Vacation 2016, #2 - Green Bay Packers Training Camp

For the past 6 years now, we've gone up to Appleton Wisconsin to a lovely little campground called Apple Creek. I have blogged about it in the past, from 2012 here,  and another time that I cannot seem to remember, or find!

I thought it was every other year, 2012, 2014 (when I wounded my pinkie finger) and then again last summer in which I have really been there yet, because I'm on vacation post number 2 from last summer...

Anyhoo...  

I've always wanted to attend a Green Bay Packers training camp while we're up there and this year, the stars aligned and it was made possible.  In the past we had thunderstorms roll thru on a morning when we would have otherwise been available (which moves practice indoors and henceforth, closed to the public), or the schedule started a week after we were there.

So it worked out that the weather was fine, beautiful until nearly the end of the tour, on a day when we had nothing planned and so, we made the 20 minute pilgrimage from the campground to Lambeau Field and began our day.

As is custom at Packers training camp, local kids bring their bicycles up and security puts them in the area where the players come out of Lambeau to head across the street to the practice facility.  The players then select a kid, or the kid selects the player (not sure how that works) and the player rides the bike to the practice facility while the kid carries the players helmet.  Pretty cool tradition and just another thing unique to Green Bay.

This girl got to run with Eddie Lacy riding her bike AND wearing her helmet.  Gone seems to be most of his belly that he finished the previous season with!  He looked good.

I believe that's wide receiver, Randall Cobb who unlike Eddie, made the girl carry his helmet.  He was also riding pretty fast, but she wasn't intimidated!!

I'm sort of guessing here, but I think that's tight end Justin Perillo.  I gave him some crap for not riding that little cute cheerleaders bike!!  I received a look from him...

I'm unsure who this fella is, but he rode the tiny bike like a BOSS!!!   Thankfully for the little girl, he couldn't go very fast either.

Here we have number 54 cheating with 3 kids within a stones throw!  You'd think that he would have been selected by the Patriots or Seahawks with the desire to cheat in an easy-going situation like this.  Think of what this fella could do on the field of play!

Then there's these fancy "discount double-check" bikes!

Silhouettes of my peeps overlooking the stadium from the press box.

The atrium, which I think is cool because the marble on the floor is a life-sized replica of the playing field, regardless of how hard it is to see here.  I have a picture from 150 years ago when we toured the stadium for the first time (pre-Caleb!!) where I'm laying down on the floor, but I can't find those pictures for whatever reason.

This is out by where the final destinations of Packers bike-riders are.  The outdoor practice facility.

Same spot but looking back towards Lambeau.

I believe this was the receivers group doing various route drills.

Quarterbacks between drills.

The best shot I got of Aaron Rodgers.

Full team scrimmage.  The offense pretty much smoked the defense in these drills which made me suspect of how their season would go!

Mama, Robby and Caleb!

A different view of the varmints in the press box.

Robby with some of the display jerseys up in the lounge (I think...).  This is the room where the tour guide asked who was the oldest NFL franchise.  Robby spoke up and said, "The Arizona Cardinals!".  He was laughed at by some of the other folks on the tour until the tour guide commended him for being correct.  That's my boy making papa proud!! They actually started the same year, 1920, as the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) but that's the year the NFL began with teams such as the Akron Indians, Columbus Tigers, Canton Bulldogs, Dayton Triangles and others.  The Cardinals truly began in 1898 and if my feeble memory serves me correctly,  they were originally called the Morgan Athletics or something to that effect.  I could look it up, but then, so could you!

Both lads, one happier looking than the other, in front of some more lengendary Packers' jerseys.

In the visiting teams locker room.

The tunnel to the field.  I get goose bumps walking down this tunnel because they play crowd noise that gets louder and you get to the field, much like the sound the players would experience at the games.

There is something about standing on the sidelines of a football field and looking around/up at the stands/scoreboards/ring of honor.  We have toured Lambeau and Soldier stadium and I get the same amazing feeling in both places.  I cannot imagine what coaching a game with the full crowd and the noise going on.  

The GIGANTIC Lombardi trophy facing the East side parking lot.

Little Hairy Harry

The little dudes hair is getting quite long and unruly!   So much so that he's taken a shining to putting hair gel in his hair to keep the fuzzy stuff out of his eyeballs.  Mama Chaos sent me a couple of photos while she had a few days off after new years and got the lad ready for school.  

He's cute!!

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B, not so clearly seen in this picture, but...  I LOVE this picture!!

So what is Larger American Boy doing currently?  Out eating ice cream with his life-long buddy Noah after visiting the gym.  Later tonight, pizza party with the volleyball team (yes, they're teammates!).

2016 Pumpkin Patch - Center Grove Orchard

As a slight variation to our normal two pumpkin farms,  this year we decided to try out Center Grove Orchard near Cambridge, Iowa.

It is very similar in many ways to both Geisler Farms by Ankeny and Carrolls (now called Uncle Bills Farm) by Grinnell, Iowa.

This place makes their own deli sandwiches and soups so we had a quick lunch before we headed out for fun and frolic!

Always a fun thing that quickly deteriorates into a nasty game of King Of The Mountain.  Robby is about dead-center in that photo, white sweatshirt, dark pants with a stripe down the leg.  Caleb is that little blue heap that you can barely see behind Rob. 

This was cool.  It's a really long slide where you lay on an old gunny sack.  That's Rob in this first run.

And that's Caleb in the yellow shirt with his arms straight out and smiling.

Our kids are not visible...  but this was kind of neat too.  It's a maze of hay bales but mostly kids just got a running start and tried to make it all the way across without a horrible crash.  We saw a couple of horrible crashes!

The gigantic spider web which surprisingly, kept the varmints engaged for a lot longer than I thought it would.

But the favorite is almost always the big corn pit, and this was a BIG corn pit!!

One must do several leaps into the corn if they're to truly enjoy the pit.

One must also be buried in the corn, while constantly berating his brother that he was not burying him correctly.

Nearly covered and resting wonderfully while a happy Chinaman seeks praise for his fine work.

Rubber ducky races...

This was a bit of a let down at this place. The corn maze.  Turns out that we didn't get the map we were supposed to have to navigate the silly thing.  Once we got about 2.5 miles of walking in and had no idea where we were at, we decided to head back East and go do something else.

That something else was the train ride, which was nice because we got to rest after all of that walking in the corn field.

Happy boy!

And we finished up the day with a wagon ride out thru the actual pumpkin patch.

Interesting to note, we did not get any pumpkins this year and did not go trick or treating either.  Neither lad seemed very interested in either.

Bum In The Sun

While I was home sick the first week of the year, the hound dog would try to keep close tabs on my whereabouts.  Problems arose for her with the sun shining in the South windows.  She tried desperately to keep her "back-side" in the sun and her eyes on me!

Vacation (2013) - Post #15, Harpers Ferry Pt.3

Finally closing up the ol' 2013 vacation posts!!   Absolutely ridiculous and I'm so far behind on more recent 2016 posts but what the heck...

So we pick up where we left off descending stairway where we find this little gift shop and bar about half-way down.

Here we are, little bald Calebber, partially hippy Robby and an adorable Liena and Ethan.

Some free advertising for a catering company that we chanced upon...

Robby jacking around with Caleb instead of the other way around!

Just another shot of the lower road in town with John Browns fort straight down at the end of the road.

Two crazies at the tavern!

Cool historical marker.

I think this was a Lewis & Clark marker, but I don't recall for sure...

John Brown's fort, the old fire house.

Our crew overlooking the junction between the Potomac and Shenendoah River Valleys.

The old railroad bridge.

A motley looking crew to be sure!  This was only about 1/2 hour before we parted way with our friends for the really long drive home.

And with that,  I finally wrapped up the 2013 vacation!!!!

Vacation (2013) - Post #14, Harpers Ferry Pt.2

Oh, this is a doozy...

On Wednesday March 5, 2014,  I had posted about the first part of our day in Harpers Ferry, WV.  

As I type this, it is December 12th, 2016 and I became mildly obsessed with finishing up the 2013 vacation because of this post.

I started looking at pictures and had such fond memories of that vacation and especially of this wonderful little town that has such amazing importance in Americas history.

This is where I had left off in the original post.  I believe this to be a hotel, which based on what I know is behind me when I took this photo, would have excellent views of but I honestly can't remember.  Who cares, really...  the landscaping is neat!

And the road as it heads uphill (the direction we're walking).

More of the same...

Awesome little restaurants and coffee shops would just pop up as you walked along.  And since they're built into the side of a mountain as it descends to the river, you get really cool patios such as this.

If I recall correctly, and I likely don't, we ate at the Potomac Grille.  This is the little cutie-pie Ethan, enjoying himself a fry of the French.

Then there's these two, teasing and jacking around...

Another strange photo that I thought was cool.  Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

It's him again!

That's the local train depot.

Now that we've climbed a bit of the hill, I figured that I would turn around and show from whence we came.  That building just to the right of center is the building that I thought was the hotel.  The road on the right is how a person or persons would get themselves to the Ruins of St. Johns Episcopal Church (see in that post from years back).

A bit further on up the road from our dining place.

Beautiful rock formation with tree's growing out of it.

I just loved the houses along the road.  I can just imagine sitting on that upper balcony and looking out over the river valleys on sunny, rainy, and even snowy days.

At one point, I was pleasantly surprised when I turned around from taking pictures of the houses and rock formations and saw this!!  Have I mentioned this is a beautiful little town?

That's the train depot again way back in the upper right of the photo.  There are restaurants, bars, flower shops and whatever else accessible by these kinds of crazy staircases along our journey.  Beautiful town...

And, I have nearly as many more pictures to finish up this vacation as we descend one of these crazy staircases...

Got'cha Day, 5 Years On...

5 years ago on December 5th, 2011, we met this guy!   Little Chang Rong Bo, in Changchun, China, in the Jilin province.  He was amazing when we met him and remains amazing today.   He is funny, a tease, thoughtful, helpful, and numerous other "things".    Above all, he is loved by his family!  This photo was taken at Dragon House East in Des Monies on his 5th anniversary of "Got'cha" day.

Some other past blog posts about that wonderfully fateful day:
http://schmitzchaos.blogspot.com/2012/02/photo-blog-part-10-gotcha-day.html

http://schmitzchaos.blogspot.com/2012/02/photo-blog-part-10-gotcha-day-back-at.html

http://schmitzchaos.blogspot.com/2011/12/brothers.html

http://schmitzchaos.blogspot.com/2011/12/gotcha-hes-here-and-hes-spectacular.html

http://schmitzchaos.blogspot.com/2012/12/gotcha-day-anniversary-and-more.html