Zoe in the Onion

About two weeks ago we went with Sara's parents and brother to the Lakefront Brewery. Randy, Diane and Tyler were looking for a stereotypical Milwaukeean experience, so we delivered to them a fish fry, a polka band, and a brewery tour all in the same evening. During the tour, the Brewery people took pictures of Zoe and interviewed her for their ad in The Onion. The issue with her add came out today, and we couldn't be prouder of our little brew princess. I guess we are now officially an integral part of Milwaukee culture.

You can click on the picture over there and a larger view of the picture will show up so you can read her answers to the interview questions.

Sunset by the Mississippi

Utahns haven't the foggiest idea of the immensity of the Mississippi River. First time I crossed it was on the way out here back in October of 2006 as we were hunting for a hotel in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We ended up crossing the river about 9 times that night since Burger King had some sort of patty flipping seminar in town which booked every hotel in the county. Since then I've developed some sort of Mississippi river fedish that I can not get over. There was plenty of river to go around the days we were in Nauvoo, as the prior week's storms caused flooding the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades. And the mosquitos came rolling in. We had a great time with Jennifer, Nathen and Annie in Nauvoo, it was a lot of fun to go on a road trip.

To your left you will see an old red brick building...

Did you know that when it came down to getting the City of Nauvoo official in the eyes of the state of Illinois (the Nauvoo Charter), one of the main Illinois legislators to support the Nauvoosians was Abraham Lincoln?

Look what a beautiful day it was when we went on our horse-drawn wagon ride through the City of Nauvoo! Last time we sat in this wagon Sara was great with child and every bump put the funniest of looks on her face. This time there were plenty of funny looks on Sara's face, most of them generated by the frustration of trying to stop Zoe from squirming right over the side of the wagon. Even Mike and Mack, our quadraped chauffers, weren't able to extend her attention span to the necessary 45 minutes of the wagon ride. This wagon ride is the best way to see all of Nauvoo without having to do all that walking. After the ride you go back into town and visit the little shops and see the river. This makes Nauvoo pretty doable in one day. Of course, you want to stay at the Nauvoo Family Inn and Suites, and perhaps stay an additional day just to lounge about in the hotel and take it easy. Zoe really liked her bonnet, probably because when something is tied to your head you get to be pretty close friends.

The Lion and The Zoe

This is Zoe on a lion that she found behind the Nauvoo temple.

The City Beautiful

Part of the reason we invited Nathen and Jennifer to come visit is so they could take pictures of us. Clearly we made it to Nauvoo. We've decided that the best road into town is the one that runs along the Mississippi from Carthage. It is so cool to make the turn into town and see the temple show up around the corner. The building itself is huge to area standards (there's a lot of nothing between Chicago and Nauvoo), but can you imagine showing up in old-days Nauvoo to see this gorgeous building...perhaps the tallest building you've ever seen? Too bad it got all burned down and tornadoed. I'll never forget the general conference session when President Hinckley announced its rebuilding.


We went through the temple this time, and had the oppourtunity to do a little bit of tourism while inside. The little old man took us down to the basement of the building to see the baptismal font, and showed us the spiral staircase that climbs from the basement to the top floor, whithout a pillar in the middle. Call me sappy if you want, but I found it very emotional to stand at the front door of the temple looking out towards the Mississippi River, wondering if Daniel D. McArthur did the same thing 160 years ago. His farm was located where the Visitors Center currently stands. Meanwhile, Sara's relative, Ira Allen, arrived in Nauvoo to find that the house he had previously bought was in the process of burning to the ground. This house was directly across the street from the temple to the South. He then returned home to earn the money for buying a new house. When he finally returned to Nauvoo, Brigham Young asked him to donate the money to the church, which he did. Ira and his family ended up spending 3 or 4 years in Winter Quarters helping other families get to Salt Lake with financial support. We appreciate the struggle our relatives went through, and we show that appreciation by camping very rarely. Nauvoo has become quite a special place to us.

Jail Break at Carthage

As we were leaving Salt Lake City to move to Milwaukee Sara pulled out a wallet-sized picture of Annie and taped it to the gear shift. This was back when Annie was a wee lass of only one month. We were pretty sad to be leaving home, and were very worried that we would never get to know our new little niece. Over the last year and a half though, we've found a lot of reasons to visit Annie and her parents, and we were very grateful that they came out to see us. Zoe and Annie were certainly not in the mood to sit through a tour, and we'd been through Carthage Jail before, so we took Annie and Zoe outside to run around and eat rocks. Hopefully Nathen and Jennifer enjoyed their brief jail break. While we were out there Sara took some of the best pictures of Zoe and Annie ever. I particularly like the one on the top up there where the little sun beams are coming in. But I don't want to go on and on about the kids all day, just let it be known that regardless of our living 1440 miles from Nathen and Jennifer, Zoe and Annie have turned out to be best friends forever.

Carthage Jail was as good as an experience as ever. From there we were off on our way, along the river road from Keokuk to Nauvoo. That's right, I said Keokuk. Only two weeks before our trip there was some very severe flooding in the area and I was amazed how high the water level was. We made it through without getting our feet wet, got settled into our hotel and went out on the town.

Carthage Jail in the Rain

My favorite part of the entire Nauvoo experience is the tour of Carthage Jail. When Sara and I went in April we were relatively by ourselves during the tour of the jail where Joseph Smith was martyred. We were able to sit together in the upper bedroom for nearly twenty minutes just listening to the room. There is an icredible spirit there. It was amazing. This time around I had a different sort of experience at Carthage, but it was great none the less. Right when we got into the visitors center it began to rain; a real Midwest down pour. Zoe was not interested in doing anything but playing in the rain. I had a blast watching Zoe walk out into the rain, trying to figure out where it was coming from. This proved to be very therapeutic to me after a few weeks of being super busy at work and not able to play with my Zoe as much as I want to. While Sara, Nathen, Jennifer and Annie were in the building, Zoe and I stayed outside playing in the rain and chatting with the missionary people. Have you ever noticed that missionaries like to talk about their families back home a lot? Anyhow, the rain stopped and in a matter of a few minutes the sun came out and it became a beautiful afternoon. This was fortunate since Annie and Zoe were far more interested in touching the dirt outside than going on the tour inside. I guess a one and an almost two-year-old just aren't fit to be tied.

Albanian-American Islamic Farmers of Illinois

After recovering from our baseball game we woke up bright and early, packed up the cars and made our way west to the Midwest's Mormon Mecca. Sara and I visited Nauvoo last April and had a great time, regardless of Sara being very great with child. We figured we'd show Nathen and Jennifer what a cool place it is, besides, how often do you find yourself five hours away from the place that most Utahns only get to see in the pictures in the back of their Book of Mormons during very boring Sunday School lessons. As anticipated, Zoe required a few stops along the way, one of them being at the building pictured somewhere in the middle of Illinois. We found it strange that the only non-farm building for miles and miles happened to be the Albanian-American Islamic Center. There was no time to waste though, we had to get back on the road so we could pick up our Godfathers pizza in Moline and make it to Carthage before it got too late in the afternoon.

What's for eating at Miller Park

Here's a picture of Nathen goin' to town on a defenseless bratwurst. The only reason you don't see me in more of these pictures is that I spent at least 3 of 9 innings squirting far too much secret stadium sauce on my various sausages. They sell Hot Dogs, Bratwursts, Chorizos (my favorites) Polish and Italian. I capitalize the titles of these delicacies so they can receive the respect they deserve. Yes, I will write al about the world-famous Miller Park Sausage Races in a future blog (including some edge-of-your-seat footage), so don't worry!

Miller Park is a super cool place. Since it is very likely that it snows during the baseball season, the place was built with a retractable roof. No kidding! Here's a picture of Zoe laughing it up while the roof was opening (the rain had stopped). In order to allow more sunlight to get in, the construction plans included as many windows as possible. I love that you can actually see into the park as you drive by on the freeway. And they have a really cool slide that the mascot goes down, and fireworks go off with each homerun and tailgaiting...the list goes on. Man, I love the summer time!

Our local sports team is superior to yours!

Go Brewers! Here in Wisconsin we are very much surrounded by sports fans. I've decided that the reason there are so many professional sports teams in Wisconsin is that there are so many professional breweries in Wisconsin. Its great that the state's 3 professional sports teams are named after uniquely indiginous people and animals: The brave men that brew our beer, the hard-working packers that grind our sausage, and the majestic bucks that get blown away by bearded men from Up North with high powered rifles. In order for you to prioritize your cheering, the following is an official state-recognized ranking in the importance of sporting teams and events:

#10 The Bucks
#9 Competitive Eating
#8 Ice Fishing
#7 State Fair Pig Races
#6 International Lumberjacking
#5 The Admirals
#4 The Badgers
#3 The Brewers
#2 The Packers
#1 Brett Favre

You aren't allowed a Wisconsin ID card until you've pledged allegience to at least one local team, and have taken an oath to never support any out-of-state team (especially one preceded by the word "Chicago"). As you can tell in the picture atop this post, Zoe not only goes to the games, she also gets very involved. Nathen is sporting the hat that they handed out for free as you entered the stadium. Sara and I were very impressed to see that Nathen had walked off the airplane a few hours earlier wearing his Brewers shirt.

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.