Traveling Business Man + Family = One fun...and a little less productive week!

"Bye Daddy." These words have become too common and difficult at our house as we go through this transition with Erik working in Wisconsin while we are still living in Iowa. One night Erik and I were looking at the calendar and discussing how we can help break up the final stretch to summer...I know let's go with you for a week! With about six weeks left, Erik saw that in his calendar he had a slower week in mid April since that was when some schools would be on spring break. This week's schedule included spending some time in the Milwaukee area and then going to a Spanish conference at a huge hotel that had an indoor water park, we knew that this would be a perfect week for us to tag along with Erik. The first day the kids and I just hung out at the hotel. We went swimming in the pool, but the water was a bit cool and the kids wouldn't stay in. Luckily I had packed some puzzles and coloring books, so we went back to the room and kept busy doing various activities. Then the snow flurries kept our picnic indoors, but the kids didn't mind because we had a picnic on the bed which they thought was the best...eating in bed?!? Sounded good to them! In the afternoon after Erik was finished with some appointments we went to the arboretum and then up to see Erik's storage unit and drove around looking at various towns and communities.

Our "picnic"

Ohhh...smells beautiful

I wouldn't do that Soren

Hey, is this light like a telescope?

The next day Erik was able to drop us off at the children's museum for a few hours. The kids really enjoyed all the interactive displays...while, I guess with the exception of one. Smoky the bear was going to do a little performance on the stage and talk to us about preventing forest fires. A lady was introducing him and Olivia did NOT like the idea of a bear coming on stage. I told her it was just someone in a costume, but she wasn't buying it. Her screams forced us to leave the performance, but little did we know that as we waited near the elevator that the doors would open and out would come Smoky the Bear. This time both kids were startled by this rather large costume and now I had two screaming clinging kids...a little reminiscent of Santa at Christmas. I was eventually able to settle them down and enjoy the rest of the museum. I do have to say that Olivia looked over her shoulder about 100 times and kept asking me where Smoky the Bear was.

The way Olivia is holding the phone tells us she has no idea how to use this phone...

Playing mechanic was a favorite. They changed tires, put coolant in, and even used tools!

Jelly Bean Distribution Center Tour

Our third day in Milwaukee was the one the kids had looked forward to the most. Erik had to be at a presentation by 7 am, but the zoo didn't open until 9, so we decided to book a taxi. The kids loved being buckled up in the big seat belts in the back of the most expensive taxi ride I have ever taken. When the ladies at the front desk heard we were taking a taxi to the zoo they felt sorry that we had to pay, what ended up being $35, to take a taxi that they gave us some complementary tickets to the zoo. Wow! That was such a great gift! We were at the zoo for about five hours, which was a bit longer than we originally planned, but Erik got delayed by a curriculum director. He felt so bad, but I told him there are much worse places than a zoo to be "stuck" with two kids. We ended up hanging out in the monkey and ape house because it was inside (the weather was a bit rainy and cold) and the kids loved watching them. Soren liked the gorillas. One of the gorillas came and pounded his fist on the glass. Soren had the most worried face and I thought that we were headed for another loud cry, but there were some high school boys on a field trip that just laughed and so he quickly turned that frown upside down and laughed too. Although it was one of those fake nervous laughs, still better than a scream though!

Taxi Ride with 2 excited kids

Lunch time at the zoo

Is that Smoky?

That afternoon we headed up to Menomonee Falls for the Spanish conference. It was an amazing hotel. Olivia LOVED that we had a staircase IN our room. She really wanted to sleep upstairs all by herself, although that changed a bit when the lights went out. :-) The video below shows just how excited she was! We hung out in the pool quite a bit. The kids started off being really hesitant, but soon they were going down the small slides all by themselves. Soren was evening going down and putting his whole head under each time. We were amazed at the improvement they made just over the course of the three days we were there. This really showed us how we need to commit to regular swimming so that they can become more comfortable in the water.
In front of Lake Michigan

We went to the park for our picnic

We had to check out by 11, but Erik wasn't done until 3 so we took in another small children's museum in Menomonee Falls...here they are dressing up, they loved the dramatic play center!