Last month we took a long weekend trip to Wisconsin. The main purpose of the trip was to visit friends and meet Alanis, but we also saw some sights too. We got a great deal on airfare so we all flew there, and this was a great trial run of flying somewhere with the kids at this age before our upcoming trip to Australia. This was the first time Emma flew since our last trip to Australia when she was just a baby, so it was particularly fun for her since she now knew what was going on more. She did get a little nervous at take off though, and asked to hold my hand, but otherwise she did great and had a great time on the plane. Just as Evan liked to do when he was a toddler, she loved opening and closing, opening and closing, and then opening and closing the window shade. :)
The weekend we visited happened to be incredibly cold. High temperatures were in the teens F (or -10 C) on the first day, but were forecast to not be much higher than single digits F (-18 C) the next few days. Coupled with the wind, wind chills were well below zero F (-25 C!!!). Therefore, we decided if there was anything outside we wanted to do, it should be done on day 1 and really we ruled out most outdoor activities anyway. So on day 1 we went to the University of Wisconsin campus and hung out there. First we went to the geology museum. We saw rocks and bones. It was small and the kids got a little bored with it since there wasn't much interactive stuff for them. But it was free and we did get some fun pics, including one where T-Rex is coming for John's head! :)
Don't look now John, but there's something behind you!
After the museum, we decided to take a short walk to see the lake. It was frozen at this time of year, and honestly even though it was just a few blocks of walking, we were all frozen by the time we reached it too! We had to stop into a residence hall nearby and thaw ourselves a bit before continuing on!
Frozen people in front of the frozen lake!
After a quick scenic view of the lake, we rushed back to the student center to warm up, get some coffee and lunch, and then play. By the time we got there, we were frozen again! They had a nice fireplace so we sat in front of it to thaw before getting lunch. For lunch, we had some burgers and fried cheese curds at the tavern in the student center. Yep, fried cheese curds. Yum!
Almost back to the student center...tired kids and tired parents!
The student center had a climbing wall and bowling center. Evan and Alex were so excited to climb, but it turned out it's not for anyone under 18 years old. Evan was pretty upset to learn that, but I was so proud of him because he calmed himself down on his own. We ended up bowling though, which was fun and a first for both Evan and Emma. I even managed to get over 100 for my final score...which is rare. However, I did have the child guards helping me out. :) John got several strikes. Typical for him. One more in a row and he would have gotten himself a turkey.
The kids first tried bowling on their own, but they really couldn't get much speed up, so we got the ramps to help them out. Halfway through our game they turned off the lights and it became moonlight bowling, which was a fun spin on things too! Evan did a good job and learned how to push his ball down the ramp pretty quickly. Emma was so cute carrying her big bowling balls around, but she always needed help getting it on the ramp. And at first, she was even afraid to push it down the ramp. She'd "help" get it set up there, and then run back to stand by me and John would have to push it. By the end, she was helping push it down though too.
Evan bowling
Emma bowling
Waiting for their calls and helping pick out their balls
Moonlight bowling!
The final scores!
In the afternoon we headed back to our hotel for naps. We knew Evan probably wouldn't sleep, but Emma needed to. So we asked Alex if he wanted to come over and swim in our hotel pool with John and Evan. They had fun and Emma got some sleep, so it worked out well. One funny thing we realized during our visit was that Evan and Alex have the exact same shoes! They thought that was pretty cool, so we had to get a photo of them in their matching shoes. :)
Matching shoes!
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