Milwaukee in August

For our August vacation, we flew up to Milwaukee to visit our friends Jeremy and Jamie.  We were excited to meet their 9 month old twins Carter and Dexter and Cassidy was very excited to see her friend Sydney again!  We flew into Milwaukee where Jeremy picked us up and drove us back to their home, about an hour south of Milwaukee. 

This trip came at somewhat strange timing as my parents just sold their condo in Menomonee Falls and have moved south to their home in McComb, Mississippi.  On one hand, it worked out well because they stayed at our house to dog sit.  On the other hand, it was very strange to be in Milwaukee without seeing them.

We stayed at Jeremy and Jamie's home for the first 3 nights, and then at a hotel near the airport where we met up with some of our other Milwaukee friends.

Our days were pretty much focused on the kids, as you'd expect.  We went to a place called the Treehouse where the girls had a blast.  It also had a smaller play area for babies and toddlers.  We also visited a bounce house and spent time playing in the backyard. 

Jamie arranged for a babysitter one night, so we had a wonderful adult dinner at Jeremy and Jamie's favorite sushi joint and the food was awesome!  We followed up our grown up dinner with custard at Culvers and still made it home to put the girls to bed.   

Cassidy had a 3 night sleepover with Sydney (Cassidy's first sleep over)!  We set up her travel bed in Sydney's room and the girls were excited to have a "sleepover" every night!  They did well sleeping together and went right to sleep with only the occassional wake up and call for the mommies.

Playing at "The Treehouse"

Even though Cassidy was old enough to play, she had a little trouble with climbing the platforms up to the top as she's not quite tall enough to make it on her own.  Until Cassidy worked out a way to climb up, Sydney climbed up first, then pulled Cassidy up after her! 

Jamie and Carter

 

Playing in the back yard at Aunt Jamie and Uncle Jeremy's house

Blowing bubbles!

Jamie and Dexter

Sydney

We celebrated our 11th anniversary while in Milwaukee

 

Carter and Dexter

Playing at "JumpZone"





Dexter

Carter

I'm not sure who had more fun at the bounce house:  the kids or their daddies...



Jeremy and Dexter



My only request for the week was that we visit a Noodles for lunch or dinner!

Dinner at Noodles and Company!  Best Mac and Cheese EVER!!!

Cassidy and I shared  macaroni and cheese and some flatbread.

Hotel in Milwaukee with 2 water slides!


Before flying out on Sunday, we stayed in a hotel near the airport on Saturday night.  We chose this hotel because it has a small indoor waterpark including two slides.  Cassidy played in the water from around 3:30 when we checked in until 9:30 when we finally told her it was time to quit and get ready for bed.  (Her bed time is usually 8:00.)  We took a short break for some pizza delivery and then went right back to the pool.

I didn't get a good shot of the pool area, but there was a large slide in the middle of a shallow wading area with fountains.  Cassidy climbed up this slide and went down by herself over and over.  We just walked her to the stairs, and then waited at the bottom to catch her since she's not too good at landing on her feet with the flowing water at the bottom.

The second slide was supposed to have  height requirement of 42 inches, which Cassidy obviously doesn't meet.  (I think she's around 35 inches right now).  She went down with Daddy repeatedly and then Daddy sent her down by herself with me at the bottom to catch her!  She LOVED it ...  Even after taking a whole lot of water in the face a few times. 

Once Cassidy tried this slide once, it was all she wanted to do.  We'd get out of the pool at the bottom and she'd march right up the stairs to go again!

While Jeff and I took turns swimming with Cassidy, we also visited with Sally and Cliff (my cousins), Sandy (from high school) and her 6 month old son Garrett, Traci (from high school), her husband Tom, and their 1 month old Ty, and Jeff (another friend from high school who I recently became reacquainted with thanks to facebook).  Thanks to all of you for coming to visit us!  I had my camera with me, but of course I forgot to take pictures while we were visiting.

Cassidy's new travel bed

Cassidy slept in until around 7:45 when she heard me moving around the room to pack our things.  After getting her ready to leave, she entertained herself (and us) by singing to herself in the mirror.



On the airplane home

For our flights, we did our best to chose seats where no one would be sitting in front of Cassidy We learned last Christmas that she likes to kick the seat in front of her nonstop.  Using her carseat on the plane makes this more of a problem, but we feel she's safer and we avoid having to fight her to keep her seatbelt on.  Trying to convince a 2 or 3 year old that kicking the seats is not fun seems to be impossible.  On our first flight in both directions, we had chosen seats near the back of the plane with a wall from a galley area in front of us which worked out great!  Since the other two planes didn't have that option, we managed an empty seat in front of Cassidy from Atlanta to Milwaukee (I think this was just luck. We arrived in Atlanta in time to walk right on to the second plane so there was no way to request the bulkhead seats normally reserved for any handicapped passengers.  The gate agent said she'd try to keep the seat in front of Cassidy open, but I don't think she actually had to do anything as we were almost the last people to get on the plane.)  On the way home, our connection was in Detroit and we had plenty of time to spare.  We had lunch and then I headed to the gate to wait for an agent to show up while Daddy took Cassidy for a tram ride and walked to find the kid area in the airport (don't bother--- it's a couple of plastic play houses).  As soon as someone showed up at the desk, I asked to switch our seats to the bulkhead, which was still available! 

Cassidy napped and watched Dora on our laptop on the plane (yeah for Dora!) and behaved very well.

Unfortunately I woke up with a sore throat Sunday morning and what looked like was going to be a nasty sinus infection. By the time we got home Sunday evening, I was completely exhausted.  I spent all of Monday in bed, and most of today laying around the house as well (at least I managed a shower and made it to the couch today). 

 Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to work!