Along Came Our Monkeys

66 hours, 4,000 miles, 10 states, 1 slight graze by a car, and 1 cracked windshield mark the end of our summer road trip. We traveled in a circle from home to the top of Wisconsin and back down to see friends and family and explore along the way.

Our first stop was a quick visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. I never knew this National Park existed. It has so many trails to discover and I would love to return to explore. We were able to do a short hike and watch the sun set.

Washburn, WI

The kids continue to play with the kitchen that was Aunt Laura's when she was little.

Avery is getting his first ATV driving lessons.

Then a quick spin behind the wheel down the driveway.

Scott, Maia and I went on a kayaking adventure at Lake Owen while Grandpa, Grandma, Alia and Avery went fishing.

They both caught fish.

Time to clean them and bread them.

Mmmmmm tasty : )

Jumping off Houghton Point into Lake Superior. The water was really warm this year.

Alia and Lilly jumped off this year too.

Finding berries in the garden.

Squirt gun battle

Playing at the park.

Music and dinner in the park in Bayfield

Messy smores

Off to Long Island for a swim and a boat ride. Maia didn't mind the boat but she hated swimming.

Tubing!

We had an amazing visit!

Ft. Atkinson- Janna and Todd's

Game night is always a favorite!

Telestrations with a mentally unstable Abraham Lincoln

Pool time!

Playing with Nemo and the noodles was a favorite.

While playing sardines, we added a little dance party to our counting.

Lloyd Christmas visited us in this picture.

Thanks for the amazing visit Rispatricks and Wangs!

Cuba City WI

We had a lot of fun at the trampoline place. We almost had the whole place to ourselves and we were running and doing races on the trampolines. I think the adults had more fun than the kids. There were a few wipe-outs, bruises and skinned knees.

The net was incredibly difficult to climb and hurt our hands but we all conquered it. Jumping from the bar to the net was scary!

We took a trip to Galena IL to explore the city.

We were in search of some elevation and found it with 190 stairs to the top. I ran the stairs 4 times and Jaycent beat me, running them 5 times.

Scott found his vintage shirt! Years ago when we visited Laura in college Scott wore this really "cool" shirt and saw someone else wearing it. We joked about how loud the pattern was and he kept it for years, moving it from house to house. I recently donated it and the next week he went looking for it to wear to a themed fundraiser dinner. He ended up buying something else and we joked some more about that shirt. It was pretty funny when we found it in a store window in Galena.

Hat shopping

Bama and Austin dancing on the streets.

National Night out in Cuba City.

Spoons has always been a favorite!

Visiting Dad and Deb in Platteville WI

We went to an escape room in Dubuque IA. Our goal was to find the missing hunter before the time ran out. We worked well together and solved all of the puzzles and found him with 2 seconds remaining!

Zoe, my Mom's German Shepherd doesn't like Maia so I improvised. Maia didn't mind the carrier.

No stop is complete without a trip to the world's largest M. The M stood for the mining school and was created in 1936 by 3 engineering students at the university. It's on the Platte Mound which stands at 1,440' and is one the tallest peaks in Wisconsin. The letter is 241 feet high and 214 feet wide and there are 266 stairs to the top. Of course we had to run those stairs as well!

Joel's Mom, sister and family joined us for the hike to the top.

We went to a park in Dubuque to geocache.

We spent many nights outside playing bean bag toss.

Wunderlin Family Picnic! We always have fun playing Bingo.

Wunderlin family siblings from youngest to oldest. Cheryl, Dad, Judy, Susan, Larry and

Linda

Linda's family: Troy, Stacie, Linda, Sarah, Trevor, Charlie and Will. Not pictured: Peyton, Alexis, Dan and Ted

Larry's family: Parker, Pollyanna, Marcus, Mike, Maggie, Pam, Larry and Ruby

Sue's family: Jake, Joy, Sue, Mark, Kylee, and Riley. Not pictured: Josh and Sara

Judy's family: Jeremy, Lisa, Honey, Maverick, Judy, Kelsey, Sherie, Stan, Vera, Heidi, Tucker and Ryne Not pictured: Jason, Zach, Jadynn, Paxton, and Jaxen

Dad's family: Austin, Amanda, Scott, Brandee, Dad, Alia, Cindy, Joe, Avery, Jaycent, Cassie and Joel. Not pictured: Gaven, Sage, Daniel, Nicki and Amy

Cheryl's family: Corissa, Duane, Cheryl and Patrick

Lori's family: Shaun, Mike. Not pictured: Steven, Natasha, Ryan, Kamden, Tyler, and Bradlie

Starting the long drive home with happy hearts and a 2 lb bag of the squeakiest Wisconsin cheese curds from Gile's factory.

We stopped in De Smet South Dakota to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder's home and school.

This was the school Laura attended.

Grinding wheat

The Brewster school where Laura taught

The final house Pa built

Pa's handiwork in the kitchen.

No long road trip is complete without a stop to Wall Drug

Mt Rushmore and the Badlands

We decided to visit Mt Rushmore at night to see the faces lit up. We went at 10 pm and had the park to ourselves! It was a really fun experience running on the lit up paths to the viewing area.

Custer South Dakota was a neat town.

We visited Custer State park for one of the best hikes I've ever been on.

The first mile of the hike was down a waterfall bed.

We made it to the top. It was interesting because the lake was at the top of the hike and we continually hiked down to the look out.

Needles Eye tunnel was neat to drive through.

Hill City SD had a neat downtown and the best homemade ice cream we've ever eaten at The Cream. They combined a coffee shop and an ice cream parlor which is a bonus because affogatos are my favorite!