Milly-Waw-Kee...

So we weren't going to let Summer go by without a trip north to Brew City. Headed up a couple Fridays ago and started it out right with a stop at the Lakefront Brewery for dinner.

In 2006 B.C. (that stands for Before Children and is a phrase mom and dad's friend Steph came up with to describe what feels like the ancient old days of yore, before we were all born and their lives were slightly drastically different) Dad probably would've gone right at this sign, but with his ducks in tow we headed for the fish fry with a big smile on our faces.

Oh, and the Brewhaus Polka Kings were playing, which consisted of two guys who look like they've been eating bratwurst and drinking beer since they were in the womb, but man, they could play and had a big crowd up and dancing.

Friday night Shea and Jack and their mom and dad showed up and had the hotel room next to us, which was actually connected so it was like we had a 3-bedroom apartment. When they got there we just hit the pool and didn't stop till bedtime.

Next day started with a really good breakfast...

Side note: Shea's dad, Chris, and dad are really good friends and he just loves my blog and his goal is to end up in a minimum of 5 posts over the course of the year. Mr. Chris, you've got some work to do.  Great America was your first and this was your second... you only have five and a half months left.

I digress... then we hit the beach. It was a perfect 80-degree day and we were your typical beach bums.

The weekend also was not going to go by without a trip to the Kite Korner. I made that name up, but in the event you missed this post, there is a little corner on Milwaukee's lakefront that kicks up the perfect amount of kite-flying wind pretty much every day, so we headed down to do our kite thing.

Um, side note: Dad had a rough trip at times. He literally kept getting stuck in places... I think it was partly because he was putting himself in precarious places, but also... dude needs some yoga or something to loosen those limbs.

Example 1
Got in the back seat with Shea and me and literally could not get out. Got one leg over and things got even worse, as you can see.

Example 2
Mae's kite got stuck up in a tree so Dad went climbing up to save the day and then got to a part where he couldn't get down. We had to run and get Shea's dad to help him get down

Okay, and we head to the finish line of this post with my favorite part. Check this progression out. This first pic is me in May, 2012 when I was not yet four. Next shot is August of 2015 at seven and last photo is the Big Dog this year doing my thing.

So there you have it - The German Athens of America (largest German settlement west of Berlin), The City of Festivals, Cream City, good ol' Miltown... it just never disappoints.

Pimpin' The Bride

So you all remember Natalie, right? She was our nanny who came on when Pax was born and lightened our world, just as Miss Stacey had done before and Juliana has done since. We've been unbelievably blessed to have people come into our lives and become such a huge part of our family, so it was only fitting that we were right there with Natalie on her biggest day yet.

And not only were we invited to her wedding, but we were invited to play a gigantic role in her day - Mae and I as flower girls and Pax-Man as the ring bearer.

We weren't sure how it was going to go, honestly, with both Mae and Pax, but sure enough, Mae did her thing and Pax was a superstar. And then we celebrated with Natalie and her closest family and friends.

Oh, and this turned out kind of fun, too.

Making 'Merica Great Again

Well, I read about 438 books over the school year which resulted in a free ticket to Great 'Merica.

For the second year in a row we went with my bestie Shea and her dad, but this year we had another addition as Shea's brother RickyBobby Jack and their mom came too.

We got soaking wet on the boat rides, which was interesting because it was only about 59 degrees that day...

 

and then we each tried to Magellan everyone around the park.

What a hoot it turned out to be. Went on The Demon, The Eagle, The Whizzer (which is interesting because that's what we call Pax sometimes), The Orbit, and even found ourselves on the Fun Machine, which is the perfect name for that ride. There is also a ride located between the Fun Machine and The Orbit and seems like a combo of the two that dad and Shea's dad named "The Fun Machorbit." They were saying something about patenting with t-shirts, or getting tattoos or something. I know, as if I'm not gonna think he's lame enough when I'm 14.... it's starting already.

And so the sun went down on another day in good old America... at Great old America.

New Addition

So we got ourselves a new member of the family.

Welcome to the family Hutchinson Cherry Skertich, aka Hutch. He's a 2-year old black lab who we picked up about ten days. He's very well trained and a really good fit for our family and house.

He likes to sleep in my bedroom, either on the floor or down on Mae's bed on the bottom bunk; he likes to go to Nana's and run wild and chase his tennis ball; he likes to follow mom around while she's trying to do, well, pretty much anything; he likes to jump around in circles when he sees Dad come home. And he likes to ride in the car with us, and I love it because I used to be in the back row all by myself and now I've got myself a co-pilot.

Bikin' the Drive, Take 2

Memorial Day weekend was amazing, highlighted by one of our favorite family events of the year - Bike the Drive.

We jumped on our bikes with Colin and Steph and Ana and Pax and Sid rode on the back of the dad's bikes. We made it a little further than last year, with the only bummer being Mae's bike wasn't rolling very well so her poor little legs had to pedal nonstop so she and dad actually stopped at 31st St. Beach to play while we rode a little longer and then met them there to play.

Pax's "THIS IS AWESOME!" response throughout the morning pretty much summed it up.

Yep, I ride a bad-a$$ black and orange boys bike called The Aggressor... you shouldn't be surprised.

And then when we got back home afterward, we got into a really intense game of kickball out back.