Baby-Free Vacation: Beer, Brats & Cheesy Goodness, Day 1

Greetings from the great white north! We're in Milwaukee, having a great time. Today was a day of learning about beer-from Pabst to Miller (now MillerCoors) to Lakefront Brewery, we know more about the production of beer in this region that we (I) ever thought I would. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's first talk about our trip getting here.

Keith and I both worked Thursday, and got home a little early. We had a few moments with the boys before Gran GG distracted them for us, and we -in a flurry of activity- got our gear loaded up and headed to the airport. I love the feeling of anticipation right before a trip!

We had a few extra minutes before our flight, so we visited our friend Sammie.


Sammie treated us pretty good, and we shared a table with Josh, the horse whisperer from North Carolina. I've always thought horses were fairly stupid and useless animals, and I'm still not entirely convinced that they're not, but who knew there were so many kinds of horses? Josh had Tennessee Walking Horses at his farm, and told us all about it. Pretty cool. A good chat with him, and then it was time to board. Before we knew it we were off to the America's Diaryland.

Milwaukee surprised me a bit-it's clean and surpringsly pretty! It's a bit cold, but not too bad, and a little rainy, but we're having a good time. Our hotel is bad-ass! Kudos to me for finding this place.

More from us tomorrow.

Dada

I can't believe I forgot to put a birthday post up on the 10th. Poor Keith. He turned 31, and not even a peep from me in the blogging world. Not that he didn't have a good weekend, it was fantastic, if I may say so myself.

Friday, October 9
Keith's work allows for employees to have a "flex schedule", which means he is off every other Friday. In our little world these are called Keith Fridays (to distinguish from Nanna Fridays). The day before his birthday was a Keith Friday. I was at work and can't tell you if a good time was had or not, all I have is photographic evidence.

From past experience I can tell you that nothing but squeals of delight can be heard when the puzzle rug is being pulled apart, so this must have been a very good Keith Friday.

Saturday, October 10
Our very thoughtful boys shared Dada's birthday breakfast. We attempted to give Dada breakfast in bed, but 15 minutes into pure chaos I let that idea go and breakfast was had on the couch.

Later that day Aunt Angela, Uncle Ken and Cousin Evan came over for a little playtime at Piedmont Park. The three banditos had a good time running around and Grady especially loved having another person smaller than him he could push and wrestle to the ground. Cole loved that, for once, he was not on the receiving end of those two actions.

After Piedmont we did a little UGA vs. UT game watching. Ouch. If you didn't know, we're a UGA house, and our guests are UT fans. We won't dwell on the outcome of the game too much, but let's just say no one wearing a red shirt that day was happy when the game ended.

Sunday, October 11
More visitors! This time it was Aunt Linda and Uncle Fred. They live in PA, but were passing through town on their way home from Florida. We haven't seen them since Grandpa's funeral last year, and it was nice to be able to visit and chat with them.

Grady and Cole had a good time playing with Aunt Linda, she is an excellent block stacker and car pusher. The adult boys went to play a little golf while all this fun was happening at the house. We tried to get a picture of Linda and Fred with the boys, but Grady was less than cooperative, so Dada stepped in to be the baby holder.

Monday, October 12
Our weekend of visitors continued with Gran GG and Grampie stopping by for a bit on Monday. They brought some fun Halloween gifts for the boys, a Halloweeny bear! It's interesting to see what the kids pay attention to though. Often its not the actual gift, but some other thing that captures their attention. Here Grady is laughing because he thinks Cherokee the pug is laughing. Her mouth draws into a smile when she pants, but he interpreted that as laughter and it drove him into giggling fits.

We had a great birthday weekend! We love you, Dada, and hope you have many, many more. And the boys have promised that sometime in the next 18 years they will let you sleep in on your birthday. Maybe.

Last night Gran and Grampie came back to watch the boys for a few days as I take Keith on a little baby-free birthday weekend getaway to Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin? 'Cause it's home of 3 of Keith's favorite things: beer, brats and cheese!

A whole mess of Bothmas

You remember this lady, right? Karen, the magical baby maker! She's here with Cole.

And her kids. Rhett. Greg. and Miss Sara.

Anyone remember these two?

If you were at the wedding you should, it's Tannie Mariana and Oom Deon! They live in Cambridge [the UK], and were in town for a little visit with these two cute little people, Nana and Oupa!

Since it was the Bothma brothers' birthdays, I asked that they all come over for a little celebrating and eating cake. They oblidged. If you are wondering, they are not twins, the sparsely haired heads just make them look like they are. [hehehehe]. Dad and Oom Deon are a few years apart and have birthdays 3 days apart. They do share a love for chocolate cake, though. We had a good dinner, and while we chatted, the magical dishwashing elf did some cleaning. Love that elf!

With dinner out of the way, dessert was fair game. In this picture Dad and Oom Deon are laughing because I was so busy singing and being mesmerized by the flames [FIRE!} that I forgot to take a picture of them blowing the candles out. Oops.

We had a great visit with Karen & her crew, the Cambridge Bothmas and Nana and Oupa. Besides eating cake, we did a lot of catching up. My memories of living in South Africa are still vivid, and amongst my favorite ones are Christmasses our family spend with Deon, Mariana and their two kids, Rudolf and Karla. Karen and I were going to look for some old pictures to scan and upload to share of those visits, but we forgot. Maybe we'll add that to the Thanksgiving list of things to do. I have never wished that we did not move to the US, but we do miss those family get togehters. This little taste of family was great.

As you can see, we talk with our hands a lot.

The boys love Rhett and imitated anything he did.

Sara loves the Wii and was seriously concentrating. Rhett took a timeout for a smile. That kid loves smiling for the camera.

A few more pictures of the evening and playtime the next morning can be found on our picture site, BabiesSquared on Shutterfly.

August & September

But Trudster, you're thinking, weren't you going to tell us about your family get together? Indeed I am. And I'll be very witty and will elaborate and tell you way more about our family than you care to know. I'll also tell you about Keith's birthday and the visitors that brought to our house. But first, I am going to give you a few random glimpses into Team Ellerman's daily life. I usually post pictures each month, but realized I did not create and August or September album, and here we are, smackdab in October. So click on over to our BabiesSquared Shutterfly site and check out the cuteness.

A dear friend in SA is not able to access the picture site, so for you, Anita, here are a few of my favorites from the last two months.

Coming at 'cha with grand stories soon.

Family & More sickness

Round 2 of the plague is sweeping through our house, so I am a little behind on posting. When the flow of mucus abates, I will be telling you about our family dinner during which we caught up with family and had some cake to celebrate the birthdays of these two men.

On the left, Oom Deon [Uncle Deon, for you non Afrikaans people] and on the right, my cute little dad. He goes by Lourens, or Grandpa, or more recently, Oupa. [Oupa=grandpa]. Oupa is currently pronounced as Bo-pa.