8.29.09

Sometimes I just can't handle how cute this kid is. I know I am totally biased, but hear me out. He has a book that shows "signs" for animals and objects. I don't think they are the proper ASL signs, but signs that Cooper has learned nonetheless. Here he is sniffing for the sign for "flower". Are you dying?! So precious.

On the cottage front - the weather was uber crappy. The rain let up for a little while in the afternoon and we were able to play some bags and go to the playground, but the rest of the day was spent indoors. The boys played Wii and Gina and I put together a puzzle. I need to put together more puzzles in my downtime. I love it so much!

The rain let up at night again, so we were able to have a fire and make smores thankfully. The weekend wasn't a complete bust! Hopefully next year, I'll be able to pack my swimsuit instead of my fleece jacket.

8.28.09

Last weekend, my sister and brother-in-law were kind in enough to invite us to Todd's parents' cottages on Shawano Lake. We have had this planned all summer, and of course the weekend we picked turned out to be the coldest weekend of the summer. Yuck! I was so looking forward to lounging on a raft in the lake!

We still managed to have fun despite the frigid temps. Friday night, we settled in, went out for a fish fry, played Loaded Questions and a 3 hour marathon session of Uno.

8.23.08

This last weekend we made our way to Lodi, WI for our annual trip to Crystal Lake. We stay in a yurt, we relax on the beach, swim in the lake, play bags, drink cocktails, grill some food and have a great time with our friends.  That green water looks nice, hey? 

honeymoon, check.

We did it. We FINALLY decided on a honeymoon. After a lot of back and forth, we decided on going to Vegas. We finally nixed Mexico last week when we still did not get our passports. We then debated about Palm Springs, but ultimately decided Vegas was the cheapest and best option. We decided that since the all inclusive Mexican vaca is what we actually really wanted to do, we will go on a shorter honeymoon to save some money and (hopefully) go to Mexico for our 1 year anniversary. This way we don't have to go in the dead of summer also. We can wait until November or December of '09 when we will really enjoy the sun.

As far as Vegas goes...

We will be flying out of Milwaukee on Sunday at 8pm and getting in to Vegas at 9:30pm. This is perfect I think. It will give us enough time to sleep in on Sunday morning, catch up with some of our out of town guests and maybe open a gift or two.

We will be staying at The Palazzo in one of their standard suites (which is far from standard in my opinion). Remember this?

There is a sunken in living room in every standard suite. And you see that table in the far right hand corner of the picture? I'm pretty sure it is for honeymooners to have a room service brunch on the first day of their honeymoon.

Hopefully we will catch a couple shows, sit by the pool and we'll have some yummy and fancy meals. I'm also kind of hoping we will get an upgrade if we tell them we are on our honeymoon. We also get the following specials:

- $20 Food Credit at the 40/40 Club, ( Jay-Z's Sports Bar)
- $25 Slot Credit or Match Play
- Complimentary dessert with purchase of an entree at Morels, a French Steakhouse and Bistro (this place looks muy expensivo, so I'm not sure it we will take advantage of this)
- Complimentary dessert with purchase of an entree at Dos Caminos, a Mexican restaurant obviously

And besides all that, just look at how much fun people have there! :) This lady can hardly contain herself.

Our flight leaves Vegas on Thursday night at midnight and gets in to Milwaukee at 5am on Friday. (Mom, I hope you are ready to pick us up at the crack of dawn!!)

This gives us 3 whole days to be back home, get situated and relax before we have to go back to work on Monday.

We are actually really excited about this. It wasn't our first choice, but we are going to make it as romantic and special as possible. It's kind of awesome to now not only look foward to the wedding, but also to going on a fun vacation. Can't wait!

Los Angeles : A Recap

We wanted to get our pictures with the Hollywood sign, but it was so sunny and my dad was taking forever to actually take the picture, so Gina and I looked like idiots in all the pictures - until my brilliant idea. Keep your heads down until the last second when he is ready to take the pic and then put your head up and smile...look at the difference!

RECAP
Maybe Gina didn't win as much as she was hoping, but it was a great experience and one of those things to mark off your list of things to do before you die. LA was great too, but I think 5 days would be just enough time to go there if you were going to go on vacation...but go during the summer. That way you could spend more time at the beaches and go to the theme parks. In all, a great trip - and a great excuse to take a little 3 day vacation! For Gina's version of the story, click here.

check out more LA pics here!