Grom Family Siblings

Jeff's brother and sister are both in town at the same time - a very rare occurrence. The nice thing is that his sister, Linda is here for a wedding in Appleton and will be staying in Marinette for a while. Since Jeff's brother lives in Marinette, he will be driving her there from here. Funny how things work out. Linda will be back here in Milwaukee at the end of the week and we will spend more time with her then but for now, it is nice to have the three of them here together.

Member Monday at the Racine Zoo

We love the Racine Zoo. It is the most wonderful place. Compared to the Milwaukee County Zoo, it is very small but for us, that is part of the charm. The staff there is amazing and the grounds are easily walkable, even for people like me who struggle with a disability.

My daughter is a zoo member so there are special events for members only. We especially love those times. They provide special activities for the kids and offer food specials making the trip there affordable for all of us. Not to mention, the chicken tenders are very good there. The kids will get to ride the train around the grounds and we even ride with them.

Member Mondays also include a band and on a nice summer evening it is so very nice. The zoo usually has a theme for each member night and we get to meet one of the animals up close during the event. My granddaughters loved the armadillo and the snakes. Chloe even got to touch them which made her day. Avery is a little timid with animals so she tends to keep her distance. There is also a discount on everything in the gift shop and somehow we never leave without a new keepsake.

My granddaughters' favorite thing besides meeting the animals is the playground. They have a fantastic gym with so much to play on that the are never bored. We never leave the zoo without a stop there.

The New Meijer Store

My daughter got an IT job at our new Meijer store. When we found out the store was coming to the area, I wasn't that thrilled. Another big box store doesn't appeal to me for a few reasons. First of all it is next to Woodman's grocery which is my favorite local grocery store and another reason is that there is a Kohl's and Target a mile down the road. And I don't shop at either of those stores so I doubt that Meijer will appeal to me.

As an employer, the pay is crappy and the hours are horrible so it's not the greatest place to work but the employees are nice and the store is clean and fresh. It is a good place for our daughter to get some experience before getting a better job (we hope). We went to the family open house the day before the store opened to the public and they had quite a party. We all received samples of the foods, free marketing stuff like water bottles...blah, blah, blah. They even had a balloon making clown however, the line was so long it was shut down before they ever got to us. There was even a band playing in the produce department!

 Too bad they didn't give out free wine samples...the band was good enough that we would have headed to the lawn & garden area, got some lawn chairs and sat down to listen to the band.