Our Two-Week Vacation with Gramie & Bapa

While Will was working 15+ hour days during much of June, I escaped with the kids to spend two fabulous weeks with Gramie and Bapa.

We arrived on Tuesday 6-15 into Milwaukee, WI, as the flights to O'Hare and Midway were booked solid. This afforded us the opportunity to visit Mars Cheese Castle, and what a treat: cheese-head hats, Kringle, cheese curds, sausages... all things delicious, really.... even chocolate cheese (which tastes like the richest fudge you've ever had). We even squeezed in haircuts for the boys at Kid-snips.Wednesday was a fun day in Downtown Chicago, including a morning trip to the Aquarium, lunch at my favorite restaurant, Cafe Iberico, and a tour of Bapa's new lakefront office (see below, where the kids are showing off their new lizards from the aquarium).


Below are a few picutres from the first few days of the trip, including pictures of the Brazil Soccer Uniforms that Aunt Emmy brought back to the boys from her travels!






Thursday was another travel day. Our weekend destination was Northfield, MN, the site of my 15th college reunion at Carleton. We broke the trip into two travel days, stopping the first night in the Wisconsin Dells. "The Dells" is the self-proclaimed water-park-capitol-of-the-world and for good reason. We found a hotel that was perfect, with three pools and an inside kiddie water "park."

Wisconsin Dells Hotel / Indoor-Outdoor Water Park



Friday morning, Bapa returned to Evanston while Gramie, the kids and I continued to MN. I reconnected with some great college friends and I'm already looking forward to the 20th. Evan and Alex are excited that they can participate in "Camp Carleton" next time around, too! The parade of classes was a highlight, as was seeing my old dance studio. The Class of '95 Arena Theater Dance Party was great, too! I spent many many hours in that theater rehearsing, dancing, and enjoying the after-show dance parties! It was fun to return.



On Saturday afternoon, we drove up to Rosemount to visit my Great Aunt Fran, my Mom's mom's sister. Aunt Franny and Uncle Bob were wonderful to me when I lived in MN and it was super to see Aunt Fran again -- and to introduce her to Alex! It has been five years since she saw Evan, so it was a really special day all around. Mom's cousin Barb & her husband Steve joined us for dinner, too.




Sunday June 20th was Fathers Day and Bapa's Birthday! While Emmy was in Chicago with Dad at the Cubs Game...



... we drove from MN to Waterloo, IA to see my Grampa. We spent several days with Gramp and my cousins Sarah, Erinn (who was in from DC). We played at the park, ate good food, and enjoyed special time together.




Tuesday was another travel day back to IL. The week that followed held super-fun activities each day. (I'm so behind on posting to the blog, the rest of this post is pics without much story-telling.)

Wednesday: The Museum of Science and Industry


Thursday: Childrens Museum on Navy Pier



Friday: Mini-Golfing & Batting Cages


Saturday: Taste of Chicago and Backyard Water-slide Fun







Sunday: The Field Museum of Natural History



Monday: Lincoln Park Zoo and Homer's Homemade Ice Cream!

Several of my close friends from college were not at reunion. Luckily, they live within an hour of mom & dad, so we met them on Monday! Lenore and her 6-week old son Joseph met us at the Zoo, while Rosa and her husband Bernhard continued our tradition of meeting for homemade ice cream at Homers later that night.



It was extremely difficult for me to return to Macon after this wonderful vacation. Although it is never easy to say goodbye to my folks, having seen so many good friends and my sister on this trip made it even more difficult to return "home." We really missed Will, though, and it was wonderful to see him at the top of the escalator at the airport in Atlanta!

Thank you, Mom and Dad (Gramie & Bapa!), for vacation memories to last a lifetime. Love you. xo