Sitting on the dock of a bay...

Someone please explain who in the world would ever buy such a thing...



And no, I'm not talking about Nalani.

Here's a close up of what she's holding...



It's a stainless steel chicken and beer can holder. Apparently, you stick the can of been in the holder, then put a whole chicken upright over the can. You put it in on the grill and let the beer turn into steam and cook the chicken.

The title of this blog refers to our family's "nonsenical" travels, but I'm beginning to think it refers to the nonsensical things you can buy at Wal-Mart.

Cari and I were there recently and of our kids, only Nalani wanted to come along for the ride. We also had Cari's nephew Tyler for the day, but apparently there was simply too much going on for this little boy. Halfway through the store, he was completely worn out...



We did stop for lunch, however, and he found his energy when he saw Nalani's strawberry covered pancake...



This afternoon our entire family was near Cari's sister's house in Stiles so we took a quick diversion to the Bay...



Alyssa brought along her guitar and started to play...



Of course, seeing that I was taking a picture of Alyssa, it only took a few moments before Nalani had to put her head in the picture...



Malia was a little less excited to be by the water, however...



Malia has inherited my fondness for the outdoors so when Bretty pointed out the bugs crawling by her feet...



It was only a moment before Malia was completely outta there...



Malia found a much better place to sit and view the Bay...



As far as she's concerned, the best way to appreciate the beauty of the great outdoors is looking through the car window.

Family Pictures...

As you probably know, Cari's father is a politician. He's a Wisconsin State Senator and the Assistant Majority Leader of the State Senate.

Well, campaign season is about to begin so it was time for a big family picture...



Of course, trying to get all our kids to stand still and smile at exactly the same time is darn near an impossible task.

We also took the opportunity to take a picture of just our immediate family.

Unfortunately, the kids kept fooling around there too. However, Cari quickly pointed out that the problem with getting our children to stand still had little to do with the kids themselves - and more to do with their father.

She showed me a few of the pictures to prove her point...



I for one believe Nalani jumped up on my shoulder and that one was her fault.

And there was something in David's ear which I was trying to remove which caused him to squirm...



Finally, the kids eventually stopped bothering me so we were able to get a decent picture...



I also snapped a picture of my wife with our nephew Tyler...



Isn't my wife adorable?

A Lambeau Party Without the Packers

Lambeau Field, the home to the Green Bay Packers, threw a nice little party today for the hometown kids. It really had nothing to do with football at all, it was just a nice little party in the Atrium of Lambeau Field with lots of activities for children.

Our kids (less the teenager who stayed home, of course) did all kinds of silly things like decorating cookies...



Although the cookies didn't last very long!

Kekoa learned how to pot a plant...



And there was this crazy man who asked folks in the audience to tie him in a straight jacket and chains...



He was really a juggler, but the kids liked it best when he was completely tied up...



Perhaps our children would let us to do the same thing to them some time. Hmmm.

They were even animals at Lambeau Field today and they were much nicer to pet than Bears or Lions...



Nalani and Malia really loved making paper butterflies...



But the best part of the day for Kekoa and Bretty was the pie eating contest.

Kekoa took on a small cherry pie and went nuts...



But in a pie eating contest, you just knew that there was only one person who was going to win this thing...



Bretty was eating so fast he darn near ate the plate too.

Here's a triumphant young man...



Of course the best thing about today was that everything was absolutely free!

Well, it was "free" if you don't count the $300 million in debt those of us in Brown County are required to pay off for the Packers so that the stadium could be renovated to make more money for the team and the NFL.

If you figure that Green Bay is the smallest city in the country with a major professional sports team, $300 million equals roughly $1,200 in debt that each man, woman and child in Brown County agreed to pay off for the Packers.

Come to think of it, we're a family of 8 people so today's cherry pies cost us nearly $10,000.

They could have at least offered us seconds.