Memorial Day in Door County....

We took a day trip to Door County yesterday--it was supposed to be nice and warm(ish)....or so we thought looking at the weather forecast....more on THAT later!

All in all, it was a great day--we got up to Door County in a little over 1 hour--amazing record speed! And not speeding! Since we had last gone up, some new roads have been opened (we think!) and that minimized the 2 lane slow traffic! We started our stops at the Lang Store in Sturgeon Bay...Katie especially loves that store. Interestingly enough, the same nice ladies were working...and after they commented on the nice family we have (was that a nice way to say BIG family?!??!), the one lady came over to me and said "You really do have nice children--I remember you from the last time you were here!" In later pictures, you'll want to take notice of the girls' new shoes--from the Lang Store, of all places. They thought they were NOT getting new crocs this year....but we caved....

It seems that every trip we take now involves musical carseats! This time, we pulled over just outside of Green Bay to move Ava to the back and Jayna up by Colin. The music was too loud for Jayna in the back...and she enjoyed being able to play with and make Colin laugh for the rest of the trip! Thank goodness for booster seats that make for quick carseat switches!


It was so cute--I turned around at one point, only to catch Ellie and Ava holding hands! Ava was scared watching a certain part of Strawberry Shortcake and Ellie told her that she would hold her hand to make her not scared! Awwwww....

Our big "new" stop in Door County this time was Whitefish Dunes State Park, which is on the opposite side of the Door County Penninsula than the places we usually frequent. Our goal was to experience the caves as well as the sand dunes. Apparently the state park has the biggest sand dunes in Wisconsin! We never did find the sand dunes and we saw just a little of the 'caves'....because it was FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!!! We had left our jackets at home, thinking that a little sweatshirt would be FINE if the weather was around 60 degrees. Right. No so true on the coast of Lake Michigan! The wind was whipping, the water was ice cold...but it was BEAUTIFUL! Ellie actually forgot her sweatshirt, but thankfully "Always Prepared for Everything" Jayna had brought along her sweatshirt AND jacket...so Ellie enjoyed wearing the too small pink jacket for warmth!

This picture is of Andy and the girls standing up on the rocks--the literature we had read online mentioned to be very careful of young children at this park...the drop offs are very steep and slippery--I was paranoid about snapping a photo of just the children with the slippery rock and the whipping wind!


Here the children are a little lower, in an area that wasn't quite so windy. Colin obviously was not interested in the photo shoot!


The entire family!


Katie and children hiding behind the rock...hiding from the wind, that is!!!!


The girls found a part of a cave where they could 'hide'....and have an adventure!


Jayna, being a trooper---she was FREEZING and was ready to leave about 2 minutes into our stop at this location!


Ava.


3 girls walking back to the place where we could climb up to get to our warm van. Funny thing....our van was parked at the top of all of these rocks and it was actually warm outside our van--it was just on the water that it was so windy and cold! We ended up having a nice picnic lunch outside without shivering!


Ellie the adventure-loving girl. She actually got her feet wet, even though it was so cold!


3 girls peeking down at Lake Michigan--we decided that we'll come back to explore more on a sweltering hot day....it won't be so hot at Whitefish Dunes State Park!

After our experience there, we drove over to the other side of Door County and made 2 quick stops--the candy store and.....Sweetie Pies (of course!). It was a fun day!