trip home

last week we packed up the fam again and drove across wisconsin. we met my parents in waupun so they could take our crew and go to green bay and bill and I could head south to Oconomowoc. we planned to meet up with a neurotologist and his wife to discuss what life looks like as a neurotologist. the kids did great during the drive (we have mastered the art of driving with our crew – but you really need 2 people to manage everything). we enjoyed our chat with the dr and his wife and have a lot more to think about.

friday and saturday we did a lot of hanging out. bill drove to minneapolis on saturday afternoon to fly out to pittsburg for a course. I stayed at my parents with the crew until wednesday.

charlie having fun with the plasma car.

charlie was most excited about skid steer rides.

charlie working on his smile. he is now saying cheese, but it still doesn’t look like his normal sweet smile.

ellie working on her crawl stance.

my parents were responsible for all 3 kids during dinner and bed time for 3 nights in a row (we were in Oconomowoc, we went out to dinner alone, I was at a wedding). they did great and I enjoyed the break. my dad held ellie for a little “snap” before bedtime and she crashed.

sweet siblings. charlie and claire.

peekaboo ellie!

It worked out perfectly because while I was home one of my close high school friends got married. it was a really small ceremony at a frank lloyd wright designed house "the schwartz house" in two rivers wisconsin. I was able to go to the wedding with another friend and her husband.

beautiful erin.

me, erin and kacie. love these girls!

sunday morning we headed to bay beach a small amusement park in green bay. every ride is 10 cents. my mom was obsessed with getting charlie there. I have to admit he LOVED it.

here we are entering bay beach. ellie and claire were along for the ride.

we hit the carousel first. he was in shock.

on the ferris wheel with g. pops.

I ditched ellie and took charlie on the helicopters.

the helicopters went up and down with a bar and around in a circle. pretty fun.

g. pops took charlie on the scrambler. this thing will make a lot of people sick. if bill had been there he would have been puking.

delighted to drive the boats.

to say charlie was in love with the race cars in an understatement. he definitely rode these a few times. they even turned in and out of the circle.

he started to well up and throw a tantrum when he saw g. pops coming to get him. we were trying to explain to him that he could go on another ride that he would love just as much, but it was so hard to grasp.

on the “firetrucks” as my mom called them charlie started to get dazed and confused. he was getting super tired but was determined to keep riding. this kid would never quit on his own.

charlie didn’t even know how to handle the fighter jets.

the girls crashed and it was time to go home and watch the packers win!

nana loves to do tons of stuff with charlie. she ran up and down the “big mountain” (my parent’s hill to the river) with charlie pushing the cozy coupe a million times. she also really wanted to fish with charlie. he only lasted for a bit but here is a picture before they went down to the dock.

I can’t believe I didn’t get one picture with my mom and the girls! sorry mom! we need to fix that. nana spent many many hours sitting on the floor playing with the girls, holding them, putting them down so I could get a break. I loved the delicious meals and relaxing time. love you! my parents also need props for basically training charlie to sleep in a big boy bed. they put him down most naps and bedtime and he did fantastic. the threat of “if you get out of bed your mom will come up and put you in your carseat” did help a bit.