Richard G. Scott

The temperature finally jumped above freezing in Wisconsin and I was able to make my long-awaited trip to see my nephews. This little guy was pretty much glued to Grandpa for the first 24 hours of our visit. Here Grandpa is telling Tanner, and I quote, "You have to eat your donut before you earn your taffy." Hopefully he wrote that one down.

Because Biz and I are the most devoted aunts EVER, we endured a 5 am wake-up call in Chicago on Friday morning so that Grandpa was on time for Grandparents Day at the elementary school. (Biz and I chose to attend the "parents performance" at the more reasonable afternoon hour.) There was line dancing and agility ladders and hula hoops and some really bad jokes about trains. So a pretty spectacular elementary school program overall.

Tanner was not the only one glued to Grandpa. He was, however, the only one who kept referring to everyone as Richard G. Scott. Or sometimes big fat Richard G. Scott. But always with love. 

We went to a popular place called The Mineshaft on Friday night for dinner. Is it a family place? Is it a bar? YES. The boys enjoyed the arcade games and I enjoyed the pizza. I don't think anyone really enjoyed the noise. My favorite quote of the night comes from Jess, "It's like Chuck E. Cheese here. With beer." Yep. I also loved when the waitress asked if she could bring us a pitcher of... milk.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we went to Walmart to buy the new trampoline the boys have been saving their money to buy. I may or may not have tried to hula hoop in the aisles. Hey, I was on vacation.

Also, I was going to make a joke here about how some of Ty and Grandpa's assistants were more helpful than others in setting up the trampoline- but I guess all I really did was take the pictures.

We enjoyed the beautiful spring weather and went to Holy Hill on Saturday afternoon. For anyone who is curious, the word "discalced" also means barefoot. Hopefully I just saved someone a google search there.

Posing outside the chapel doors with our holy terrors.

Loved this sign outside the gift shop. You should be afraid. You should be very afraid.

We climbed the 178 steps to the top of this scenic tower. It was beautiful. I love all the little lakes and ponds in Wisconsin. In May, when they're not frozen.

Saturday night we watched Tyson's favorite new show "Flashpoint" on Netflix - although I don't know why we bothered because Ty falls asleep during all of his favorite shows.

Sunday we were off to Church. I tried to get the boys to smile for my obligatory Sunday morning church clothes photo. It didn't go real well.

That night, we ate yummy grilled chicken and yellow salad with Biz's candy bar cookies for dessert. We also talked at length about how "Beowulf" really is the longest epic poem in Old English, a literary fact Ty confirmed for himself in 9th grade English. Why this came up as a major topic of discussion on Sunday night, we may never know. But it did.

And finally... here is the picture Tay texted me while I was gone that made me realize it was ok to come home. #ilikewisconsin