Nathen, Jennifer and Annie come to Milwaukee!!

The world is full of tropical destinations, and pleasure-filled resorts, but Sara's sister Jennifer, her husband Nathen, and their daughter Annie, decided to leave those places be, and come to Wisconsin, in search of a truly Mid-western experience. Much fun, food and festivities were had in the week they were out here, and we are still trying to fill the void they left when they left.
The first major event in Wisconsin Week was a Brewers game. Here they are in front of the legendary Miller Park. At first we were hesitant to buy the tickets to see the Brew Crew since we were sure that Annie and Zoe would single-handedly knock the stadium over. You'll notice in the picture below that they were constantly vigilized by their watchful parents. This was an incredible feat given Zoe's unbridled addiction to stairs (of which there is no short supply at Miller Park). They look pretty darn cute in their pink Brewers outfits, which came home a variety of colors, including Pepsi black, ketcup red, nacho yellow and milky white. Since our seats were in the highest row of the park we didn't have to worry too much about bothering the people around us, and we got a lot more leg room, or wiggle room, as the parents of one and two-year-olds call it. The game was a ton of fun, and lent itself to many picturesque moments, so stay tuned.

Donny, Trevor, Dale, Linda, and the Ferret

Wow, so this is super out of order. I was parusing my list of recent posts and noticed that I had started this one a month ago, but never finished it. These pictures were taken cleeeeeaaaar back in January when we went to our friend Trevor's surprise birthday party at Wauwatosa's finest restraunt, Saz's. Trevor's the guy with the cool beard at the head of the table way back there. The man responsible for introducing us to this table-full of people is Donny (first on the left). He was a fellow actuary at Towers Perrin, and is currently working as a Math teacher for Milwuakee Public Schools. Of all the people I've met in Wisconsin, perhaps of all the people I've met ever, Donny is the best. I owe him tons for making the transition into a new community very easy for Sara and I. If everyone had Donny's charity and generosity, there'd be a lot more good in the world, and a lot more strange mystery cheese-egg bricks at Thanksgiving dinners.
The next picture down is of our good friends Dale and Linda at the same party. Linda is also an ex-Towers Perriner, and we've had many great parties and evenings out with them. Dale is waving a ferret at Zoe in an attempt to mezmerize her with its many endearing qualities. A few weeks prior to this we had introduced Donny, Trevor, Christy and Amanda to our favorite documentary, "The Pursuit of Excellence - Ferrets", wherein a bunch of looney ferret lovers parade their domesticated weasels about at an Ohio Ferretpalooza. Needless to say, its quite entertaining. Ferret fever quickly struck our click and this stuffed critter seemed an apt present for Trevor from Donny. I believe our fellow diners were very disturbed by the ferret we were passing around while awaiting dessert. If you haven't already seen it, next time we cross paths, be sure to ask me to lend you this life-altering film.

The Pursuit of Excellence

Now that I've brought up the topic of ferrets, I must point you to the following links, which you, as readers of my blog, are obligated to view. These are actual clips from the ferret documentary...mere tastes of what has become the leading expose on the true lives of ferrets and the people who love them.

Moving scene wherein the lady in pink discusses the sacred rituals associated with grieving the loss of fallen ferret friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pryEBiR35vc

Part of the Emmy award nominated ferret song (complete soundtrack available next summer):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRfwNjw82GY

Spend Your Summer Afloat

Since summer in Milwaukee only lasts about two months, we are taking full advantage of the year's best 60 days. Our favorite summer activity is lounging about in the pool. We're fortunate enough to live only 30 yards away from the apartment pool, and needless to say, our 10 beach towels are rarely dry. Zoe is the best floater this side of the Mississippi. She rides her sea horse from one side of the pool to the other, all the while tyring her best to sneak a few water licks while I'm not looking. I'm a bit worried that we will never be able to live far from a pool again. I better get a really nice Christmas bonus so I can pay a down payment for the pool we'll have to buy for our house. And if that bonus never comes, there's always the jelly of the month club.

South Dakota Gone Wild, or at least Walled (Ha!)

This giant apatosaurus is a friendly reminder of how rural South Dakota actually is. He or she (you'd think with an animal that big you could tell) also stands as the marker for one of our nation's best tourist traps: Wall Drug. You see road signs for this place for miles and miles. I'm glad to see that they've fenced Pat in there, I'd hate to have havoc wroght upon the good people/person of Wall, South Dakota.

South Wyomakota

We waited here for the aliens to arrive for days! No, we haven't made a recent trip to Wyoming, these are actually pictures that I've been wanting to post on the blog for a long time but haven't gotten around to doing it. This was taken back in October of 2006 as we made our trek across the country to our new Milwaukee home. From mountains to mid-west we made a few interesting stops along the way. Devil's Tower was super cool, and definitely worth the significant detour we had to take to get there. It was during this trip that we came to realize that Wyoming is our nation's sidewalk - a handy route to get from one side of the yard to the other, but mostly just a bunch of flat, grey, square-shaped, nothing.

I'd always wanted to see Mt. Rushmore, but had never had much of a reason to visit South Dakota...until this trip! Once again, its a great stop along the way, but certainly not a final destination. We didn't have any cash in the car, so we weren’t able to park and take a long look at Mt. Rushmore, but we did get some pretty good pictures from the road. I particularly like this one, which I think gives a good idea of where the mountain is and just how big those presidential noggins really are. There's a bunch of pretty cool tunnels and bridges en route, and lets not forget the huge bear watchin' place, which is a great place to go should you like watchin' bears, be they huge or not. Oh, and then there's Wall Drug, which merits a blog of its own. This was our I-90 trip, last March we did the I-80 route. Someday we'll get all crazy and go the I-70 route, but not until we're in the mood for some serious arch kicking.

Star Sighting!

Okay so today on our way home from Dale and Linda's barbecue we were headed toward the highway, trying to avoid the crowds at Milwaukee's annual music and food festival, Summerfest, when we had a major star sighting! Okay, so we sighted the limousine that was transporting a major star. This has got to be the longest limousine I ever saw, and it had a security SUV escort, and judging by the low par of bands on other stages at the Summerfest, we are absolutely certain that we were but one car length away from Tom Petty and some of the Heartbreakers. Tom Petty!! Sara says that when she looked through the limousine window just right she could see the outline of someone's head...we both like to think that it was Tom. I'll never wash my eyes again. My he's looking well these days, isn't he?

Land that I Love

Happy Fourth of July!! Celebrate the independance of your country by blowing up a small potion of it! We were invited to the Holmes' house tonight to enjoy the best drive way fireworks show I've ever seen. Back home in Utah there are specific fireworks you can and can not shoot off legally, out here the rules are a lot more vague. Every city and county have their own fireworks law, Brookfield Police maintain sort of a "don't ask don't tell" policy. This lead to quite an amazing fireworks show, including many high flying and loud screaming mortars, most of which Zoe slept through. She had a great time with the sparklers though, what a cute little girl.

The Brookfield parade this morning was pretty cool too, there were bag pipe bands, vintage cars and roller blading dogs. We all loved the go-karts driven by members of the local Masonic Lodge (I'm thinking about joining just so I can get one of those hats). The best part though was the guy riding the long-horned bull. What a fun time we had. I think I've decided that the Forth of July is my second favorite holiday, with Thanksgiving being a very close third. Sometimes I feel bad calling it the Forth of July, I should be referring to it as Independance Day. The reason I don't is that I'm not totally sure if its spelt "Independance" or "Independence". I love our country. At the parade I looked around and saw such a wide variety of people, from long-haired, nasty-bearded guys to 90-year-old, wheel-chair-bound ladies. All of them got up early to watch strangers walk down the road in celebration of our nation. Doesn't something amazing happen inside when they play "She's a Grand Ol' Flag" or "The William Tell Overture", or my personal favorite, "They're Comin' to America"? No matter what part of it you're in, the USofA is amazing, from sea to shining sea. God Bless America!

All Hail the Favre.

On a bitterly cold January night we went to a surprise birthday party for our friend Trevor. As we were walking out the door we came across a shrine to the Wisconsin demi-God, Brett Favre. The reason I prefix his title with demi is that he recently made a severe error that condescended him to near-mortal status...he retired. But don't worry, he has made the statement that if the Packers ever found themselves in a state of emergency and was asked back, and he happened to be in shape, it would be "an offer too good to pass up". I've made a similar statement, but without the in-shape clause. Aaron Rodgers should probably consider hiring about 80 body guards. Seriously though, to a non-football freak, the admiration of Brett Favre is rediculous, especially when they interrupt prime time television programming to announce that his elbow is feeling slightly better. And he's not even from Wisconsin! He's a pedigree Mississippian who moved back South the moment he retired, somehow avoiding injury from slipping on the tears of thousands of overweight 40 year-old goateed men. Go Pack Go!!

Remember me to Herald Square

Alright, alright, we can be done with New York pictures now. We always get so wrapped up in pictures of new places. This last one is Zoe in Herald Square, right across the street from Macy's Department store and down the street from the Empire State Building. It was such a fun trip. Long story short, we came home, I took the test I'd gone to New York to study for, and I'm still awaiting the results. This is the story of my life. Oh, that and going to work for as short a time as possible so I can afford to come home and be with my wife and daughter for as long a time as possible. There's no luckier guy in the world!

Wall Street

They're Comin' to America

As you can tell, we chose a beautiful day to see the Statue of Liberty. Fortunately for us, she was in a very good mood and posed well for the pictures. As did Zoe. It took a major feat of stroller driving expertise to navigate our little family from the southern tip of Manhattan to Liberty Island then to Ellis Island and back again. It was only a year and eight months ago that we were standing next to Lady Liberty's little sister in the Seine River, and I must say that the majesty of the New York Harbor statue is much more than 4 to 1. I wasn't expecting such a patriotic experience, but American pride finds a way to creep into ya' as you look up at our nation's leading emblem of freedom and hope. What a great land we live in! I finally understand what it was that got thousands of people to leave their homes and go through that miserable trans-oceanic voyage to a strange place. There's a lot of amazing and exotic lands out there in the world, but none compare to the United States...West coast to East coast, its home.

On the boat from Liberty Island to Manhattan we stood next to a group of six or seven Chinese people, who thought Zoe was the neatest little critter ever. Boy did she ham it up, too! They went from brief little smiles to chasing each other from one side of the boat to the other, them speaking Chinese, Zoe speaking Zoeish. I can just imagine the slide show going on in China right now as Zoe's new friends tell their relatives all about the cute little square-shaped white girl they hung out with in New York Harbor. Funny how many internarional friends Zoe made in New York City.