Sorrow

I have been meaning to post some pictures from our trip, but we have lost 3 friends in the past month. And we are pretty sad at our house. When Jack and I were first married we went on a trip with one of our friends, who is gone, so I thought I would post pictures from that trip instead.

We love you Dave.

Autumnal

I love Maryland in the Fall!

The leaves are gorgeous and the fresh apple cider is plentiful and delicious!

 No Fall season is complete without our annual trek to a pumpkin patch.

We got a terrific pumpkin, enjoyed the fall colors and Truman pretended to be a Zombie. How could this day have gotten any better...

By getting to see lots of DC hipster/yuppies 

buying pumpkins in a flock, 

that's how!!!!

 Hey Guy in the front! 

Are you serious with the lime green shorts and the loafers with no socks?? Really??

Mother of The Year!

And the award goes to...

(drum-roll)

Merry Rowe!!!

For her exceptional work as a mother when she sent her kid to school in pajamas and then a few hours later realized pajama day wasn't until tomorrow!

Yes, that's right, she is just that AWESOME!!!

I like how Trum's friend is staring at his pajama pants.

BEST DAY EVER!

An Ode to Madison

All right, this is my last post about Madison...for now. I would have posted this sooner but all of my photos are downloaded onto the desktop which is all the way in the basement and that is just to far for me to go most days. So I just use Jack's laptop for my email checking and my Facebook stalking. So, anyway, I haven't posted in a while. But back to the Ode...what's an Ode again? Is it where you sing the praises of something? Because that is what I am about to do about Madison, Wisconsin, and I already titled this post "An Ode to Madison", so if that isn't what an Ode is then we are all in big trouble. 

Or not.

Why I love Madison:

#1

The People

Seriously! The people there are so friendly! But especially all of our friends at church, so loving and welcoming! We miss you guys!

 Why do they need to pull these strange, somber faces? Are they embarrassed to have a picture that documents their Bro-mance?

#2

Downtown

So great! 

Beautiful Capitol Building, Wonderful Farmers Market, Great Walking Street, Fabulous Children's Museum, The UW Campus, and within walking distance to two gorgeous lakes.

Fountain/Map of The Isthmus

 Sorry to the two ladies sitting in front of me.

#3

Nature In The City

I love that right in the middle of town you can go on some really great hikes.

Who called who?

Okay, okay, I could go on and on, but just one more.

#4

Family In The Vicinity

In Maryland our closest relatives are my brother and his family. And when we were in Wisconsin they were still our closest relatives, but they were only 5 hours away instead of 17. And we took full advantage of it!

 And of course, a road trip to Idaho was totally doable from Madison. Where as from Maryland, it is madness!

Love you Badger State!! On Wisconsin!!!!!

Soaking Up The Midwest

Have I mentioned yet that I loved our time in Madison? 

Because, for reals, yo, I loved it! 

The Midwest is great in so many ways, we did our very best to see lots of great stuff before we had to leave.

The Dells

 One of our favorite places to visit near Madison is The Wisconsin Dells. There are like a million Water and Theme parks to visit as well as lots of Kitchy exhibits and shows. We always stay at the Wilderness Resort, where we go wild in the many indoor and outdoor water parks. We went for my birthday and Jack totally surprised me by arranging to have my sister-in-law and nieces and nephews come up from Iowa to meet us. We had a blast! But no pictures because I didn't want to take my camera to the pool. 

Originally, the main attraction at The Dells were the actual DELLS. Which are beautiful rock formations along the river. We took a great boat tour to see the sites.

 Along the tour route the boat lets you off to take little hikes. This canyon was so awesome!

 On one of the stops you get to see a dog jump across this gap. Can you see him?

Jack is famous, his name was carved in the cliff.

 And on this Trolley!

Door County

 We were told by many, many people that we "had" to visit Door County. WI. So we did, and they were right! We L-O-V-E-D it. It was gorgeous, I want to retire there (in the summer only of course) Door County is the little point of land that sticks out from Wisconsin into Lake Michigan.

 We toured a light house. Truman was a Zombie.

 We took the Ferry to Washington Island.

 The Island was beautiful. While there we stopped at Schoolhouse Beach. The Beach is covered in these beautiful smooth white stones. Which I think are really rare, at least you aren't meant to take any away with you when you leave.

Not so great for relaxing on, however.

We stopped to see this awesome Stavkirke.

 Back at camp on the main land we went swimming, and toured around and enjoyed the most gorgeous sunsets over the lake.