Schwedskala: Kenosha for the Fourth of July

I thought our vacation would be about basecamping with family and then day trips to fun new places in Chicago and Kenosha/Milwaukee. When we got to Kenosha it was lunch time. Dave held his new nephew quick before we left for lunch. Apple Holler is a little bit of a tradition with Ann and her little family so we went there for lunch. Dave had mentioned several times that he was feeling a little off, but we thought some food would help.

When we got back to Ann's house the kids took a nap and Dave realized he had a fever. A fever that didn't go away for the rest of the week and it was only Tuesday! After napping I took the bike gang to the park all by myself while Ann and her friend Gina cooked supper.

Wednesday we hung out and waited for Dave's parents to come to town so Dave could rest. I did a photo shoot with my new nephew Nathaniel and got to hold him lots. When Grandma and Grandpa showed up we ventured out to the Racine Zoo with the whole family. It was probably too much walking for Dave, but he just wanted to be healthy and with the family so bad.

The Racine zoo is a small zoo, but what it lacks in size it makes up with closeness to the animals. One of the Orangutans woke up with the boys noise and she came to the window so the boys could get close and personal. You get to walk through the kangaroo exhibit with no fence between you and the animals. And when the Tiger started to make noise and growl the lion was close enough to answer back.

Thursday was the 4th of July. The boys got matching outfits (Nate too). We spent almost all day enjoying the outdoors because for the first time on our vacation it felt warm enough for summer (I did not bring enough long pants and shirts for the cool weather we encountered for the first half of our trip). We grilled out and ate lunch outside.

Then around dinner time we all packed up and went to find a good spot to watch the Kenosha fireworks. We sat close enough to the stage to hear the string quartet play music while we waited. They played a lot of rock which was really cool.

And we got a great fireworks show, every time I thought it was ending it would keep going for nearly 20 minutes. The finale was mostly white and beautiful. One of my favorite memories from the evening was after the fireworks when we got back in the van we had a lot of traffic to contend with. Adam fell asleep due to his lack of nap that day, but Eli was wide awake and bored. He wanted to watch the fireworks so I opened the moon roof, but there wasn't really anything to see. So I held my phone up near the moon roof and scrolled the pictures I took and then Eli said, "where's the noise?" So I started making the best (and probably lamest) firework noises as I scrolled through the pictures and Eli said , "ohhh, ahhh!" Ha!

Friday came and David was still sick. He could keep his fever down with medicine, but we took him to the doctor and got the old- "it's a virus let it run it's course." So the rest of the family planned a trip without Dave and Eli (who was napping). We went to the dinosaur museum and then walked the boardwalk along the lake. I had some of the best ice cream ever (it was called Chocolate Lovers Dream or something and it had chunks of oreos, brownies and other things I can't even remember)!