Milwaukee, dear Milwaukee!

We went on a weekend trip, yeah! Mike attended Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and it's been almost two years since his graduation, so we were overdue for a visit back to our old home. My heart strings are tied to Milwaukee for many reasons, and when we got into the van to drive to WI, I was like a little kid, so excited for our road trip!

The kids loved the hotel, as you can see from the pictures. They turned those lamps on and off and off and on, they checked out the bathroom and the little bars of soap multiple times, Quinn opened the drapes and then shut them, and then opened them again. Quinn quickly taught Max & Mae how to leap from one double bed to the other, they looked like little flying monkeys. Mae & Max had a blast putting their stuffed animals into a drawer, closing the drawer and then squealing with delight when they opened the drawer and saw their brown dog and pink bunny waiting for them.



This was our first "long" trip in the van (5 hours) and the kids were awesome. We listened and sang to all our children's CDs, I sat in the front seat and read Winnie the Pooh and lots of Eric Carle books, we threw animal crackers to each other (Mike and I keep talking about rigging up a little pulley-system with a small bucket on the end, so we can ferry Q's and Max's treats to the way back of the van) and played many a game of I Spy.

Places we hit while in Milwaukee: Friday night dinner & dessert at Kopp's Frozen Custard. Oh, my. I am such an ice cream lover and frozen custard is like 10 times better than ice cream. We visited with our good friends, Linda & Jim, Saturday morning and spent Saturday afternoon at Betty Brinn Children's Museum right on the lake front. Gorgeous views of Lake Michigan from the museum and Betty Brinn is such a fun place to hang out! We stopped by Mayfair Mall Saturday night, I know it may sound tacky to go to the mall when you're on vacation, but some of my favorite stores are in that mall. Brighton and Pottery Barn Kids! Church was 9am in the old Milwaukee 1st ward and though much has changed, there were still quite a few faces I recognized and it was very fun to say hello. We headed home around 1:30pm, first driving past our old apartment on the border of Wauwatosa and saying hello to our upstairs neighbor, and finally pulled into our driveway at 6:15pm.

There were more sights we saw and more things we did, but I love Milwaukee so that I could keep you here all night. I'm thinking about going back next weekend!