Making Memories

In our quest to make some wonderful end of the summer memories, our family set off on an adventure to Wisconsin and Illinois. Our journey began in Wisconsin where we visited our friends, Mike, Sue, Hannah and Hayley. Our families first became friends when we traveled together to China to adopt our Hannah and their Hayley. The girls love spending time together - and so do their mom's and dads! :-) Their Hannah adores Ava and loves to dote on her (the feeling is pretty mutual) and Hayley and our Hannah quickly settle in with each other like old friends. We had dinner at the Water Street Brewing Company - our favorite restaurant near Mike and Sue's, and then the girls just played, played, played until we forced them to go to bed.

The next day we all headed to downtown Milwaukee where we walked around and played at the awesome Betty Brinn Children's Museum all afternoon. The director of the museum, Fran, is the wife of one of Doug's business contacts, so Doug let them know we were coming. They came to the museum and took us back to see Fran's bunny. The girls were excited to go behind the scenes. We spent another night in the Milwaukee area at a hotel where the highlight, of course, was the pool.

On Monday we left Wisconsin and headed to downtown Chicago where we spent a couple of hours. Most of that time was spent at the new American Girl Doll Store. We loved the new store - much roomier than the last one. Hannah chose to have her doll's ears pierced there. Hannah can't wait until her 7th birthday when she will be getting her ears pierced too. Ava was content to just push doll strollers around the store and hold her Bitty Baby - cheap entertainment. :-)

That night we stayed at a hotel in Downer's Grove. We got pizza, hung out in our hotel room, and swam in the cool indoor/outdoor pool. We discovered this hotel last year and liked it so much that we went back there again this year. The best part about the hotels we stayed in is that they were free - Doug had earned two free stays through his travel for work.

On Tuesday we spent the day at Brookfield Zoo. It was a gorgeous sunny day so we loved walking around outside looking at all of the animals. We laughed a lot at the antics of some of the animals. The gorillas were especially funny as one kept antagonizing the others - I told Hannah they remined me of her and Ava sometimes. :-) She laughed at that. All too quicky we had to head for home. Good thing memories go with us!