Catching up with the Kelnhofers-98

This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, I’m giving you a little glimpse into our up North family vacation, including what we ate, where we visited and some vacation must-haves.

This past week we spent some vacation time in Northern Wisconsin -known around here as “Up North” -where we visited beautiful little towns, learned that Frankie and Freddie do NOT love the lake, and there was very spotty Internet so I did no work (which was a nice little break to really unplug, but I missed you all!) See below for 100 photos.

What do you cook on vacation? We found our go-tos were grilling veggies, chicken and burgers with watermelon or fruit and pancakes for breakfast!

Here are the recipes I relied on:

Balsamic grilled veggies (I learned that if you don’t have a grill basket, these are made perfectly on skewers)
Hamburger seasoning
Grilled chicken seasoning (I used the same seasoning on grilled zucchini)
Fluffy buttermilk pancakes and banana pancakes

I also have been making pizza/flatbreads a lot and getting really creative using whatever random things we have in our fridge as toppings. The crust that has become my go-to is the one from this recipe.

Please note – you can totally grill pizza!! Just make sure you have a pizza stone, this set is nice with a pizza stone and pizza peel – just put a little cornmeal on the pizza peel and transfer it to the pizza stone when ready. Let your pizza stone heat up with the grill and get really hot before you transfer pizzas to it.

Pizza peel, pizza stone and pizza cutter — Pizza peel (and pizza stone and cutter)

Sharing the latest posts up on Sweetphi.com! We’ve been up north on a fun family vacation, so I slowed down my posting schedule a bit. Plus, the internet was SO BAD, I couldn’t have posted if I tried, ha!

Misfits Market review – I am loving using Misfits Marker and think it’s such a good deal!
Weekly meal plan – these weekly meal plans are awesome to help with grocery planning and meal prep for the week.
Love List – the team’s favorite finds from around the web this past week!

It’s the kids’ birthday THIS WEEKEND! I cannot believe how time flies. Here are some of our Birthday Traditions and I am so glad I have that post, because it’s helping me remember what all we still need to do!!
I will be making them each a small little cake – I got this set of mini cake pans and it works wonders!
My go-to homemade chocolate birthday cake with homemade frosting.

Homemade chocolate cake with homemade frosting — Cake recipe

We got 3 “You are special today” plates so that each kid will have their own plate (a tradition from my in-laws which I love so much)!!

Mini cake pans and you are special plate — Mini cake pan | ‘You are special’ plate

A lot of love for my favorite grilled veggie side dish:

“I’ve made these twice; a huge hit. I doubled the recipe the 2nd time I made these because there were zero leftovers the first time around; my guests were going for seconds! I didn’t have a grill basket so I ended up baking them in a 9×13 pan for 45 minutes at 350°. They came out great. Will def make these over and over.”

Look how great this re-creation of my sourdough pierogies are! Seriously, they look so fab.

Travel cubes are so nice for helping keep things organized when traveling. I got a set a few years ago and definitely use them every time I travel now!

Malibu Rising I love how the story keeps unfolding, this is such a good summertime read!!

I’m also reading a hardcover book (vs. listening to it) called The Audacity of Sara Grayson which is about “what happens when the world’s greatest literary icon dies before she finishes the final book in her best-selling series? And what happens when she leaves that book in the hands of her unstable, neurotic daughter, who swears she’s not a real writer?” So I will say the book is a little slow, but a nice before-bed read. Each chapter starts with a quote about writing, and that part is nice. I’ll report back when I finish, but if you’re looking for a lighter read and you’re interested in writing and the writing process, it’s a nice book.

The Audacity of Sara Grayson book cover — The Audacity of Sara Grayson

Twins hated the water. The twins definitely were not fans of lake life. We tried to put them in – carry them in, and they were screaming and wouldn’t put their feet down. The next day, even dressed in their life jackets, they wanted to take a walk…away from the lake. It was cold so I took them on a walk, life vests and all lol.

Zoo day and goats stealing food. We went to a zoo and wildlife center which was surprisingly big! One could buy some food to feed some of the animals – like goats, and the kids loved it…well, Freddie and Ben did, a goat stole the whole little feed bag from Frankie and she got scared and wanted nothing to do with them.

Ice cream shoppe and personalities. If there’s one thing that was truly funny, it was how the kids’ different personalities really were on display at the ice cream shoppe. Frankie wanted pink and did not want anyone to help her or want to share, in fact, she kept wanting to try others’ ice cream and would cry when you’d try to take it back. Freddie had a few licks of his cone, but then kept walking around with it held upside down, and it ended up falling to the ground and he didn’t care at all when we had to throw it away. Then Ben wanted a brightly colored ice cream, but didn’t love it, but kept eating it (it was huge, even the kids size). Then he got really worked up because he didn’t want to get out of these hammock things they had – he was pretending to be a butterfly and it was very cute, but he worked himself up and ended up spitting up the ice cream (he has a very sensitive tummy, if he eats too much of something or too fast, he’ll throw up.)

Random vacation photos. I always love looking at peoples’ vacation photos, here’s a random selection of other Up North vacation photos – from small towns, candy shops to lake scenes.