I had a request to go to our Madison office to conduct some training (Wisconsin in February, who does not want to go there then?). After looking at the calendar, we realized that we had a long weekend in mid-February and so we thought we could take advantage of my needing to go for work, to make it a little fun family trip combined with the work effort). We caught a 7 a.m. flight to Milwaukee on Valentine's Day (got Indigo up when the taxi arrived at 5 a.m. and she talked non-stop from that moment onward, including the entire flight to Milwaukee). We rented a car and drove to our friends, Jennelle & Craig who live in Occonomowoc. They have children Ean and Kaylee and Indigo and Kaylee are just a few weeks apart in age. We had a most marvelous time. After having a chance to rest and relax and catch up a bit, in the afternoon we went to a little local lake and walked out on the frozen lake - very exciting. There were people out there ice fishing - very Fargo. Not quite sure what the allure is of being out in the freezing cold watching over an ice hole but we have heard the fish fry afterwards is really tasty. Ean and Kaylee did wonderful snow angels - Indigo was suspect of that activity.
On Sunday we
went to the Domes, which are these incredible glass atrium type things in which there are the most beautiful gardens, a show garden in which they were having a legoland and train display, a wonderful dessert garden and a tropical rain forest type garden - quite remarkable considering the weather outside. Sunday was David's birthday and he was treated like the king he is - amazing steaks from the local butcher and Jennelle baked him a cake. On Monday, which was a work holiday for us, we took Indigo into Milwaukee to visit the folks we work with in the
Milwaukee office (no holiday for them). Indigo had a lot of fun and enjoyed all the attention. On Tuesday, Jennelle looked after Indigo while both David and I went to work for the day in our Milwaukee office. On Tuesday night, we had one final spectacular meal created by Jennelle and then around
8ish left for
Madison. Indigo chatted the entire to Madison. The roads were a bit dicy as there was some sleet but we made it to Madison safe (and still married). David and Indigo took me to the Madison office on Wednesday where I conducted training all day. David and Indigo visited the people David knows in the office and went to lunch with one of his colleagues at a fun place called Ella's Deli which apparently has a ton of fun mechanical toys for kids to see.
David & Indigo picked me up from the office and we drove to meet friends, Chad & Jennifer who had driven to the Madison that day for some training that Jennifer was going to be doing for her company. We met Chad & Jennifer in China and we were together in the same room when we each received our daughters that hot July 1st day in Nanchang, the capitol city of Jiangxi, Indigo's province. They live in Minnasota, so the Madison weather was practically balmy for them. Despite the 360 spin we did on the road (I am not joking) on the way to meet them, everything was wonderful. It was so special to see the girls together again and to have all that catching up to do. We hung out in their hotel room for a while, then went out for dinner and then came back and let the girls bath together and get into their jammies. Elyana is just a delight and it's just wonderful to know that we'll have this lifelong connection to these families with whom we shared this momentous moment - it's like all being in a delivery room together and having multiple births. The next day, while I was training again, David took Indigo back to their hotel and the girls got to play again. David picked me up around 4 p.m. and we headed back to the Milwaukee airport. We flew out after 7 p.m. and arrived safely in Virginia around 10ish). We were home by 11 and off to bed to be ready for the adventures that the Friday would bring. It was a great trip and I just have to say that Indigo was so great about all the travel, all the
changes in sleeping arrangements etc. she just took them all in stride.
Well, no rest for the weary. On Friday morning we were up and packing and getting ready for the next trip. We left Friday and picked up Ellen and Sarah on our way south for our long awaited for visit to Great Wolf Lodge. We were there with a conference being held by OCDF - Our Chinese Daughters Foundation. Great Wolf lodge is a fantastic venue with lodging and a massive indoor water park - what could not be fun about that? Toni, Tom & Erica also came for the weekend, as did Pam, Robert, Elizabeth, Catherine and Peter. It was a great weekend. We had so much fun in the water park, sharing meals together, a little late night Walmart shopping, late night talking, and Chinese market shopping (put on by OCDF) and then some lectures we went to on Saturday given by Jane of OCDF. Thanks to Uncle Rick who watched Indigo and Sarah while they slept so that Ellen, David and I could attend the lectures. We did have a great time - especially on the crazy raft ride! We arrived home late on Sunday afternoon, when I promptly fell ill with what turned out to be sinus infection - oh well, at least it did not wreck the weekend.
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