Summer Fun & Random Pictures

We've done lots of fun things this summer.  Rather than put them in several posts, I'll just put lots of them here together.  

We went to a little zoo not too far from us.  It's the perfect little size to have fun.  The weather was great for it too. 

Emma took a couple different archery classes this summer.  She loved it!  And she was quite good too.  What can't she do?

Do you see her bullseye shot?

Emma's are the blue arrows.  She got 4 in the yellow and only one in the red.

Some great friends of ours came to town over the 4th of July, among them Emma's best friend.  She had a blast hanging out for a couple days.

Hanging out and barbequing all day can really wear a guy out!

Meanwhile, Emma had to say goodbye to another of her best friends who was moving.  So we squeezed in some fun right before they left, including going to the Jelly Belly Factory and enjoying some beach time.

After one of her tennis classes I decided a frozen treat was a must!

We headed to Milwaukee to attend Germanfest.  Es gab viel zum essen, trinken, kaufen, und anschauen; und macht viel Spass.  (translation: There was lots to eat, drink, buy, and watch; and was a lot of fun.)

The live Glockenspiel.  These guys did such a cute job.

Some more beach fun at North Beach with friends.  

We took Emma shooting for the first time.  She shot a .22 rifle.  She did remarkably well, and can't wait to go again!

Since Emma already had her birthday party in June (so her friend who was moving could come), she didn't have another party in August, but we did go out to dinner to celebrate.  We took her to Medieval Times.  The show was great and she thought it was a riot eating everything with just her hands. 

Our knight really was the best.  He was heckling the "French" knight, and was hilarious.  He only lost due to another knight's cheating, which Emma made sure he knew about by shouting "Cheater" over and over. 

I can't get over how beautiful she is.  I've included this picture I snapped of her one day, just because.

Indianapolis

In early August we went to Indianapolis to go through the new Indianapolis Temple during its open house.  It turned out to be such a fun weekend.

There was some monster traffic on our way which delayed us quite a bit, but when we arrived, discovering that the pool in the hotel was open 24 hours, we decided to go swimming.  It was great after being in the car for so long.

The next morning we went to the temple.  It's a beautiful temple.  And I'm always impressed with the incredible attention to detail the Church puts into these buildings.  No corner or railing or frame or anything was too small or insignificant to have escaped their attention.  Truly magnificent.  There was a temporary tent set up next to the temple for visitors to come in and ask questions if they had them (since many visitors are not members of the church) and they had a small replica of the Christus statue.

We then headed to see the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where the Indy 500 takes place.  They have a museum and gift shop.

Then it was off to walk around downtown Indianapolis.  It's a great downtown.  They have several very interesting buildings and war monuments.  It's a "great for walking around" kind of city.  In the middle of downtown, at the center of Monument Circle sits the Indiana State Soldiers and Sailors Monument.  It's almost 285 feet tall, and you can go up to the top and look out over the city.  You can climb the stairs (all 35 flights), or you can ride an elevator up to the 32nd floor, and climb the remaining 3 flights to the top.  I opted to take the elevator up, but Eric and Emma decided to climb.  Emma was really gung-ho about it too.  Whatever.  Turns out there is absolutely NO air circulation or flow in this thing, and this was a really warm day.  Everyone up there was just dripping with sweat, whether they climbed up or not.  It was like being in a sauna.  I think Eric and Emma wished they had taken the elevator up.  No matter how you get up there, you must take the elevator down.  The stairs are really narrow and wouldn't allow traffic going up and down.  It did offer some great views of the city though.

I liked this building because it sort of reminded me of the building in Ghostbusters.

This is the monument you could climb to the top of.

Looking up at the stairs and elevator shaft.

They made it!  This is how they wanted to feel. 

This is how they actually felt.  I'm tellin ya, 3 flights of stairs was way better than 35.

The capitol building was just down one of the side streets from the monument.

Enjoying some water on the steps of the monument.  Even though it was a warm day, the fresh air and relatively cooler temperature than inside the top of that tower felt amazing!

A few blocks of walking and these two decided they were still exhausted from their climb.

We had an early dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.  I was just excited to see one.  We don't have them here, so to get to enjoy some of their mizithra cheese spaghetti again was fantastic!

There was a  balloon guy wandering around the restaurant.  Emma got a sword, pirate hat, and a parrot.  I love the look on her face in this picture.  She's thinking, "Mom, why must you take my picture?"

After dinner, we went back to our hotel for some more swimming.  Then it was time for sleep.  It was short, but a truly fantastic weekend.

Emma enjoyed sleeping on the pull out sofa.  It was huge for just her!

Janna's Visit

In July my sister-in-law came to town to visit.  I always love seeing her.  This time it had been quite awhile since our last visit, so I was loving it!

We went out to Lake Geneva for some dinner at the Sprecher Restaurant (one of our very favorites).  I don't think I've ever had better broccoli soup.  Wow.  And then we walked around and enjoyed the beautiful evening.

Showing off her little purse that she got.

Since Janna loves baseball, we just had to go to a Brewer's game.  Emma didn't mind either. =)

On our last day with her we went down to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  It's always fun there.

I enjoyed every moment of her visit, and can't wait to do it again!