Come on, Wisconsin

We started our second day in Wisconsin with this:


Luckily, we were still at Tanya's house, so we could just hang out and wait for the AAA people to come fix our tire. But then do you know what happened? The AAA people got a flat tire on their way to fix our flat tire! So much for getting an early start on the day. We packed in the sights, though! We returned to the Miller Brewery. Leigh was excited.


We also stopped to see a giant Easter Island head that's randomly in New Berlin, Wisc.


We stopped at an outlet mall on the way to Madison (and eventually to Iowa), when something horrible happened. Mia identified a little carousel thing as something she'd like to do. Dang it. There go all our quarters.

Wisconsin

Welcome to Wisconsin! Hey!


We tried to go to the Miller Brewery, but it was too late in the day. We'll come back tomorrow.


We were lucky enough to stay with our friend Tanya, who we last saw in South Africa during the World Cup. We were pretty excited to see her, even if it was just for a few hours.

We went to supper with my aunt, uncle and cousins. Zoe is about to leave for college, and Josh is about to start work with the YWCA. Hooray! We had such a good time.

Going to Harvard

Our stay in Harvard, Ill., was just as great as you think staying somewhere named Harvard would be. As you can see above, we could not resist taking a picture with Harmilda, Harvard's famous cow. She used to be in the center of an intersection where three roads meet, but for some reason the fun-hating state Transportation Department said she had might be a hazard.

Here are some other photos from our fun time in Harvard:

It was fun staying with my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Russ. When I was a kid, I loved visiting their house in the summer. It's outside of town and full of all the things kids think are amazing - a fort, a zip line, the woods. It was fun seeing Mia exploring all of that. She especially enjoyed the swimming pool that my cousin Sarah's daughter, Madison, uses. Mia combined the pool with the kiddie golf set.

Mia also had fun playing in the fort. What did she have to do? You know it. Clean.

Johnson family reunion

Oh my word. We had a family reunion. It was the first time the Johnsons had all been together for many years, so it was fantastic to see everyone (and all their kids). There were so many kids! They were crawling around everywhere!


There was plenty of picnic fun.

Then it was time for photos. Boy, the Johnson family - we love photos. The first groups were the Johnson kids (my mom's generation) and the grandkids (my generation).

Then it was time for the great-grandchildren (Mia's generation). Mia and my cousin Liz's little boy weren't too excited about this prospect. Her husband handed their son to the oldest child. My plan was to drop Mia off, run away really fast and leave her sitting perplexed just long enough for my aunts to snap the picture. Well, that did not work. I love that you can see the progression: drop, fit, all the other children staring at Mia freaking out off camera.

OK, so that didn't pan out. But she did OK in the family group photo.

After a few hours in the heat, we decided to take Mia home for her nap. She was winding down quickly, so we figured it was best to get out ahead of any pre-nap calamity. This is what happened before we made it out of the parking lot. Fun times had by all.