Impromptu Vacation to Wisconsin

Last Sunday I was complaining to Brian that I wasn't sure when I was going to get in all my visits to my chapters for Zeta Tau Alpah ( I'm required to visit each atleast once a year). One of my chapters is in Oshkosh, WI and is 6 hours away. I told Bri that the only time I thought I could go was this week. He looked at his calendar and said, " lets go! I worked almost 65 hours last week, I can take a few days off!". Within an hour, before we went to church- we had the hotel booked, the chapter was notified of my arrival and we were packing,

We left Monday morning after we greeted our waterproofing system workers who would be working in our home all day until Thursday. As they began jackhammering the concrete in the basement, we realized how great it was to be gone as the children and I could not have taken the noise all day for 4 days.

The 6 hour trip only took 7 and the kids did really well. Alaric learned how to sleep pretty well with the help of Amara's Boppy. About 20 minutes outside of Oshkosh, Alaric got car sick and threw up EVERYWHERE ON EVERYTHING! So, we stopped on the side of the road and stripped him down and go things as clean as we could. He was just excited to see the oncoming traffic and he got changed!
It was a laid back trip and we loved it! Here are Alaric and Amara poolside at the hotel.
Amara did great in the pool for the first time for about 12 seconds.

Oshkosh is home to the world's largest community built playground and it was AMAZING!!! It just kept going and going. it had a boat and a castle and an airplane and towers and a digging area and sand and rocks and swings and an art museum and nursry rhymes and more!

We walked down to the late and fed the seagulls crackers even though the sign told us not to...theres a reason for that. This picture was taken just seconds before about 100 birds came swarming at us!

Oshkosh also has it's own mircobrewed beer-FoxRiver Brewing Company. We went to their brewery and brewpub for lunch.
THis is Brian's idea of a vacation!
Tuesday night after a swim with Alaric in the pool, Brian's best friend, Anthony calls and offers him tickets to their first playoff game for the Cubs on Wednesday night! So, instead of driving back to Monticello Wednesday afternoon, we stopped in Chicago. We went to Anita's place and were able to put the kids down for a nap, have my friend Rachel over for awhile, hang out with Anita for a few hours, put the kids down, eat Chicago pizza, and watch the Cubs lose!

Here's Amara welcoming Aunt Anita home!


Go Cubs!

Bri got home from the game late and we packed the kids up and headed back to Monticello. because of a missed turn on an interstate I've driven on hundreds of times, we ended up in Indiana. We got home at 2AM.

Amara says HOME SWEET HOME!