GO BREWERS!!!

Amy and I have finally started doing some of the things we've been wanting to do for the last few years since moving to Milwaukee.  It's been a good month - first Door County and now a Brewer's Game!  I got a call from the Blood Center of Wisconsin about two weeks ago saying that if I donated blood on a certain day, they would give me tickets to a Brewers game.  A pint of blood for two free baseball tickets???  SIGN ME UP!  A special thanks to Jared Kam for watching our kids so we could enjoy the entire game.  It was so great to be there in the stadium with 40,100 other fans cheering for the Brewers, singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," eating kettle corn, listening to the organ, and doing the wave. 

 

Amy and me at Miller Stadium.

Q.  What kind of seats do you get for free for donating blood?

A.  Nose-bleed, of course!  (HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!)

If you look closely in the middle of the screen, you can see the famous sausage race.  I thought for sure the Chorizo was going to win, Tyce bet on the Brat, Faith on the Polish, but Amy came out victorious by rooting for the good old-fashioned Hot Dog.

This is the team congratulating/mobbing Ryan Braun after he hit the game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning.  
Final score:  Brewers 5 - Pirates 1

Emily's Birthday Party #2

Even though we had celebrated Emily's birthday a day early with presents, we still wanted to have a little family party with cake and ice cream.  We let Em open a few more little gifts from us and then sang and had cake. 

This is Emily's pink bunny birthday cake, inspired by the pink bunny, which is in her arms.

Blowing out THREE candles!

Enjoying pink bunny cake and Culver's custard.  Yum!

Emily's Birthday Party #1

Since Grandma and Grandpa Merrill's last day with us was the day before Emily's birthday, we celebrated it a day early with them and let her open a few of her presents.  She was really excited and it was fun for Mom and Mont to be here.

I love Emily's face in this picture.  She just looks so happy.

Opening one of her presents - this one is a long-distance present from her fun and great aunt Barbara.

It was cute to see Emily become such good friends with Grandpa Mont.  They really got along well, even with Emily constantly waking him up from his little naps.  :)

Daddy and his girls with Emily very excited about her new Leapster (just like Chelsey!).

Jelly Belly Factory

Amy and the kids got to go down to the Jelly Belly Factory with Mom and Mont.  They had a really fun time and ate a lot of jelly beans.  

The whole gang ready to go on the tour.

Emily getting one of many free samples.

Mom and Mont after trying skunk-flavored jelly beans.  HA HA.

Museum Part II

The girls said the funniest thing when they saw the underwater exhibit in the History of the Earth section (see picture) and we were laughing forever!  Then we went on to the awesome Butterfly garden. It was so cool for the little girls and the adults, too.  (Well, all except for me - I happily stayed outside with sleeping Ryan because no strollers were allowed - flying things freak me out just a tiny bit!)  

"Look, Mom! Octopus carrots!"

Inside the Butterfly Garden

A startled butterfly and a startled Denise (what a cool picture!)

Making butterfly wings

Standing by the Mammoth skeleton found recently in Racine, just south of Milwaukee

We were at the Museum for five hours and didn't even see all of the exhibits - we will definitely have to go back soon!

Milwaukee Public Museum

We spent Monday at the Public Museum.  We saw some great exhibits, full of history.  We loved the Central America 200 BC to 700 AD exhibit - very Book-of-Mormon-ish. The Dinosaur exhibit was very interesting as well, with some wonderful education for the girls ("Mommy, why is that dinosaur laying down with so much blood....and why is that big one eating that little dinosaur?" Hmmmm.  A subsequent conversation of the circle of life ensued (oh, those learning moments!)).  We all had a great time!

Ryan occasionally sticks his tongue out just like this

A cool mural from BofM times

Achoo!  Mont being a little silly

This is what nightmares are made of

Daddy and the kids in the dinosaur exhibit

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Denise and Mont stopped by to see us for a few days, and we had so much fun!  They were so nice and brought us a few presents: some produce from their garden, including tomatoes, potatoes, corn, onions, plums, cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots; dolls from one of the girls' favorite movies; and a toy hammer for Ry-guy (his first tool - so proud!).  Thanks for the presents!  However, I'm pretty sure you can tell from the first picture that those sweet little tomatoes were quite possibly the biggest prize of all!  (Mont said watching the whole crop of cherry tomatoes disappear like that makes a grandpa proud.) 

Ryan's Ice Cream Cone

Darn plastic food!  (see previous post)

Regardless, Ryan is generally a really happy guy

Camping Part II

We really had an awesome time camping with the Kearls last weekend.  We could not have asked for better weather, and the very best part was getting away as a family with some of our really good friends.  Here are a few more pictures of some of the fun things we did on Saturday.

Chelsey was so proud of herself - conquering her fear of high places and climbing Eagle Tower

The view from Eagle Tower (I know - looking "oh, so pretty!" Hey, we were camping!)

Nathan and Emily during hiking

Ryan could not figure out who this cute girl was sitting next to him in the funky new stroller

Best friends

On a cute side note, yesterday our family was out taking a walk and Chelsey was talking about how fun it was to collect wood for the camping fire ("Wood is made out of sticks, Daddy!") when Emily said, out of the blue, "I love Nathan.  He's my very best friend."  It was really sweet!  So Emily has found her first little love, and we are definitely happy with her pick!

We had so much fun in Door County and hope we can get back up there before our time in Wisconsin is through.

Camping in Peninsula State Park

After living in Wisconsin for almost four years and hearing everyone rave about "Door County" and "up north," we finally made the trek to see what everyone was talking about.  We drove the three hours to Peninsula State Park in northern Wisconsin and it was amazing!  Our only regret is that we didn't go sooner.  We had so much fun, the weather was beautiful, and the trip was just great!  Here are a few pictures.

Amy and the kids overlooking the bay and islands.

Ryan and Daddy in front of the old lighthouse

Mommy and the girls feeding the seagulls on the beach.

The whole family enjoying a great time camping!