Visiting Wisconsin

It has been a long time since we have taken a long trip to Wisconsin to visit my relatives and spend some quality time visiting and relaxing.  Now that my mom is back and her treatments are completed, I thought it was time to fix that and make it a vacation.  Once we started talking, we realized that it has been more than 6 years since Randy has been to WI, so he was well overdue for a visit.  He said that he was protesting since he told me that he never wanted to go up in the winter and the last time we made him go for Christmas and there was a huge snowstorm.  He's from Texas; I can't blame him!

In spite of everything, I got all four of us up to WI in the midst of a Texas heatwave so the efforts were well rewarded.  We played outside and enjoyed the sun all day long.  We made out first stop at my cousin, Kurt's house.  He and his wife, Mary, have one beautiful daughter, Lexi, who we haven't seen since they visited us last February.  We started the visit with a walk and a trip to the playground.

It poured rain the night before when we arrived so the playground was incredibly damp.  Of course we didn't bring anything to wipe off the equipment, so Justin sacrificed himself and went down the slide first to clean it off for the rest of the kids.

Lexi finished up the job.

After that, Justin's shorts were so wet that he just got stuck whenever he went down the slide.  This is a true to life picture of how fast he went:

All three of the kids had a great time playing.  It didn't take long for them to get comfortable with each other.  They played like old friends!

And then began our fascination with bugs.  Right before we left Texas, we read the book A Pocketful of Cricket and Travis decided that he needed a pet bug.  Thus began the quest.  He found a grasshopper and enlisted Kurt to catch it for him.  The one problem was that he refused to touch it and grasshoppers are not known to sit still for very long.  So it disappeared quickly.

Justin and Lexi made friends too.  They are a good pair.

Travis found his favorite playground toy:  a sand digger!

Then we went home and on the way found a caterpillar.  I got another pet request and a refusal to touch so after watching it crawl up and down Kurt's, Lexi's, Justin's, and my arm, we put it safely in the grass and continued home.  Then Kurt blew up the bounce house and the kids jumped themselves silly while Kurt and I tried to sit and talk.  (Mary was working.)  It's hard to take pictures of three kids bouncing!

After nap, dinner, and a little more bouncing, Kurt got a fire going and we roasted marshmallows for smores.  We could never do this in Texas!  Between the fire ban and the 100+ temperatures there is no way we would stand around a campfire in Texas in August! 

I decided to let Justin have a smore (even though it has wheat) because he was refusing just the marshmallow and I figured he wouldn't eat very much of it anyway.  I was wrong.  Do you see that tongue coming out of his mouth?  That's a "Ooh, this is tasty" sweep over the top lip.  He polished off the entire thing.  Lexi barely touched hers.  Figures.

It's hard to see, but if you follow the stick all the way up, you can see the perfectly toasted marshmallow.  Not his doing by the way.  Kurt makes the perfect mallows.  He has way more patience than the rest of us.

On the way back inside to throw all the kiddos into the bath Kurt spotted another creature.  I think he called in a tiger striped frog, or something like that.  By this time, Travis worked up enough courage to touch, but not hold.  Justin thought it was pretty cool!  The next morning we found tree frogs climbing up the picture window in the living room.  Mary captured one for Travis and he touched it again.  But it was pretty jumpy!

Day two started out with a visit to the "zoo" on the way to get Daddy from the airport.  "Zoo" is a generous term, but it was perfect for the kids.  Just enough animals to keep their attention, no crowds, and the perfect price - free! 

This is Justin's sign language for "pig".  He holds his nose and on occasion we get a solid "snort" out of him!

The alpacas have some serious teeth.  We kept the kids away from him!

Daddy was safely rescued from the airport and at nap time he settled into what would be his vacation routine of napping with the kids.  Then we went to my uncle's house for dinner with my other cousins too!  I took pictures for my grandmother since she has never been there, but I forgot to take pictures of the actual house!  (My mom has since taken my grandmother to visit so no worries.)  Travis had a great time with my cousin's son, Matthew, who is about a year older than he is.  It took about two minutes to get over the nerves.  And Justin joined the fun chasing them!  The kids were having so much fun I told my aunt we'd just pick them up the next day.  She didn't go for it.  I am sure they'd take care of themselves!

(L-R) Kayla, Justin, Lexi, Travis, Matthew, and Brianna

The next day we all went to my grandmother's house.  And what visit is complete without a trip to the cookie factory?  Mary had never been to the cookie factory so we had to show her what it is all about.  Lexi enjoyed it too!   Randy hasn't been there either so it was a big trip for us.

Kurt, Mary and Lexi on their first trip to the cookie factory.

The kids definitely got their dessert that day.  I used cookies as a bribe to keep the kids in bed.  If they didn't get out of bed the whole time we were there they got to pick out one kind of cookie to buy.  And if they behaved well they got to try more samples.  If they misbehaved, they lost samples.  This only really worked with Travis, but he influenced Justin to behave by not being the instigator. :)

Three wiggly great-grandchildren and a great-grandmother!

Grandma enjoyed reading Elmo to Justin, and he enjoyed hearing it for the 150th time.

I treasure each picture that we get of the boys and my grandmother.  I want the boys to know the rich legacy they have.  It was a fabulous visit.  I got to hear more stories and I was able to cook for grandmother, although nothing compared to the years of delicious roast beef, mashed potatoes, fresh garden vegetables, and fruit-filled pies that we all enjoyed as kids.

We rounded out our trip back in Madison.  I made plans to eat at all of my favorite places:  apple fritters at Greenbush bakery, pizza at Rocky Rococo, and baked goods at Perkin's.  All I got were the fritters, and the boys got a meal at Ella's Deli.  It is a childhood dream with all kinds of carnival decorations and moving characters.  Justin was mesmerized by the moving tools.  (Trust me, they move in real life.)

Each table is decorated inside and some even have moving parts.  Here's one of my favorites, but no Continental plane.  I didn't even look for United!  Our table had a train, but it didn't work.  Big disappointment for the boys.

What carnival restaurant would be complete without a carousel?  The boys finished off the meal with a couple of spins. 

The second time around Travis got the Badger horse!  Check it out with the big "W" and even the rose for the big Bowl game.  Travis even had on his Badger shirt.  (We stocked up on our Badger and Packer gear while we were visiting!)

It has been so long since we have taken a week-long vacation that I ran out of camera battery and I didn't bring the charger.  So the flash didn't work very well for the last few shots.  We fit in as many family visits as we could during our Madison time so here's with my cousin Jeff and his wife, Michelle's kids.  Sorry for the absolutely lousy exposure.  It in no reflects on the awesome visit we had.  It has been so long since we have seen them and I am totally loving the way they all played so well together.  Anaiah even shared her pet rats with Justin.  (What did I tell you about the "animal" theme of our trip?)

We also fit in a visit with one of my mom's cousins and her husband.  This is the best one of the bunch, sorry!  But dinner and the conversation were great!  The kids love Nana's toys (our toys growing up) and they were perfectly content playing while we talked.  I so appreciate adult conversation!

Even some of Nana's not toys are fun.  She has a bucket of wooden apples and the boys spent hours playing with them and stacking them and sorting them and throwing them.  Travis even practiced counting by three's with them.

 

And then the camera died, so no pictures of my Uncle Mark and Sam during their dinner visit.  But the rest of the trip was spent helping my mom organize and clean as she unpacked and sorted everything that she brought home from our house.  We got it on both ends!  Randy cleaned ceiling fans, I mopped the kitchen and killed spiders in the storage unit.  Can I just say that I am not scared of spiders, but dark areas filled with spider webs on all sides, all currently occupied by their makers was enough to make me squirm.  I emptied the end of a can of Raid (perhaps twice as much as necessary...) and then l ran out to wait for the smoke to die down.  Even then as I scraped out the remnants with a broom, I was certain that at least one spider had survived to avenge the deaths of his friends and relatives.  Not my favorite job, but I took one for team.  I asked Randy to check my hair and back for any taggers along and he pronounced me clean only for my next trip out to find a bug clinging to my shirt.  I jumped back about a foot, like that was going to help!  But I survived and we did what we could to improve the appearance of her home.  There is more left to do, but that can wait for another visit.

We also found time to hit a Border's going-out-of-business sale, Trader Joe's, and the Brandon Meat Market for our supply of brats and bacon.  That, along with our cookies, more than filled up our bags.  Then it was time to say good-bye.  I threatened to stay until the temperature in TX got below 95, but that doesn't seem to be coming any time soon.  WI weather was beyond perfect.  Sunny, breezy and mid-80's.  Love it.  Just like I do all my family and friends who live there.  You are welcome to visit Texas in January. :)