Wow, what a month. And it isn't even over. July 2016 started out with a TON of work. One of the many perks of my job is that my hours are very flexible. They are great about cramming the first part of a pay period with most of my 80 hours, allowing me to take minimal vacation time when we decide to hit the road. And hit the road we did :) Below are the Chronicles of Joshua and Forrest as we made our way across Illinois and the great state of Wisconsin!
Our first stop was Rockford IL. We hit up the shopping mall to stretch our legs and grab a snack. They had one of Forrest's favorites: Superman Ice Cream! We also stopped at a cool toy store, where he got some new letter blocks
Our next stop was lunch in Madison WI at the Journey Buffet. My good friend Mike made a drive over from Milwaukee to see us. It was great to catch up with this wonderful man, who I don't get to see nearly as often as I like. Mike, if you're reading this, I can't wait to get together again :)
Next stop was the Wisconsin Dells, home of the Dino Depot! This is our preferred gas stop, as you may recall from a previous post. I figure if you're going to have to stop for gas either way, might as well make it somewhere fun! We also took a break to go spend some time at Knuckleheads. Forrest was rearing to burn some pent up energy after 4.5 hours in the car. I was happy to oblige.
The Boy Wonder loves that airplane ride. He also enjoyed bouncing on a giant bounce balloon, and running around in an indoor playground.
Our last stop before Wascott was at his favorite restaurant: Texas Roadhouse in Eau Claire. We had a great dinner before hitting the road for the final stretch up Highway 53. Next stop, the Lake House!
Obligatory pic :) Forrest and I were away for a total of 8 days. EIGHT Days of Father/Son fun! A big thank you to Mommy for loaning me her favorite little man for that long. Mandi had a tough time missing both of her best dudes, but we made the most of it despite a mixed bag weather wise. We spent a lot of time at Grandmas house:
Forrest loves letters. His new block letters and Scrabble kept him quite entertained during those rainy days that we had. There was also plenty of sun and lake fun to be had!
Forrest also had a blast recreating the Dino Depot with the building materials available to him on the beach. We burned a TON of energy on that Trampoline.
We also had a TON of fun with the Rebmans and Warrens while we were up there. Thank you to Jill, Chris, Cori, Chris, Cauge, Cainan, and Caylor for sharing some of their vacation time with us :) We managed to hit up Spooner and an old Grogg Family Tradition: Go Carts! (Forrest and I managed third place, narrowly losing out on 2nd to Cori Warren who passed us in our final lap!!!)
(Note, also a Grogg tradition, we DID get yelled at for bumping and running into the tires too much. YOLO)
We also had a fun day trip to Duluth. We had to go pick up my little sister Sarah (Aunt Sarah to Forrest). She flew up to spend a few days with us. While we were there, Forrest and I made a trip out to the breakwater and the Canal Park Lighthouse. Duluth is a great town, and it was a fun trip. Forrest even got to throw some rocks into the largest freshwater lake in the world.
There is something so perfect about a little boy chucking rocks into a lake.
Sarah had some great weather on day 1 of her visit. She enjoyed the Pontoon boat, tubing, and trampoline fun with her nephew. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have (still feel new to this even after a year) but here are some highlights:
Sarah also had a ton of fun on her trip to the range. She struggled on the revolver and the pistol, but was a natural with the .308!
And finally, a closing video, on our last day there Forrest had a ball playing "Snakes" with his Great Grandma. Moments like this are precious, too precious not to share.
A special thank you to (Great) Grandma Letty Grogg for, as always, being such an amazing gracious host. That woman is an absolute inspiration. Hands down she is one of the best. We love you Grandma!
Back to work now for the next week, then another family trip up. Hopefully we will have more pictures and videos to post soon!
Love every second of it. Great. Dad.
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