Thanksgiving/Trip to Madison Wisconsin

For Thanksgiving we went to visit Craig's brother and his family in Madison, Wisconsin (they have recently moved there, and are the closest family, which is super exciting.  We actually have relatives within driving distance!).   We have been planning this trip for awhile, with the knowledge that it might not happen.  Since we were attempting to drive to Madison, Wisconsin in November, weather was definitely a factor.  As time grew closer, so did our anticipation that we might actually be spending Thanksgiving with family.  Success!  We made it to Madison and back in one piece.  Though there was a complication with the rental car.  It had some issues, (lights turning on during the night and draining the battery, so when we got into the car in the morning it didn't start) and trying to exchange it ended up being an unsuccessful hassle.  All in all fun, fun, fun!!!  The car ride was supposed to be about 12 hours, but ended up being about 15 hours when you add in the time when we were stuck in Chicago commute, oops!!!  (Note to self, don't try to drive through the 3rd largest city in the US during rush hour traffic).)  However, I did get Giordano's pizza out of the deal, and it was super yummy (not as good as the pizza in Brooklyn though, wow it is just amazing!).

Since this was our first time visiting Wisconsin, we were sure to stock up on cheese.  The grocery store we went to had four aisles of cheese, wow!  It was pretty incredible, so I had to take a picture, which was about the time that Craig decided mother nature was calling (whatever, i guess he was a little embarrassed of his wife taking pictures of cheese. I love cheese!!!)  We also stopped off at Sprechers Brewery, which I guess are pretty big in Wisconsin.  Had cream soda and root beer, best cream soda I have ever had!!!  It was a German themed brewery, so they had some pretty good brats.  Took a tour of Alan's work (Craig's brother) wow!!!  Pretty amazing!!!  There are several buildings, A through K, each named after some astronomical object, and each building has a theme; dungeons and dragons, New York City, country/garden, technology, jungle, etc.  It was pretty crazy, one of the tunnels looked like a subway train, another was Indiana Jones, had a golden idol and when you touched it you heard the sound of the boulder coming towards you.  Another building had one of the foyer areas look like a castle, inside the conference room was a huge dragon.  It was pretty exciting place!  The buildings are all connected by tunnels or indoor walkways.

One of the MANY themed conference rooms. 

Who needs stairs to go from the 2nd to 1st floor?

"Subway" going from the 'garden' themed building to the 'city' themed building.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.  We had tons of food that we ate for several days after!  Sarah made the best turkey I have ever tasted!!!  I am a dark meat person, all the way, not a big fan of the white meat, but wow!  The white meat was fantastic!!!  She went all out on this turkey, first time she has every cooked a turkey!  She brined it for 24 hours, injected it, stuffed it with fresh herbs, apples, celery, and rubbed it with sage and butter!  A lot of work, which totally paid off.  Simply amazing!!!  With that being said I have to toot my own horn and say that I made a pretty dang good pumpkin pie, chocolate pudding torte (with my own homemade Creme Fraiche), and some pretty awesome sweet potatoes, next to the turkey those sweet potatoes were my favorite! Oops!  Almost forgot to mention the cranberry sauce stuff that Sarah made that was supper yummy too!  Of course we had pie, four kinds of pie, which ended up being dessert the next several nights (after the kids went to bed!). Thanksgiving dinner was very successful!!!

The family the texts together stays together!  (Grandma just texted all of us, we aren't actually this obsessed with our phones)

 We had lots and lots of fun!!!  Lucas loved playing with Elsie and they got along so well together!  Once again THANKS for having us Alan and Sarah, we had so much fun!  We slept in, took naps, read books, it was the perfect vacation!  It was worth the drive to and from.

The trip home was very long, but not as rainy as the trip there.  We made some detours along the way.  A stop right outside Chicago on the border of Wisconsin, at the Jelly Belly Warehouse.  Took a ride on the train and learned all about Jelly Belly's.  Lucas thought this was so much fun!  He is really into trains right now, so he thought it was pretty cool to ride one!!!  Next stop was at the Temple in Chicago, beautiful!  Of course my trips always involve food!  We stopped at Sweet Baby Rays (they have a bbq sauce you can buy at the grocery stores).  It was way dang good!!!  So good that I didn't have time to take a picture of it or us eating it, as it was devoured within a matter of minutes!!!  Lucas thoroughly enjoyed his Mac n' Cheese!

Our last pit stop was in South Bend, Indiana at Notre Dame, to see "Touch Down Jesus" (Craig will tell you that we went because I wanted to go, but lets be honest here, the only reason I know about this is because of Craig, so honestly I am not the only that wanted to make this stop!)  It was pretty cool.  The campus was beautiful, even in the winter!  They have a gorgeous basilica, that is absolutely magnificent!  Vaulted ceilings with murals, beautiful stained glass windows and lots of ornate and beautiful decorations!  (Out of respect we didn't take any pictures, but you should go see it if you get a chance.)  Ironically enough we ran into the missionaries in the basilica, who would have thought!  Of course they knew we were Mormons  Craig walking around with his BYU sweatshirt kind of gave it away!  Awesome trip!  Now back to reality!

   

Packages

Thank you Grandmas for the packages you send!  Lucas loves them!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a note Grandma Les, the blanket you sent is now the blanket that Lucas has to sleep with!

Dinosaur!

For the past couple of weeks Lucas has been talking about dinosaurs.  When we're at the table it's, "The dinosaur's going to eat my food."  On Car ride home from dropping off Craig I heard Lucas say, "no dinosaur, we don't eat the window."  At nap time he talks about the dinosaur taking a nap.  Our conclusion: Lucas has an imaginary dinosaur that hangs out with him.  We have no yet been told his name, color, or even if it is a boy dinosaur.  More details to come.....

One step closer!

Last week Craig passed his comprehensive exam.  Success!  We are now one step closer to a Ph.D.  Now the only thing he needs to do is write a dissertation!  No big deal, right?

Spin Class

As evident with Saturday's weather, it is getting colder and I am going to have to move my workouts indoors, which means going to the gym on a regular basis, which I don't like!  So to mix things up a little bit and make it a little more fun to go to the gym, I signed up for a spin class.  Yes, I know, talk about getting outside the box.  Monday was my first class, and it wasn't bad, exhausting and definitely gives you a workout, but it seemed to be  doable, intense, but doable.  So Friday I will be heading back to do it again!  Wish me Luck!

Snow!

"I looked out the window and what did I see?......snow, and it's still snowing!"  This is not what I wanted to wake up to.  It is too early to be snowing, I am not done enjoying the fall, I haven't bake enough pumpkin sweets!  However, Lucas thought that it was pretty neat!  We dressed him up and let him play out on the deck, and he was quick to tell us that he likes the snow!  Luckily it was wet snow and there wasn't too much, so thankfully it didn't stick around long!

Ode to the Microwave!

Just this past week, as I was trying to get dinner ready and was heating some broccoli in the microwave, I discovered after 10 minutes that they were still frozen.  Thinking that I had not set the time right, because previously I had started the time without putting them in the microwave, I put them back in for another 10 minutes.  They were still frozen, after this we quickly realized that our microwave was not heating up.  So for the past few days we have not had a microwave and can I just tell you what a pain it is.  I never realized how much I use the microwave, it is one of those appliances that you don't really appreciate until you don't have it.  I just don't think I could have survived back in the days when they didn't have microwaves, or kitchen aids, I don't think I could bake or cook without my kitchen aid.  Unfortunately I think that is why they don't make these appliances to last, because they know you will buy another one when you microwave breaks.  We have only had this microwave for a year and a half and it is already dead.  Our previous microwave that we got from Craig's apartment before we got married, lasted for more than 3 years of us using it, plus however long it was in the apartment before that.