Having fun in Madison

Last night we had a great dinner with Rachel and Kevin and just hung out around their house. The kids went to bed kind of late but after being in the car all day they needed to get out some of their energy. The kids slept upstairs together and Hannah was put in charge of Jake, a duty she took very seriously.

The four grown-ups stayed up late drinking wine and beer and just having a nice long chat and a lot of laughs. We were up a lot later than we should have been but Hannah came through for us in the morning and she got up with Jake bright and early. After everyone got up we had a great breakfast of scrambled eggs and some delicious cinnamon rolls that they got from a bakery down the street.

After breakfast we all showered and headed over to a local mall. Rachel and I got pedicures while Lincoln and Kevin took the kids to the toy store to get something as a reward for how wonderful they were in the car. We met up again afterwards and headed to a small Farmers Market. One of the stands had "hours old" cheese curds and they were absolutely delicious. Very squeaky.

We left the Farmers Market and after a quick stop back at the house to drop off some stuff we went to a place called The Old Fashioned in Madison near the Capitol building. Unfortunately there was a long wait for a table but the kids did really good and we had an enjoyable meal once we were seated. Our original plan had been to head for the New Glarus brewery afterwards for a quick tour and some ice cream at a nearby place but we ended up running out of time. Instead we headed back to the house where Jake took a nap (I took a short one too) and then we loaded back up into the car and headed out to see Monsters vs. Aliens at the local dollar theater. The weather here today has been cloudy, cool, and only in the mid-60s. Not terribly pleasant for the middle of July but at least it isn't raining.

Now we're headed down to the park just down the street for the kids to ride their bikes and play on the playground for awhile. I think the plan is to do take-out and play a few board games after dinner. Tomorrow all of us, minus Kevin, will head over to Decorah. Less than 12 hours until we'll be eating Mabe's pizza and planning our tubing trip. I can't wait!