Familyfest weekend

Under the heading of better late than never. I finally have some time to jot a few lines about our adventure last weekend. One of the things I enjoy about living in Minnesota is that we can attend family events in Wisconsin on a far more regular basis. This past weekend for example was the family get together that my sister Jenny and her husband Jack host every year at their house on Lake Winnabago known to the family as Familyfest. Jack and Jenny do a nice job of setting up the event so there is really something for everyone. There were two boats available to give tubing rides to the kids. Ginny Lemke and Dave Wunrow brought their Kayaks, Swimming was available both in the lake as well as in the above ground pool, Frisbee, Horseshoes, sandbox, swing set, well you get the idea. Combine that with good food, a great view of the lake and the setting was right for all to have a nice Saturday afternoon.

Alex and Catie both spent most of the day tubing. One boat driven by Uncle Jack had the smaller or less adventurous kids and the other driven by Uncle Dan had older kids. The later manages his rides so they they always ended, not when a kid says stop, but rather when they were physically thrown from the tube by an especially large wave! This was always spectacular. By the next morning Alex was moving pretty slow from all the fun the day before.

Also during this trip we had a chance to join Chris' Mom for dinner. We brought fried chicken and she provided authentic home made Spanish rice and beans along with fresh tortilla's and salsa. All the kids love Grandma's cooking and Alex kept bugging her for the recipe. Like most of her dishes there is nothing written down, it's all in her head so it was hard for him to come away with the exact ingredients, but it was cute watching him try to figure it out. Later that same evening we joined my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Marge Freitag for a visit and a glass of wine. Jerry is developing a nice wine collection and we enjoyed sharing a glass he had brought up from Tasmania, off the coast of Australia.

Friday we took the kids to Summerfest, the worlds largest music festival held on the lake shore in Milwaukee. It had been 18 years since Chris and I had been to Summerfest and it was cool to be able to share the experience with the kids. Alex being a big music fan really enjoyed the Alternative Rock stage and the emerging artist series. He thought it was cool he might be hearing one of the next big bands. Much like when I had the chance in 1977 to see the Ramones before they made if big in the US. Dave, Tracy, Cory and Jamie met us at the festival grounds and we spent the afternoon together, eating from the huge variety of restaurants and enjoys the sights and sounds of Summerfest.

We were also fortunate the be able to spend the night with several of my siblings and their families. Thursday night we stayed with my sister Debbie and Dan, Friday night we were with my sister Julie and Dean and Saturday night following a full day of Familyfest we stayed at Jenny and Jacks. We are grateful to them for opening their homes to us. We very much enjoyed our time together.

When we lived in CA we were always having to choose between using vacation time and money to visit family or to spend it on travel to parts of the country we had yet to explore. Now that we are closer to family we can do both. What a blessing!