Our first stop on the home leave tour of 2012 was Wisconsin. We were not going to be there long (72 hours). But boy did we make the most of it...
After straightening out the car seat mess that I created by leaving by bag unclaimed in Customs on our way back into the country, we were ready for anything the Brew City had to throw at us. Which turned out to be a whole lot of family fun.
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| The cousins who hadn't seen each other in over 2 years. |
Friday was Fish Fry and beer. It just wouldn't be possible to be in the vicinity of Milwaukee and not have fish fry. And all you can eat to boot. But here's the catch...I love the concept of a good Fish Fry. Family, beer and unending food. Good times all around right? But I just don't like fish. So, I partake in my own way and order chicken. I know - I can be a buzz kill - but I love watching others enjoy their food. And I can partake in the beer...Oh, can I partake in the beer...Saturday brought about an hour or so of free time between breakfast and the first family reunion. We put it to good use by getting the kids in the hotel pool. It turned out to be a good idea since it was about the only down time we would have all weekend.
According to the littles we did not spend enough time in the pool. They wanted to jump, fly, and be thrown like javelins for just "2 more minutes". But, alas, we had not been in Milwaukee for over 2 years and there was a slew of extended family that was wanting to see us.
So we dried ourselves off, we prettied ourselves up and we headed out to the Lofton family reunion (my Mom's Mom's side of the family). We were not the only ones who had travelled far to be here...This side of the family is from Norway so we were glad to have some of them travel in to join us too. All in all it was good food, good fun and a lot of laughter! Thanks Aunt Jackie for planning and putting on such a great party!!!
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| The Brat's were great! |
And then suddenly it was Sunday. Reunion number 2. This time the Gales/Garbers side of the family (My dad's side). The kids were raring to go since they had had so much fun yesterday and anticipated just as much junk food eating, park(backyard) playing and maybe even some swimming. (They could get used to this. Come to think of it, so could I)
The family wanted to get some group photos so we got those out of the way while we were all still fresh (as fresh as you can be in 90 degree heat). The little's are still hard to get to cooperate and don't sit still for long but we got some fun snaps. And it was great to have the whole family together again.
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| Max was such a help getting Great Grandma into the pictures. |
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| The crew - minus Ashley. |
These two are thick as thieves!
And somehow we ended up with the Gales family Olympics. Teams - Me and Nana against Chris and Pam (my brother and sister in law)
There was Bocce...
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| Reading the lay of the green...No use. Nana and I dominated. |
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| The kids joined for a bit... |
There was Perfect Pitch...
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| They won one! |
The brothers played some horse shoes (no idea who won...
I was just on my way to our next event)
The Ladder Toss.
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Pam and Chris won this too. Though I say my team was at a bit of a disadvantage since neither of us had ever played before. But we are no sore losers. We just moved on to the tie breaker - Horseshoes. Alas, we will have to declare it a tie. The horseshoe pits were simply too far apart and the horseshoes too heavy for the girls to get them across to the other side. We tried everything (running and then throwing, winding up, throwing them high in the air) but it just was not to be. We just shrugged and called it a game and went to have a beer.
We had a couple of tired kids on our hands so we headed back to the hotel (we had a flight to catch in the morning). Neither of my kids made it until we pulled out of the driveway...This was the scene just before changing them into their jammies...
I would say it was a successful weekend full of fun and family. We shouldn't wait two years to do it again!
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