dan and i went to my hometown beer tent (the good ol' dane fest) shortly upon arriving. we saw the love monkeys play. They are a band i used to LOVE when I was in my 20's...and at the beginning of the night, dan and i were both thinking they sucked. "why did I used to love this band?", i wondered.
many pitchers of bud light later...and they were our favorite band! we were front row and center and singing along to all the classics.
it was a fun night seeing a bunch of good friends that i don't get to see that often.
griffin was snuggled tightly in bed and grandma and grandpas.
The next day, we took griffin to the dane parade. (ulterior motive is that we had to pickup the jeep that we left the night before. (see above: too many bud lights)
the parade consisted of about 100 different firetrucks, and kids pelting candy at the crowd.
caught up with some more old friends.
monday we hit the madison zoo with my mom, dan's mom and friends julie, thea and kenn, with all their cute kids. we got a great treat and were able to meet up with auntie wendy and cousins addison and andrew. they were in town while griffins other cousin, alexandra, went to camp. bummer we didn't get to see alex, but griffin loved spending time with his cousins and aunt!
we spent most of the day at the zoo, then headed over to the memorial union to sit by the water and have ice cream.
we saw a few other friends this night, had dinner with my parents and spent the night just hanging out with my folks.
the next day (tuesday) we spent the day with my mom before having to say goodbye, to start the next leg of our trip.
griffin loved his time in waunakee and we were sad to say goodbye!
tuesday we arrived to milwaukee, checked into the downtown hilton and got ourselves ready to walk over to summerfest.
we had a nice 2-3 mile walk, saw the cool art museum and then made our way to summerfest.
we had a great time just walking around, eating, seeing a couple bands and griffin enjoying the playground.
there was NO one good playing the day we were there...but we found a stage that had some good jam bands and just hung out.
wednesday we spent the rainy day inside the hotel, where we had a waterpark. g liked that. we all had a great afternoon nap, then walked around downtown milwaukee again, and found a great brewery for dinner.
thursday we hit the milwaukee zoo. (we certainly got our fill of zoos on this trip).
g loved it. his favorite part was the train that took you around the zoo. he was obsessed with that thing!
we arrived to our 3rd destination of our trip (chicago to see dans brother dave, cindy and cousins aidan and reese) in the late afternoon.
griffin had a great time catching up with his cousins. it was super cute to see him play and interact with them.
we went to the park ridge fireworks this evening and g loved it! he was ooing and ahhing and was fascinated by all the colors and booms.
the next day (friday the 4th) we hit the local waterpark. it was great fun to see aidan and reesie playing around.
g on the other hand, had other plans in mind. he immediately zonked out on daddy for a nap. i think the trip had caught up to him!
we spent the evening grilling out, enjoying hanging with the family. g loved spending time with everyone.
saturday the girls went to get pedicures (aidan and reese got fingernails painted).
we met up with the boys at a choo choo restaurant where g about lost his shit. it was a restaurant where they carried the food from the back kitchen to the counter via electric train. griffin was mezmorized by this and just watched them go around and around.
when we all met up, i was QUITE taken aback. our little boy who had just looked like this:
now looked like this:
dan had given him a buzz cut with the beard trimmer. nothing like a good summer cut. we all called him "patchy" for the first few days, but it's kinda grown in a bit now and looks better.
saturday night grandma lawrence watched all the kids while dave, cindy, dan and i went out to celebrate dave's birthday. it was a great night, full of silliness, friendship and family catching up.
sunday we had to leave. we wished sweet little aidan a happy 5th birthday before we hit the road.
what a great trip...just what we all needed.
we got to meet dan's dad, bruce and wife lucy in the dells for lunch on the way back through, so that really completed our week of family fun.
we made it back to minne to awesome yellow grass, ants and that shitty looking roof that we have to replace. reality i suppose. but, it didn't keep us from feeling great about our weeklong family vacation, full of fun memories, funny moments with our little man, and the realization that our family of 3 rocks.
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