs.  We will see!

We saw this while we were eating lunch...  Hilarious!

Marley was hopping through the water like a kangaroo!

 The dogs slept for two days straight after getting back!  They were so worn out!!

Exhausted!

Can't wait for next year!

pontooning

last summer we weren't able to make it out to the lake very often because we were building the house.  we are very lucky that mark's mom lives on a lake close by and we try to make it out there as often as possible.

last week, we were able to make it out for our first afternoon at the lake.  the dogs had a BLAST swimming and then we took them out on the boat.

we didn't bring Vito along because we weren't sure how he would do at the lake.  but all the girls had a great time.

Remi got to go for her first ride on the pontoon!  i don't think she ever got a chance to go for a ride on it last year.  she doesn't love riding in the car, so i didn't think she would like the boat.  but she actually seemed to enjoy herself.  even took a little snooze towards the end.

i know Remi had tried swimming last year and didn't love it.  the results were the same this year.  haha

hoping we can make it out for many pontoon and jet ski rides this summer!

Weekend away in the woods...

Last weekend, Mark was away hunting with his boss, so I thought that would be the perfect time to visit my sister.  I invited Starla to go as a little girls weekend away (even though I kinda felt bad about taking her for a weekend away from her hubby).  We headed up Saturday morning around 8am and got to Sara's around 12pm.  When we got there, we hung out for a bit to let the dogs (Stella and Remi) play with Eli for a bit before we would kennel them.  We decided to check out the new Shopko in town (the kids specifically requested me going to check it out with them:).  This was a HUGE deal to those northerners!  They have no big box stores in their town, so everyone decided to make a stop at Shopko that day.  It was PACKED!  I was afraid we weren't going to find a parking spot.  We had a good time walking around and Sara picked up some stuff she needed.  Adalai had a little money and wanted to buy something so she picked out pink zebra print stick on nails (so cute!).  After that, we headed to the Super 8 to go for a swim.  It's so nice that they let people pay to use their pool, even if they aren't staying at the hotel.  We all hung out in the hot tub and relaxed for a bit.  It was much needed after my stressful week.  We let the kids (and Starla) swim for a bit before we headed home.  We had a yummy beef stew that my sister prepared.  After we finished dinner, Adalai and I worked to get her nails on.  All of us adults didn't think to make sure that they were small enough for little kid fingers (which they weren't!).  But Auntie Kira was determined to make it work, so we used all the small ones and got them on.  Let me tell you...I COULD NOT get over how freaking adorable she looked with her fake nails on.  Adalai has never been a girly girl until now, and I LOVE it!  Then we got busy playing Yahtzee and Apples to Apples.  We had SO MUCH fun!!  The kids really got into Apples to Apples.  With a little help from the adults, we made it work.  They are such smart kids. :)

When we got up in the morning, we ate some yummy pumpkin french toast that my sister made.  SO good!!  Then we looked through some photo books, so Starla could see how awesome we were as children.  (Ha!)  After a little big of playdo fun, the kids wanted to play games again!  I'm glad they had such a good time playing games with us.  And of course before we left we also had to do a little bit of Zumba with the kids.  Wyatt hadn't done it before and he had a big grin on his face the whole time.  They loved it!

pirate ship

Starla and Adalai's owls

We had such a good time up north visiting my sister!  So happy Starla got to come and that the kids had a good time with us :)