15th Anniversary in Door County

To celebrate our 15th anniversary (crazy right!) Josh and I traveled to Door County, Wisconsin for four nights. We stayed in the village of Fish Creek, which we really loved, at Cedar Court Inn. Super cute motel/cottages and we could see Lake Michigan from our window.  When we first arrived it was storming but it ended up being nice by the evening.

We had dinner at a great pizza place (Wild Tomato) then took a stroll to check out the harbor.

Thursday morning (our actual anniversary) we walked around town a little and then went to see Peninsula State Park. We also ate breakfast at a really cool Swedish restaurant called Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant. The really cool thing about this place is that there are goats on the grass roof sometimes! We didn't get to see any this time but we did later in the trip. 

 

All the businesses and residences around Fish Creek were so beautifully landscaped!

Peninsula State Park was relatively small, but we drove the loop and walked up the new tower.

Since we had already purchased the state park pass for the day, we went to the other side of the peninsula to see Cave Point County Park and Whitefish Dunes State Park. Cave Point was beautiful (and free), Whitefish was only ok. 

For our anniversary dinner we went to Glacier Ledge Restaurant near Egg Harbor. We loved it so much we went back for another dinner at the end of our trip!

After dinner we went to Sunset Park back in Fish Creek to watch the sun set. It was so beautiful!

This is the recreation area at the place we stayed. Had a pool, lots of green space to play games and a fire pit!

Friday morning we were up early again and went to see some of the other county parks. We went to Ellison Bluff first, not a lot to see here but it was very peaceful because no one else was there! Then to Door Bluff Headlands County Park. We kinda of hiked around until we made our way down to the water. It was a little treacherous but worth it. And Josh rescued a turtle that was stuck in some rocks!

We were super hungry by this point so we found a little coffee shop in Gills Rock (Gills Rock Coffee) that was serving up homemade croissant breakfast sandwiches and frittatas. So delicious!

We were kind of close to the Cana Island Lighthouse so we went over there after we ate. This was such a fun excursion. You could either walk across the causeway or take a tractor ride so you didn't get wet. We opted on the tractor. Once you are over you pay a fee to be able to climb up the lighthouse and explore the grounds. 

View from the top!

For dinner that night we went to Parador in Egg Harbor. It's a tapas restaurant so we got to try lots of different things-all were great!

After dinner we found some live music. 

Saturday morning we took it easy...got coffee and hot chocolate and walked around town a little bit. There was an art fest in Sister Bay that day so we went there, I bought a book (which was really good!) and then we had lunch at Fat Belly. 

Goats!

Chicken Bacon Ranch macaroni and cheese. Come on, so good!

We laid out by the pool (this was a daily activity) then got ready for dinner and some music. 

We ate at Glacier Ledge again (fantastic) then strolled around town as the sun set. 

It was such a relaxing trip! Huge thanks to my mom for coming up and staying with the boys so we could have our getaway. It had been a while since we had taken a trip with just us so it was much needed! 

Beginning of School and Lots of Gardening

We had a busy month in August! We arrived home from our trip and next thing we knew the kids were starting school! (Then Josh and I left for another vacation to celebrate our anniversary!)

Anyway, here are some takeaways from August, mostly gearing up for school and working in the garden/canning!

I've mentioned before how much Dave loves to cook...here he is helping Josh make jalapeno poppers.

Ike has always loved the sunflowers that I grow every year. This year was a rough one for them but a couple grew pretty tall!

Before school started I took some of Dave's friends to the city pool one more time. 

Back to school night, had to get a picture with Dave and Alec!

A little before and after comparison. I think this was 2018.

First day of school! Both boys were really excited to get back to school this year. Dave switches classes a lot in 6th grade and he's enjoyed that. He has started band (percussion) and is on the robotics team again this year. Ike was super excited to have a student teacher in his class this semester. He's playing soccer again and made the robotics team for the 3rd grade!

We hosted some of the boys' friends one Saturday afternoon for some basketball and outside games.

Garden Update!!

When we got back from Michigan we had lots of wild blueberries still so we made some jam out of it. It's quite good, but it didn't set up quite as thick as normal jam. 

Here is the state of my garden in mid-August. We had a great year for cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. My poor zucchini really struggled this year! Oh and the lettuce and carrots did pretty well (not pictured, they are in the other beds!)

One of my neighbors had an abundance of roma tomatoes so one Friday I made spaghetti sauce! She also let me borrow her fancy tomato grinding/deseeding machine. So cool!

I grew one volunteer cantaloupe. I'm assuming there was a seed from the manure I received from White's cow pasture :) This was delicious!

I grew Josh some super hot peppers this year...pictured below are habaneros, scorpion peppers and I think serranos? 

These scorpion peppers are so pretty when they turn colors! 

Josh and Ike both tried this scorpion pepper. Ike's reaction was so funny. He said, oh it's not that bad and then started running all over the house because it was so hot!

Pickles!

Last pictured is my frog friend. He hung out with me throughout my gardening this summer :)

Well that about wraps up our August. I still need to post about our trip to Door County Wisconsin but I'll do that one soon!