how it's made...

Alex loves that show. He loves watching the manufacturing process and seeing how things are made. On the last day of our trip, he got to see how things are made up close and personal!

On Friday morning we went to Sheboygan, WI to tour the facility at VPI. My parents buy from them for their business and they offered to give us a factory tour since we were in the area. Alex was beyond excited...
Here we were watching vinyl floor tiles being made....
The whole process is fascinating! Alex loved it! We also got to see how vinyl wall base was made as well. It was a great tour. The man giving the tour gave us such detailed descriptions of the process that even Alex didn't have any questions!

After the tour we went to the conference room to meet with the president of the company and some of the other employees. They gave the kids some goodies which was totally unexpected!

On our way out, the kids posed with the sign and some of their new goodies...
The president of the company also owns a restaurant in Sheboygan, so although he wasn't able to join us, he arranged for us to have lunch there.

It was probably a good thing he didn't join us as Clara was having a pre-lunch food crisis meltdown...
The view from our table...
The Duke of Devon....
It was really good! Dad and I had sandwiches, but everyone else had the fish and chips. They said they were really good. And the weather was beautiful... such a great place to eat outside!

See... a little food and she perks right back up...
From there, it was time to say good-bye to grandpa and grandma and thank them for such a wonderful trip!

We had arranged to catch the train back to Chicago to save them the trouble of fighting their way into the city and then back out, just to drop us off. It worked wonderfully! The train ride was so quick! We were back to the city in no time!

Here are the kids hanging out, waiting for our train...

And a photo of my dad being a photo ninja...
... sneaking around taking the last few snapshots of our trip!

Thanks again mom and dad for such a wonderful trip!

the jelly belly tour....

We're back from our final trip of the summer! But before I get to those photos, I thought I had better finish up the ones from our trip to Wisconsin. :-)

Thursday morning we loaded up the car and left Door County. But before we did, I took a couple of quick photos from our patio....

Such a nice view!

We had other plans for the day, but things changed. So we ended up at the Jelly Belly warehouse a day early.

Here are grandma and the kids going in for the tour...
No photos of the actual tour because they aren't allowed. But to be honest, there wasn't much to take photos of. It's a warehouse. You ride around on a cute little train and watch videos about how Jelly Belly jelly beans are made. Very informative... but not much to photograph.

The highlight of the trip is the Jelly Belly store...
The kids had been planning this stop the entire trip! They had a couple things planned out that they wanted to get, but then found so much more at the store...
So many decisions!!

the fish boil...

Wednesday night we headed to Ephraim for the fish boil at the Old Post Office.

Adding more wood to the fire...


Throwing the kerosene on...
and WHOOOOOOSH.....


... the whole thing goes up in flames! :-)

Everyone said the fish was really, really good. I'm not a big fan of fish, so I had fried chicken instead. But I can say that the potatoes and onions that were in the pot with the fish were very good! It was a fun experience to watch!

Here's the video (warning... the fish boil part was shot by Clara so it can meander a bit at times)...

Egg Harbor Fun Park

Wednesday morning my dad went to play golf, so my mom and I took the kids to play some golf of our own... mini golf! You'll have to trust me that we did it, because I don't have any photo/video evidence of the event. But that's what happens when I'm actually playing too and there are a couple of groups right behind us waiting for us to finish each hole.

After mini golf, Alex wanted to ride the go-carts...


After witnessing his driving skills the night before on the video game, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how he did in an actual vehicle.

Next they played some trampoline basketball (a little footage of that in the video below).

And, finally, they ended up at the arcade.

Clara decided to take a spin on the big wheel and won the jackpot....


ONE THOUSAND TICKETS!!!

It took them forever to pick out their prizes and then we were off to the hotel for an afternoon of swimming at the pool!

bonus tuesday video...

Since I'm behind with editing the photos from last Wednesday... I'm posting this "bonus" video from last Tuesday :-)

After the corn maze and dinner, I took the kids to the pool at the hotel. However, it started to lightening so they closed the pool. We ended up in the hotel's arcade and the kids were playing driving games (I was playing Ms. Pacman). Needless to say, I'm dreading their 16th birthdays (perhaps one child's more than the other)...

Tuesday...

Tuesday started out with wandering up the coast through all of the little towns. We shopped along the way... Alex got a Beatles t-shirt at the Made in Britain store in Egg Harbor, Clara got MORE stuffed animals in Fish Creek.

We were just driving along when we spotted the goats!
I had noticed them the last time we were in Door County, but we didn't stop that time. This time we did!
The goats are on the roof of Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant.
We had already eaten lunch, so we just stopped, admired the goats and browsed through the "butik".
Next to the restaurant, was a little park with new friends to meet...
:-)
(FYI - I did not dress my daughter, I'm not even sure what to say about the outfit she chose to wear...sigh)



Ever classy... Clara decides to stick her finger up the poor girl's nose!

The kids, my dad and their new friend...
Okay... now they're all looking at me....
A stack of blondies...
After that, we headed back toward Sturgeon Bay and decided to make a stop at Schopf's Hilltop Dairy for ice cream and the corn maze!

We all decided to do one together...
It was a detective type game where you found clues and eliminated suspects at each checkpoint...
The corn was tall!
Clara needed a little break to study the map...
Speaking of the map... look at this thing....
... the maze was just incredible!!
Shortly after that photo we lost Alex in the maze... but somehow he made it out before the rest of us did!

I made the kids pose for a few photos before they went back in on their own...



Can you see how dark the sky started getting? We let the kids do the short maze since it really looked like it was going to storm at any moment.

However, while they were in the maze, the storm blew over...And the only rain we got (while we were there) was a few sprinkles as the kids came out of the maze.

Here's a little video of our adventures at the dairy...