Happy Birthday, grandma!

Grandma Soliday turned 97 (!!!) on September 1st. To put that in perspective, grandma was born the same year the Titanic sank – 1912! Wow! Happy Birthday, Grandma! We love you!!!

A look back at summer

Deb, Kayla, Kyle and I did a LOT this summer. But it sure seems to go too fast, and when the leaves begin to turn you realize there was so much more you wanted to do but just never quite got around to. There's always next summer, though. Right? Here's some photos of just a few of the fun things we actually did get to do. Enjoy!


The four of us went to the zoo for my company's annual picnic. There were lots of animals and stuff there. Cool!







Deb and I enjoy going to Lake Geneva on Sundays when the weather's nice. We had a good day in early August. Lots of people on that small beach!






Ah, Port Washington! A favorite for all of us! We went up there a few times this summer. This shot was from July, and the water was COLD! Check out Kayla, Kyle and Debbie! Ha!






Okay, actually this photo was from a week ago at a great wedding for one of my co-workers. It was held on Lake Michigan in Kenosha. Very nice. Why the photo of us? 'Cause we look way cool, that's why. Enough said.





Canoeing! Always a great time. We only hot the water once this summer unfortunately, but we had a good day and a great time. We were on Big Muskego Lake. It's a perfect lake for canoeing.





Oh yes, boating with Wayne and Renee! After a few reschedules, we finally got a good day were we all were available. The lake was free of weekenders and the weather was very good. Deb, Kayla, Kyle and I all tubed (that's Kayla in the picture) and Kayla tried water skiing too. She actually made it up for a few seconds! Thanks, Wayne and Renee for the great day!

Colorado, part 1

We did it! Deb and the kids and I took a two day (each way!) cross country trip to Colorado to visit my family. Did I mention the two days in the car?!? Anyway, it was well worth it. First, we didn't kill each other by the time we finally got there, and second, our time there was simply incredible. Really!

We were crazy busy each day, but we also had plenty of time to catch up with my mom, my sister and her family, and my brother and his family. We even had a memorial for my dad, which really meant a lot for us.

What else? Well...we went on a train ride through the Royal Gorge (home of the world's highest suspension bridge), rode horses, rafted through the gorge, hunted for dinosaur bones, waded in a mountain river, saw a crazy man's (my opinion) "castle" in the mountains, walked around a mountain top lake, talked to a slowly-getting-drunk Colorado man who just broke his collar bone from a fall form his motorcycle (and hadn't been to town to fix it yet), saw ghosts in our pictures (ya gotta ask us about this!), ate at a Sonic restaurant, walked across the Royal Gorge bridge, gambled our money away at an old gold-mining town (Cripple Creek), climbed red colored cliffs in Red Rock, visited an old west town (Buckskin Joe's), and, well...I don't know, a bunch more fun stuff. We really had a blast! Then we had to drive two days home...ugh.

Here's a few of our favorite pictures: our train ride through the Royal Gorge, mom, me, Sam, and Scott, the gang having supper at mom's house, Deb and I, the four of us at the Royal Gorge bridge. Be sure to click on them to see them bigger! Enjoy!

Colorado, part 2

Man, we have LOTS of pictures to show you! Here's even more: wading in a mountain river, climbing the gorgeous cliffs at Red Rock Park, Deb and I on top of a mountain on the way to Cripple Creek, having lunch in San Isabel (man, is that place remote!), dinosaur bone hunting in Garden Park (near town) with mom. More to come...!

Colorado, part 3

Here's a few more fun pictures of all the great stuff we did: the lake at San Isabel waaay up in the beautiful mountains, Debbie on Skyline drive overlooking Canon City, Deb and I before our incredible rafting trip through the Royal Gorge, Kayla horseback riding with us, Deb and mom at the Dinosaur Depot. Enjoy!

Summer fun

Summer goes by so fast, doesn't it? July has always been my favorite month and this year is no exception. Deb and I and the kids have done many fun things. Pictured here are just a few: SummerFest, watching the Cedarburg July 4th parade, and tailgating at a Brewers game. Come on, let us know what you've been enjoying your summer, too!

A visit to Port Washington on Father's Day

The kids, Debbie and I took a short pleasant trip up to Port Washington today for Father's Day. Port is one of our favorite half day getaways for sunny summer weekends. We ate lunch in the park on the bluffs overlooking the lake and then spent a few hours hanging out on the beach. Kyle was the busy kid, digging giant holes next to the water, trying to build a raft with drift wood tied together with vines, and climbing the bluffs. Kayla, Deb and I did some hunting for sand and surf polished glass pieces but spent most of our time just chilling out. Oh! We finally got to see the mysterious lighthouse that Deb's been talking about. Guess she really didn't make it up!

A Saturday afternoon bike ride

Deb and I love to ride our bikes, especially on new to us trails. This last Saturday we rode the Oak Leaf Trail from the South Shore Yacht Club in Bayview down to Grant Park in South Milwaukee. What a great ride! Lots of beautiful views and we soaked up plenty of warm sunshine. Two thumbs up!

Our trip to Boston!

Deb and I spent 5 wonderful days in the Boston area last week! We flew into Boston on a Thursday afternoon. We stayed two nights in Quincy (a suburb directly to the south where John Quincy Adams – a distant relative of mine, or so I'm told – grew up) and took the subway into Boston on Friday. We then drove down to Cape Cod for the weekend. We had a blast! We're planning on going back again someday and seeing all the things we missed the first time. Here's a few of our favorite pics from Boston: this is Paul Revere's house!!!; it's me in Boston!; the red line is the "Freedom Trail" that winds it's way about three miles through downtown Boston past all the famous Revolutionary War sites – here it's leading into Freedom Square I believe; a WWII Destroyer (okay! I forgot the name!) that saw action in the Phillipines and was hit twice by kamikazes; the subway from our hotel in Quincy to downtown Boston.

Even more Boston pictures!

Even more cool Boston pictures! Check it out: This is a view from the top (294 steps!!!) of the monument on Bunker Hill overlooking the harbor; fish being sold in the farmer's market in downtown Boston; on the ferry to the north side of the harbor with the downtown skyline in the background; Debbie on the pier trying to find which way was "north"; beautiful apartments we loved in the North End area of historic Boston.

East coast goofiness!

We were way too goofy at moments on our trip. We captured most of it for your viewing pleasure! Check it out from the top left: We were watching the local news the first night in Boston and saw a piece about some ducks that were rescued from a sewer in some "Wa, uh, Wawutoosa" city in far away Wisconsin; I'm seconds away from almost being thrown overboard for mocking a historic WWII destroyer's lifesaver; we FINALLY saw the sun on Saturday afternoon in Cape Cod, so when we got back to the hotel we had a totie in the only sunny spot – the parking lot; Deb just had to check out the beach furniture for sale on the side of the road on Cape Cod; Deb was... ah, hmm... even though we were in Quincy, a populated suburb of Boston, Deb had to check out the wildlife in the bushes...

Cape Cod!

On Saturday Deb and I drove down the coast – a very heavily wooded coast, I might add – from Boston, through Plymouth (nope, didn't see the actual "rock") and across the bridge into Cape Cod. We stayed Saturday and most of Sunday in the town of Dennis, which was established in 1639. Like many of the towns on the Cape, Dennis runs width-wise across the peninsula and includes the townships of Dennis, South Dennis, East Dennis, Dennis Port, and probably more (don't ask me why, I have no clue!). We found the west towns on the outside or open ocean side of the Cap to be much more "touristy", like the Dells or Minocqua, while the bay side towns are hidden away gems and are much quieter ("quainter" as Debbie said), more like Door County. Our hotel was on the bay side near three sandy beaches. Saturday was cool so we did a bit of exploring and ended the night with a lobster dinner (okay, only I had the lobster!). Sunday was 85 and sunny and we spend and outstanding day on the beach where Debbie's sun-soaking produced a glowing tan and my soaking produced a painful color that looked suspiciously like the lobster's from the night before. I guess SPF 4 and I don't get along.