Afternoon at Soak City Water Park

Another hot morning and afternoon spent in Soak City Water Park inside Valley Fair.  The girls and I headed over around 10:00 a.m. and stayed until we had our fill of the sun.

The girls even enjoyed some Dippin' Dots as a little cooling off treat ...

Mushrooms!!!

They finally agreed to try fried mushrooms and the LOVED them!

Overnight with the Hokanson's

For the first time ever, the boys decided they wanted to stay overnight at our house and the girls were super happy to be the hosts this time around.  They went and played at the neighborhood park for a bit before coming back to the house for dinner.

After dinner, they settled in for a little Minecraft and movies.  They decided to watch Sponge out of Water (Spongebob Squarepants) during which both boys fell asleep.  Unfortunately, I was awoken at 3:00 a.m. and Christian wanted to go home.  We tried to talk him into staying, but eventually his mom came and picked up the boys ... we hope they will want to try again another time.

Exploring Stillwater

We got back from visiting Granny B and helping celebrate her birthday last night and daddy also got home from his work trip.  He has to leave again tomorrow, and he wanted to do something with his girls, so we headed over to Stillwater for a few hours to explore and mainly to check out Nelson's ice cream.

These ice creams the girls are holding are the "kids" size ... next time I think we will share one.  Excellent ice cream though and the best licorice ice cream I have ever tasted!

We also stopped by Tremblay's candy store and spent some time exploring along the river.  We were hoping to catch a river boat ride, but there was nothing available while we were there, so maybe next time!

Hungry Peddler with Granny B

Of course we had to get Granny B to the Hungry Peddler at least one morning for breakfast while we are visiting ...

Coney Island & Pettibone Campground

To keep moving with our busy weekend ... we headed to La Crosse after spending yesterday with Granny M to visit Granny B as well as Gary and Cheryl who are here for the summer camping at Pettibone.  We joined Granny B and the Barker Clan for chili dogs at Coney Island before heading down the river to see the rest of the family.

We spent a fun afternoon along the river and had a family cookout for dinner.  We will be staying with Granny B for four more days.

BBQ Days Parade with Granny M

With Grandma and Grandpa out of town camping in Wisconsin, the girls and I went over to spend the afternoon with Granny M.  We went downstairs at her apartment building and enjoyed a short set of 1940's Swing music before the parade started.  This band float was making private stops at the elder living facilities prior to the parade starting, and we all really enjoyed it.

After the musical show, we headed out curbside under a shady tree to settle in for what turned out to be on the longest hometown parades I have ever been too!

This is the candy score for the girls from the parade ... and trust me ... we left plenty in the street for others!

Minecraft Party Aftermath

I took the girls and a few of their friends (Mia, Sophie and Michael) to Minecraft Party at the Jordan Library today.  They all had a lot of fun doing the scavenger hunt, playing some games and doing some crafts.

They all decided to come back to our house to hang out and ended up staying for dinner.  Great bunch of kids!

Valleyfair and some PlayDoh

We really love our annual passes to Valley Fair ... especially as it includes the water park.  Today we opted to just hang at the water park slides and the wave pool for a few hours and enjoy the sunny weather.

We also had to pick up a new version of the Fuzzy Pumper Barbershop ... although there have been some changes in how the barber chair works since I was their age ... and it is minons growing hair rather than PlayDoh people ... still the girls had fun!

4th of July

Once again the girls and I headed to Camp Baker for the 4th of July holiday.  We had a great time and were so happy when daddy was able to join us on the 4th for some of the fun!!!