A Trip to Mad Town!

This weekend we traveled to Wisconsin for our niece's first birthday party. We arrived on Friday at Grandma and Grandpa Mock's house. Mike went golfing while Julia and I hung out with Grandma and Grandpa. Julia had a great time exploring their house and crawling around trying to get into anything and everything. She loved looking out the patio doors and seeing the plants, birds and flowers on Grandma and Grandpa's stone patio.

On Saturday, we visited our alma mater, UW-Madison, campus. It was so strange to be back there and everything had changed. The dorm I stayed my freshman year was gone and torn down to make room for new dorms. The whole campus was different. We started by visiting the UW Bookstore and spent way to much on badger merchandise for Julia and ourselves. Then, we visited the building that Mike and I first met in and told Julia the story about our beginnings; she seemed bored with the story. We showed Julia the good spots to study and where to go for some good food (so she knows when she goes to college there). Then we went to the Memorial Union and sat on the Terrace and enjoyed beers, brats, hot dogs and a cheeseburger (Julia of course did not have a beer). There is just something about being there and the atmosphere that made the food and beers taste sooooo good! After the terrace, we went to the Babcock Dairy Store on campus. Here they make cheeses, ice cream and other dairy products right on site. When we were in college, I enjoyed chocolate peanut butter ice cream almost daily...it was so good. Of course that was my flavor of choice during this trip and it was AWESOME! Brought me back to the good old days. Mike had chocolate chip mint ice cream and Julia enjoyed a small spoonful of vanilla (the people working there were nice enough to just give us a spoonful so we wouldn't have to buy a whole dish) and Julia also enjoyed some of daddy's ice cream. I am sure she would have enjoyed the chocolate peanut butter, but she is too young to have peanut anything yet. She will love it when she is older I am sure.

After our campus walk, we went to cousin Ainsley's birthday party. There Julia got to play with other babies her age and crawl all over Aunt Heather and Uncle Dave's house (with new, beautiful hardwoood floors I might add!). Julia enjoyed some birthday cake with her cousin and they shared their liking for having frosting all over their faces! It was so cute. Julia watched as cousin Ainsley opened her many birthday gifts and tore through the wrapping paper. Julia swooped in and took some paper for herself as she loves to rip paper and sometimes eat it (even though we tell her 'no' when she does it, she of course doesn't pay attention to what mommy or daddy is saying). :)

It was a great weekend, but as always, we had to make the trek back home on Sunday. Julia slept most of the way home to Minnesota. She was awake for about 45 minutes of the drive and she was definitely sick of being in the car by then. Once home, she was happy to be able to crawl around again.

Julia on the green grass on Bascom Hill

Julia watching the birdies on the terrace eat the pieces of hamburger bun we were feeding them

Ahhh, the beautiful terrace and its signature chairs

Julia lounging in a terrace chair

She loved sitting in the chair so much that when Mike picked her up, she had a tight grip on the chair handles!

Daddy and Julia in front of Lake Mendota on the terrace

Now, mommy and Julia

Julia and cousin Ainsley having a good time together

Julia enjoying some cake!

Frosting all over the babies!

Gift time (paper time for Julia)

Julia peering over the ledge to watch the neighborhood kids ride bikes

Houston, we have lift off!

This weekend Julia finally figured out how to crawl. She has been doing new things all week including going from sitting to a crawling position and back again. This afternoon she decided she wanted to read the Sunday paper that was sitting on the floor and crawled to get it and rip it to shreds (at least parts of it). She is also starting to pull herself up onto stuff, like the mantle seat. She has already bumped her head on this, so we had to put a bunch of bumpers around it. Julia is now crawling all over the place and we are just amazed at how much she is getting around already.

This weekend Aunt Beth and Uncle Jim came to visit. We had a fun weekend of playing video games, sitting out on our deck and eating lots of good food. Unfortunately, they left before Julia started her new found skill, so they didn't get to see it. Today, after Jim and Beth left, we were very tired. Daddy was especially tired, so Julia and I headed to the MOA for a little shopping while daddy rested and napped. Julia was also going stir crazy in the house, so I had to get her out. It was too hot to be outside, so I thought the MOA would be a good place to hang out. We spent about 3 hours at the MOA and Julia loved every minute of it. We ate lunch there and did some shopping for our trip to St. Lucia in December (since all the summer stuff is on clearance right now).

Here she goes....
And she's off!

Just browsing the Sunday morning ads....any good toy deals?

Ripping the paper (or cutting out coupons)

National Night Out!!!

Tonight we had a great time meeting our neighbors for national night out. This program was started to raise awareness about decreasing crime in neighborhoods and showing criminals that communities were banded together to report suspicious activity. As the title states, it is a national event. One of our neighbors organized the get-together at the end of our cul-de-sac. Someone dragged their metal firepit to the end of the street and there we set up camp with a table and roaring fire for the kids to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Tons of kids were running around, biking, playing basketball or playing with toads a kid had caught. We met all of our neighbors and they all got to meet Julia.

There are a ton of kids on our street ranging in ages from newborn (~3 weeks) to 15 years old. There is a couple with grown kids (23 and 27) but the kids don't live at home anymore. It was so wonderful to finally meet everyone. We even have some potential babysitters!

We were relieved to learn that some of our neighbors are UW-Madison alumni! They said to fly our Wisconsin flag high and strong come game days! Many of them had Wisconsin ties too. One couple got married in Madison and named their first born daughter Madison! Now, who would name their kid (or a middle name) after a place where they met and got married!?

I don't have any pictures of the event, but it was so much fun and so great to get to know those around us. We all listed our contact information on a list and it is going to be e-mailed to everyone so that you can always contact someone if you need anything (watch your house while you are gone, get your mail etc....)

Vistors!

This weekend we had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa Mock. They arrived on Friday evening just before Julia's bedtime. Of course, with Grandma and Grandpa here, there was no way Julia was going to sleep at her normal bedtime. She normally goes down around 7pm, but she stayed up until 8:30pm playing with all her toys with Grandma and Grandpa. She did the same thing on Saturday evening. On Saturday, we all packed into the car to go to swim lessons. Everyone watched as Julia and I wadded in the water. Julia was showing off her swimming skills and splashed a lot. Grandma and Mike were kind enough to weed my garden for me on Saturday afternoon since it hadn't been weeded in about 7 or 8 weeks since I hurt my back. There were a ton of weeds, but the best part was that there was a bunch of zucchini, grape tomatoes, and peas to pick. I made zucchini bread on Saturday evening and wehad grilled zucchini with Saturday's dinner.We enjoyed a big breakfast at IHOP on Sunday morning before Grandma and Grandpa had to leave to go home.

My back is doing MUCH better since having the epidural injections last Monday. The pain has slowly been subsiding and my range of motion is improving everyday. I have to be diligent about doing my PT exercises to keep nimble and not sit too long which stiffens my back up. I am hoping the improvements continue and the pain goes away completely soon. I am still in PT twice a week and we mostly do traction therapy, which sounds barbaric, but it works extremely well.

Having fun with Grandma Mock

Julia and Grandpa checking out the pink cosmo flowers planted around the garden

A closer inspection of the cosmo flowers...Grandma and daddy are in the background taking a break from garden weeding


Oh no, the wind is blowing my hat off!

More fun with Grandma...

Standing tall with Grandma and Grandpa

Showing Grandpa how to build a Mega Bloks tower.

Floating on our backs (I couldn't get the ball away from her)

Julia splashing all over the place (and in my face as you can see)