Here...Then Gone... And Back Again...

Hold on to your hats - this could get long!

Wow, I can't believe July went by without a post. We've been pretty busy around here. In mid July we took a vacation out to Racine, WI on Lake Michigan. 

Our trip was fun. The kids had a great time - they especially liked staying in the hotel with the pool. The hotel was right on the harbor and looked out over the lake.

On our first day there Zan was doing race stuff so the kids and I walked along the pier/harbor and down to the beach. 

Ran into a little history about Racine...

There was a drawbridge on the way to the beach that the kids loved watching go up to let the tall sailboats underneath. (Didn't get a picture)

The beach was great! I couldn't believe how soft the sand was. I really wasn't expecting it. The first day we went there the seagulls had taken over the beach. I told the kids to go get em!!

They had a playground there that I had heard was really great. It was very nice - it was also very, very similar to the playground in town here. I guess we have great playgrounds here.

They loved walking along the sand dunes...

This picture screamed to be in black and white too!!

One of the other reasons we went to Racine was for Zan to complete in the 70.3 Ironman race. He did well. Here he is crossing the finish line...

And with the kids afterwards...

Before we went to watch Zan finish the race we found a splash pad that was only a couple blocks from the hotel. Yeah, the kids were wearing their clothes, but we were on vacation and they were having a blast!!

The following day we went to visit the Jelly Belly warehouse. We took a tour of the warehouse; unfortunately not the factory and dropped a fair penny in the store!! YUM!!

We also went to the beach to go swimming. The water was very cold, but it was hot so it felt pretty good. Up to a certain point anyways...

Apparently sand castles are not my thing, but I made a sand turtle...

We drove a little out of town to go see the dinosaur museum - it was small, but fun.

We also found the best toy store with attached ice cream shop!! I wish it was closer because it really was the best. 

Here's a picture of Sam's dinosaur that he was feeding crackers to.

So that was our trip in a nutshell and photos. I'll put some more photos on my other blog if you want to check them out.

Other than that everything has pretty much been business as usual. The garden is doing very well. I've been picking tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, peppers, green beans and a couple blueberries. I have cantaloupe and watermelon growing also. Here are some pictures I took today.

Then I realized I hadn't posted a completed photo of the deck, so here you go...

I also finished Sam's new big boy bed. He really likes it and his new robot sheets too. 

See, July was kind of busy, but not too much. Now it's only five weeks until school starts again. The summer is going too fast. I wish it would cool down a little bit though. It's been so humid and sticky out. 

I'll try and get some more posts here in August!! :)