It was a quick weekend back to Wisconsin, seeing as I was in the middle of TA'ing for the summer. I left Friday evening late and experienced a significant delay and flight cancelation, which routed Drew and I through Minneapolis on our way back to Green Bay. We were going to be getting in very late, and driving back to Appleton to stay with my hubby's parents. We finally rolled in around 1AM, and Drew was too sad/overtired to go to sleep alone, so he got to snuggle with his momma for a bit until he was fast asleep. Makes me so happy to think that a mom's snuggle still has special powers.

The next morning I was able to get up and have coffee with my gracious hosts while my little guy slept peacefully into the morning. I got ready, ran to the store to buy too many fixings for turkey sandwiches and some bachelor party venom. Venom is this blue drink we used to drink in college, and its nasty color and taste has become a bit of a tradition. I jumped in my mom's Ford and headed down to Madison to check into our hotel close to State Street Brats! We were all gathering together to celebrate Lyssa's bachelorette party and upcoming marriage! Heidi wasn't able to make it, so Lyssa had the ingenious idea of putting a cut out of her head on a popsicle stick. It was epic! The day was rainy, which resulted in a hotel room fiesta with tunes and good conversation. We then headed out to eat before running around to our favorite establishments. So much of the town and scene had changed since I was last there, but it was still nice to be surrounded by the Mad-town energy!

The next morning, I rolled off my air mattress and we loaded up the cars. I drove back to Appleton to collect my precious cargo from his awesome babysitting team. He was overtired and ready for a heft car nap on the way up north. I had already drove from Madison, to Appleton (about 2.5 hours), and was repacking for the last leg of my trip up to Houghton (4.5 hours). This leg, I had the little man and I was a bit nervous to drive alone for that long without my rearview mirror to keep a watchful eye. Of course, my little traveler was a champion and slept almost the entire way, until we hit Baraga and then he enjoyed his crackers until we hit the cabin.

We were welcomed by the Erwins, our Missouri family, who made the long trek north to visit. Given how long they drove to join us, there was no way I was going to miss this party. It was so nice to rest and relax with them. They are such wonderful people, and it feels so perfect when they're around the table with us. We went for a few boat rides, did some fishing, and played a few games. I was only up there for two short nights and had to fly out very early at 5:40AM the next day.

It really was the tour' de Wisconsin and Michigan. I covered a lot of ground, and according to Google maps, I put on over 500 miles in the car, and many more in the air. Given the weekend travel that we've been doing, I think it's about time I sit down and see how many miles my little man has under his belt, in the air and on the road. I wish I would have saved all his ticket stubs, but a running log will have to do!

Tour of Wisconsin and Michigan