Madison Adventures

We spent this past weekend in Madison. We stayed with my sister Kelly but had plenty of time to see other family and friends. We visited Ryan's cousin Rachael and got to see two of her little girls, got to meet our friends' new baby, and had brunch with Ryan's aunt, uncle and cousins.

We spent a lot of time relaxing at Kel's watching basketball. And Ryan was nice enough to watch Twilight with us.

Saturday we went to the gluten-free bakery - YUM! I got lots of treats! Then Ryan, Kel and I went to the Madison Zoo. It's free and it was much bigger than we expected. It was pretty chilly but there were enough indoor exhibits to keep us warm. Ryan spent the entire time with our new camera and he got some great shots of the animals.

Enjoy! (as always, click to enlarge)


Us in front of the lions

The giant tortoise

The polar bear was really active - pacing back and forth

Pretty tiger

Doesn't this look fake!?


Posing by the tiger

I have the wingspan of a chimpanzee

Really cool!

Sisters!

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Watch for fun things to come:

- April birthdays BBQ - we decided to combine the celebration for 4 of us with April birthdays. We'll be grilling at our house. We're hoping for nice weather so we can break out the bocce set and new firepit.

- San Francisco - just over three weeks!

- Softball starts!!!! I think I'm more excited than Ryan.

- Ryan's parents are planning to visit in May - just in time for spring garage sales!

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Happy 1st Birthday, Quinton!

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We've Been Busy

My parents arrived on Tuesday and left this morning. We had a great visit and got a ton of projects done at the house! Ryan and I had Friday off so the boys were handy and my mom and I shopped. Thanks, Dad and Mom for all of your help!

My sister Meg was here for a brief visit as well. She got here Tuesday and left Wednesday. It was a fun treat to see her and Baby-Q! He has changed a lot since Christmas and he kept us all entertained with his “dancing” and funny noises.

Our garage is like a whole new place. Ryan and my dad mounted peg board on the wall and built a big shelving unit. They hung all the tools and put everything else on the shelves – our floors have never been so clean! I love it!

They also wired and hung outside lights on our garage. Our street doesn’t have streetlights and is fairly dark and, until now, we’ve just had a little light by our front door. These make a huge difference! Plus, they even set them on a timer so they go on at dusk and off at 11.

We hung some much needed coat hooks by the front door and hung a fun tapestry above the front door. My aunt sent it up from her house in AZ and it adds a nice splash of color to our big bare wall.

My dad also did a few things while we were at work. He built some great shelves in the cubby in the guest bathroom, moved a light switch for us, and attached the headboard to the guest bed.

The boys were so efficient with their projects that we spent all of yesterday relaxing. We went for coffee, walked the old neighborhood and spent much of the afternoon out on the deck in the sun.

We had some great meals with our company. We had delicious steaks at Wildfire and then grilled at home, had roast in the crockpot and tried a new chicken recipe.

We also celebrated my birthday early since my parents brought my gifts. They also delivered some of our Christmas gifts that were too big to bring home with us. My mom even had Ryan’s new softball bag embroidered with BOHLEN. Now, if softball would just hurry up and get here I’d be a happy girl. I can’t wait for my socializing in the bleachers to start back up!

Q-ster

New bathroom shelves

Our CLEAN garage!

Coat hooks

New lights on the garage (you may have to click to enlarge so you can see them). Also note - no more snow!

New tapestry by the front door

Me and Dad

Enjoying the sunny afternoon...

Birthday present - new bag for hauling my lunch and shoes to work

Snazzy new softball bag

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Yep, I'm a blog slacker.

Here's what we've been up to:

- I went to Tomah, WI to spend time with my cousin Beth. We had a great time catching up! We even ate at Mr. Ed's Tee Pee. Tell me you aren't jealous!

- Ryan spent a weekend in Ames with his family. They checked out the new house, hauled stuff up from the basement, went to church, watched a movie, and answered all my phone calls to see what they were up to! Ryan was nice enough to take dozens of pictures/videos of Brenna so I could see all the new things she's up to.

- My cousin Dan came to visit this past weekend. He's in school a couple hours away and was on spring break. We ran some errands he needed to do, ate out, watched a movie and he stayed over.

- We booked our Chicago trip!! Ryan had purchased our tickets to the Twins/Cubs game at Wrigley a few weeks ago and we now have our hotel and flights all lined up! We're staying right downtown and of course Ryan got a great deal!

- A lot of our Ryan's time has been spent thinking about the water in the backyard/garage. He's spent many hours snow-blowing, shoveling, shop-vacing the backyard to eliminate as much snow/water as possible in an attempt to prevent it from coming into the garage. So far, we've had wet steps a few more times but the water is going right where it is supposed to if it does happen to make it into the garage. Our sump pump has been running on the warm days too. It's back to COLD again (3* today!) so no melting until this weekend. Once the ground thaws out we'll be having our backyard regraded. A landscaper will come out and build a swale to keep the water away from the house and running where it should.

- We've spent our Tuesdays and Wednesdays watching American Idol. Do you have a favorite? I think mine would be Danny Gokey.

- I've been reading a lot lately. Water for Elephants - it took a while to get into it but I really enjoyed it. March - a story from the perspective of the dad in Little Women - so fun to read what he was doing when he was missing from the Little Women storyline. One Thousand White Women - a story set in 1875 of a thousand women being traded to the Cheyenne Indians as brides in an attempt to create peace between the whites and the Indians. It's great! And next on my list is Peace Like a River for my bookclub. I'll keep you posted...

- My sister Meg will be here early next week with the Q-baby! I can't wait to see him crawling around. And she claims he has a tooth but we've yet to see proof. It's hard to believe that he'll be 1 in less than two weeks!

- My parents arrive next Tuesday! YAY! We have some projects planned for the house - pictures to come. I'm sure there will be a few trips to Caribou and a meal or two out. We're really excited to see them!

And I'll leave you with a few pictures of Brenna from Ryan's time in Ames. And a couple of Quinton that Meg posted recently. Way too cute!

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