J was a great traveler-- he has a way of charming strangers (which is nice now, but could be dangerous in the future) and making people smile. As I was pushing him in his stroller up and down the hallway at the Des Moines airport (waiting for our flight to board) he made a lot of people chuckle as he stuck his legs and arms out straight and shouted "Weeeeeee! Weeeee!" And then he called some random guy "daddy." Funny guy!
I was prepared with my laptop and a "Melmo," which Jeremiah watched for approximately 9 minutes. Too much other stuff to get into!
Distracted for a minute by Melmo.
He never seemed bothered by taking off/landing and never cried or fussed, so I was happy about that (and I'm sure all the other passengers were happy as well). The flight from DSM to MKE is only about an hour, so it was a very bearable flight with a toddler (plus, if you fly Frontier you get a cookie!).
Abby and her boyfriend Neil picked us up at the airport, and we arrived just in time for the weekly Panera dinner with G & G Wiers and also Aunt JoAnne joined us. And after Panera we had to hit Kopp's for some custard!
Jeremiah approved of Grandma's raspberry custard!
Give me more!
Saturday was a sunny hot day, so we headed to Fox Brook Park to hang out on the beach and play in the water. Jeremiah loved it!
J thought that the little shovel was a spoon and decided to give the sand a taste-- not once, but twice!
We had a picnic lunch from Cousin's and then it was time for a nap!
Yummy picnic!
And good-night.
J had a great time making a mess at Grandma's house!
Fun in the magic cupboard!
Saturday evening we went down to the lakefront and had a picnic dinner and walked around a bit.
Thanks for looking at the camera, Grandpa.
Jeremiah and Mommy with Auntie Abby and Neil (aka "The Lovebirds").
On Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's church. Jeremiah was very handsome in a new outfit from Grandma!
In the afternoon, Jeremiah ran around the yard and "helped" Grandpa water all the plants and flowers!
And later that evening we walked over to Kopps for round 2 of frozen custard! It was Grasshopper Fudge this time (YUM!!!!) and a Sprecher's root beer!
Grasshopper Fudge is good, too!
On Monday we went to the Milwaukee County Zoo! First stop-- the dairy barn!
Next stop-- the goats.
Yes, I'm on the outside of the fence-- those goats were WAY too friendly! Jeremiah liked them, though.
Jeremiah's favorite stop was next-- the elephants! He made his elephant sounds the entire time we were by them!
Making the elephant sound for Abby.
Abby and I have such fond memories of visiting this zoo as children when we would visit Uncle Lew and Aunt JoAnne every summer. So it was so much fun to visit again with Jeremiah! One of our favorite things about going to this zoo was building our Mold-a-rama collection-- these are animal figures made out of melted plastic (you put $2 in a machine and watch it make your animal and then a little spatula thing pushes it into a little chute. You open the door, and there's your animal!). I think between the 4 of us kids, we had all the animals. And ironically, they all cracked and broke when my parents made the move from California to Milwaukee.
So anyway, we just HAD to make sure Jeremiah got a Mold-a-rama (or 2). Grandma bought him an elephant and a giraffe!
A big day in Jeremiah's life.
Making the elephant sound to his new Mold-a-rama!
We ended our time at the zoo with a train ride!
For dinner that night we met Uncle Lew and Aunt JoAnne at Vino Cappuccino.
Jeremiah loved this restaurant because it was RIGHT by the railroad tracks and we got to see several trains go by during dinner.
Then Tuesday we stopped by Grandma's Kindercare to see her babies, etc. Jeremiah fit right in and would have loved to stay and play outside with the kids (and the toy lawn mower)! At noon we headed back to the airport and arrived back in Iowa about 3:30 pm. Again J did a great job on the plane!
It was a great trip and we had so much fun seeing "Boppa," "Mee-Ma," and "Aaaaahh-beeee," (and Neil, too)!
Unfortunately, now it's back to reality. Today we found out that Jeremiah has Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, which explains his refusal to eat, crabbiness, and the fever he had while we were in Milwaukee. Thankfully Motrin has been keeping him comfortable (when we can get him to swallow it). He's not contagious anymore, and he should be back to normal by the weekend. I also found out that my debit card was compromised (in a mass fraud kind of thing when I shopped at Michael's in May). I did not find this out from my bank-- NO. I found out when I tried to buy a water at the airport and my card was declined, and again when I tried to get cash out today and the stupid machine told me to "contact my financial institution." My bank was able to issue me a new card, which arrived today. But somehow they were unable to let me know about this issue, and THAT is what frustrates me the most. I think it's time for a new bank!!!
Okay, enough of my venting. :) Thanks G & G Wiers for a great weekend!
Looks like a fun weekend! I am jealous of the Kopps and Sprechers. You would think that some sprechers could have been shared in Iowa?
ReplyDeleteGreat to see the mold-a-rama is still at the zoo, but many of those animals didn't even survive the ride home in the vanagon back when we were kids.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see everyone in a couple weeks!