Back to Wisconsin

Now that we've been home a week and all our packages have been delivered, it's time to talk about our trip back to Wisconsin :)

We left very late on Thursday night from San Francisco International (SFO)...meaning we took a red eye flight. Husband bought Little Man a little toy Delta airplane for the trip. He loved it...and then he fell asleep in the stroller while we were having a late dinner.

Our flight to Minneapolis was an uneventful, almost-four hour flight. Most everyone slept. I, however, did not get much sleep. It's hard to sleep when you don't have a pillow, can't move your seat back very far, and don't have anything to lean on in a comfortable manner. Husband and Little Man slept.

Our flight to Milwaukee (from Minneapolis) was also uneventful. That was a much shorter flight (about 45 minutes). We met Husband's parents at the airport because they had the carseat. We picked up our rental car and then we were off to the Wisconsin State Fair.

No, I'm not kidding.

Oh, nothing...just petting a pig that's twice my size.

While we were in the animal barns, Little Man was very interested. Of course, all the animals are in pens or cages but the girl that owns this pig (she was maybe 9 years old) said, "he can pet him, if he wants to." I asked Little Man if he wanted to go pet the piggy and, of course, he got a HUGE smile, took the girl's hand, and I got a photo of him petting a pig. Then the pig snorted and Little Man jumped backwards, almost to the bars on the side. He then looked like he was going to cry until I asked him, "What does a piggy say?" and he snorted...then he giggled.

Cow? Moooooo!

Then we went to the cow barn. Dozens of various types of cows...and these were just the cows (no bulls to be seen). He saw another girl, also about 9 years old, just laying down in the hay with her cow and he was very interested. I believe it was the mother of the girl laying with the cow that told Little Man that it was her cow so she could do that. I explained that we have Puppy at home, and she has a cow instead. The mother then asked if he would like to come pet one of the cows. This one was laying down. He tried to lay down, too, but both the mother and I put the kabosh on that.

After the State Fair, we went back to Husband's parents house...and all of us crashed. Husband did eventually wander across the street to have a beer with the enemy Wisconsin State Representative Joel Kleefisch (his wife, Rebecca, is the Lieutenant Governor for the State of Wisconsin). I've only met them a couple times but he's known them for about a decade now...I believe Husband taught their older daughter how to swear (she was five and it was at our engagement party).

Anyway, Friday was a busy and tiring day.

Saturday morning, I took Husband to Mt. Horeb so he could spend the day with friends, drinking all the beer in sight...at The Great Taste of the Midwest. I then dropped Little Man off with one of my best friends from high school and her two kids and her parents (seriously, I may as well be part of that family). I then drove to Chicago for Stitches Midwest. That will be a post of it's own so I'm not going to discuss it right now...other than to say I spent money and didn't get pulled over (no, my middle name is not "Ass").

Sunday afternoon, Monday, and Tuesday morning, Husband and I, and MegAndy (Megan and Andy) went camping at Governor Dodge State Park (Little Man was with Husband's parents). The first night was cut short due to storms going through the area. I know I've lamented about missing a good thunderstorm but I really didn't want to be camping during one. At least it was just rain (mostly)...and wind...and some thunder...Monday turned out to be a lovely day. We went around the lake on Andy's boat, Megan and I were knitting (both of us on socks), and Husband and Andy were, you know, being IT geeks...which is why we were knitting :)

Smoke on the....well, in the air.

Into the trees

Possibly Big Laughing Gyms...gorgeous mushrooms growing on a log

Pretty little flower

Wednesday, I changed my hair color. It's red. No, I don't have photos (yet). I also took Little Man to knitting :)

Thursday, Husband, Little Man, Andy, and I visited my great-uncle and great-aunt, then went to Platteville to see Little Man's namesake, Art, and his wife, Mary Rose. It was a long day, lots of driving in wide open spaces. That was definitely nice. Both Husband and Andy were a bit rough...they were up too late the night before, drinking all the beer...and then rum. Idiots. *insert eye roll*

Friday, we did a big dinner with our friends: Megan & Andy, Nellie & Matt, and Joe & Irina (which I'm probably spelling incorrectly - my Russian is pretty abysmal).

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning were spent with Husband's parents. Oh, and we had a shindig at their house with some of the family and family friends. We got to see two sets of Husband's great-aunts/great-uncles, his godparents, another family friend, and some cousins.

Playing in the dirt

Still playing in the dirt...

What? I'm not doing anything wrong...

And still playing in the dirt...

The above photos are from the party. Little Man got to play with one of his cousins. Little Man's grandma (Husband's mom) and JJ's grandma are first cousins. Little Man is about six months older but that doesn't matter too much. They still had a lot of fun...and they both slept really well Saturday night.

Unfortunately, Husband got sick while we were in Wisconsin. On Sunday afternoon, he dragged himself to Urgent Care. They tested him for strep and the rapid strep came back negative. So, they said he was fine and sent him home. ::sigh:: They called this past Wednesday to tell him, "hey, guess what, you have strep." And Husband had already shared by that point. Now we're both on antibiotics for strep.

Here are some more photos from the rest of our stay in Wisconsin.

I kiss you, Daddy!

Hellllllooooooooo

Sittin' under the tree

See?

I love my Daddy!

Climbing into grandpa's chair

Our trip back on Monday should have been fairly uneventful. I went to the post office to ship a couple boxes back to California (my Stitches Haul and some other things). We were supposed to fly out of Milwaukee on in the afternoon. We got there with plenty of time, Husband's parents came about 40 minutes behind us so we could get the car returned and luggage taken care of, without dragging Little Man along. We were all set. We got to Minneapolis just fine. We had about a two hour layover in Minneapolis, enough time to eat and dink around. Our flight from Minneapolis back to San Francisco was about 75% boarded when an announcement came over the speaker that we were all getting off. ::sigh:: There was a mechanical problem (translation: the plane was spewing hydraulic fluid) so we weren't leaving. We wound up there for another couple of hours, waiting for a plane to arrive from Denver. So, we ate some more, dinked around, and discovered that we had lost Little Man's toy plane. Luckily, it was found on the disabled plane and returned (hoooray for Delta!). So, we were behind another couple hours. We should have gotten home a little before 10pm (local time)...but we didn't land until almost midnight, then we had to get our luggage, find a cab, etc.

We didn't get to bed until almost 3am on Tuesday morning. It made for a relatively long, disjointed week. I didn't even get any knitting done until this past Sunday.

Anyway, that was our trip back to Wisconsin. It was grand, all of our cheeses and meats made it in our luggage, all of our stuff that was in the boxes has arrived (one box this past Friday and the other one came today), and all is well. Or, rather, as well as can be expected.

I should be back sometime this week, Thursday perhaps, with photos from my Stitches Midwest haul and, basically, about Stitches Midwest :) Oh, and a book review and a yarn review and I'm all a dither and behind this month. What else is new?

Hope all is well....