Vacation of 2010

We did it!  We took a vacation.  Starting June 9th, I can't go anywhere.  I am pretty much home bound, which I am kind of a homebody so that will probably be fine.  I found myself wanting to be home this weekend instead of on vacation.  Is that terrible?  Our vacation was small.  It was not too far from home.  And we didn't really rest but that's vacations are, right?

We went to Milwaukee.  I have only been to Miller Park in Milwaukee never anywhere else that I recall.  We took the kids to the Milwaukee Zoo and a Brewer game at Miller Park.  We spent 2 nights in a hotel, Residence Inn Brookfield-Milwaukee. 

At the zoo, we saw many animals and birds and reptiles.  There was a Dino expo that opened that day but the line was a half mile long so we didn't wait for it.  I know Troy would've loved it though.  We walked around the entire zoo.  It was definitely warm.  We sprayed sunscreen on the kids well.  BUT, mommy forgot herself.  I got a little toasty on the arms and my shoulders.  Didn't hurt, just looks pretty red.   At the end, we rode the train.  Troy absolutely loves trains so we knew that was a must.  Turns out that was his favorite part of the zoo as well as Rylee's.  We had 2 sleeping kids when we got to the hotel to check in.  By the way, we the Elmo harness you will see on Troy is one of those things like a leash.  We got one but never used it until this zoo trip.  It worked well.  I hate to think that I hooked Troy on a leash but it was better than losing him at the zoo among the zoo of people.  He was so excited that he didn't want to hold our hands just run onto the next thing to see.  I am extremely glad that we had it.

 Sunday, we went to watch the Brewers.  We ended up leaving after the 6th inning.  It was 95° out according to our car.  It was way to hot for Rylee.  She was starting to act really funny and was barely wetting diapers.  Troy was restless.  Kris took him over to the Kids Corner.  On the way back to our seats, he fell asleep in the stroller.  Kris called me and wanted me to come to meet him.  I did and we decided it was time to leave.  The kids were way to hot and tired.  On the way out to the car, Rylee fell asleep as I carried her.  Back at the hotel.  We changed into cooler clothes.  We left the kids in their diapers to cool down.  Later I ran to Applebee's and got dinner to eat back at our hotel.  While I was gone, Kris gave Troy and Rylee a bubble bath.  They were clean, full and ready for bed by 8.  It didn't take long for everyone to be asleep. 

The kids slept in until 7:30 this morning.  It was wonderful.  We got up at 8 and headed over to the gatehouse for breakfast.  Our hotel had one of the best continental breakfasts.  Sunday morning there was eggs, potatoes, sausage and biscuits and gravy as well as make your own waffles.  There were tons of topping to go on everything.  They also had the standard bread, bagels, danishes, cereal and variety of beverages.  It was nice.  After breakfast, we went back to the room and packed/cleaned up.  We gased up and were on our way home by 9.  We got home at 11:45.  It felt good to be home.

This afternoon, we headed over to my dad's new house and he and Deb watched the kids while Kris and I went to menards.  We were only gone for a half hour.  In that half hour, Troy tired my dad out.  He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.  On the way home, Troy crashed out too.  So my dad wore him out as my he wore my dad out.  All in just a half hour!  We are almost done landscaping the front of our house.  It looks a little gaudy right now because all the plants and garden are out in front.  It's the area for the best sun/shade combo.  We put up the retaining wall around our dogwood shrub and mulched around it, but still need more.  Good thing that stuff is super cheap!  Our garden is blossoming.  I think our radishes will be ready to harvest soon.  We also have a pepper on our pepper plant.  We put up the blue shutters.  There used to be shutters there but the past owners took them down.  I am not sure why because it just looked dumb without them.  And we still need to sand and paint our Adrinodack chairs that we made and trim down that lilac bush (it's more like a tree right now). 

I uploaded a bunch of pictures to my facebook.  Here's the link: 2010 album 


On other news, my little brother Scott starts his internship tomorrow.  He is going to be living with my aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff for the summer.  His internship is to strength and condition the UW Badgers football and wrestling teams.  He's going to be so busy.  The experience will be awesome.  I hope he enjoys himself over the next 3 months.  Next fall he'll finish up school with a 5 credit class.  Then onto grad. school maybe.  He'll have to think about his options if he's offered a job at the end of the internship.  Scott is quite the perfectionist so I have no doubt he will make the most of this opportunity.  And thanks to my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff he has a place to crash at the end of the day.  He was kind of worried about what he was going to do about a place to live.  It's great that he will be living somewhere comfortable and safe.