Quick Update

Mark's two best friends- Jeff and Chris came to visit! Jeff brought his son Isaac.

He's really cute. He loved my melodica.

We played Hide and Seek. You can see Isaac hiding next to the couch. He hid there almost every time.

Mark...hiding...his new favorite game in our apartment. Yes. He's under the kitchen sink.

The most delicious cake ever (Mark's words...I'd have to agree)

Ride the Drive- Just biking around Madison with thousands of other people...and Lance Armstrong. They close down a lot of the major roads and they're open just for bikes.

Tom and Mark biking down East Washington Ave

Sushi Night! We prepped way too much stuff, but other than that it was a success!

Catching up...or at least posting something

Summer was wonderful. I might never catch up on blogging and posting pics about it.

But here's a return to my weekly Farmer's Market bounty pic.

Mmmmmmmmm.

Pardon my absence...

I'm going on vacay!!!!

1 week at Camp Balsams.
1 day trip to the Apostle Islands
2 nights camping in the Porcupine Mountains
Loads of fun with my parents in Madison
Even more loads of fun with my whole family + Jeffrey in Madison
1 day trip to Devils Lake
1 day trip to Chicago
Lots of little things around Madison with Roxy + Jeffrey
2 nights of camping in Door County (and cherry pickin!!!!)

Needless to say...

There will be lots of pictures.
Lots of posts.
Company will be here until July 13th, but I might make it on here before then to share some of our adventures thus far.

Gooooooooodbye!

Yipppppppppppee summertime!

Weekend the third

Mmmmmmm rhubarb
Cutest farmer's market bouquet ever!
Me petting a cow. If you look at this picture more closely you'll see that I am way more excited then any of the kids to be petting this baby calf.
Yay Cows!

So apparently May was a super busy month, and while it was fun I'm enjoying having some more downtime in Madison.

This was our May-
Weekend #1 - Camping at the Kickapoo
Weekend #2 - Daytrip to Chicago
Weekend #3- Helping Mark's parents move (and getting engaged!)
Weekend #4 - I was in Florida
Weekend #5 - Camp Balsams

So though we had lots of fun we didn't spend as much time in Madison and some of my favorite moments are when we're just kicking around here.

So this past weekend that's exactly what we did.

Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market (surprise surprise). It was really nice though because we haven't been able to go and just enjoy the Farmer's Market in awhile. The past few weeks we've been going and parking with only about 30 minutes to walk around. So Saturday we did it the right way. We walked downtown, took our time walking around and looking at all the produce and plants. We were rounding the third corner when I saw this sign: "Cows ahead." I'm pretty sure Mark thought this was a joke. I exclaimed rather excitedly "There are cows!" and he said something to the extent of, "I don't think there are real cows." BUT THERE WERE!!!!! It was Cows on the Concourse. I have been WAITING for this event since I read about it in my Wisconsin travel guide last summer. There were COWS at the FARMER's MARKET. I love cows! I love the Farmer's Market! What a glorious combination! Some might not understand my love of cows, but I think they're beautiful animals. They have the prettiest eyes and they're so warm when you pet them. I may have been the only adult crouched down petting the 3 day old calf, but heck it was worth it. This is one of my favorite things about Madison. There are always festivals and events going on. For the Cows on the Concourse there were a ton of extra booths set up selling dairy products and promoting drinking milk (this is the dairy state after all).

Mark had report cards to do this weekend so he spent a good chunk of time doing that, but we also had some time to just hang out and relax. Saturday night after Mark had worked on report cards for awhile at his apartment we ordered pizza and had a picnic at his apartment (which we jokingly call the storage apartment). It was a rainy evening and it was fun sitting on the floor eating pizza and listening to the rain and birds singing outside. He did more work and I started working on some new art projects.

Sunday we did more of the same - he worked on report cards and i worked on art. Then we did "Ride the Drive". Some of Madisons busiest roads around the capitol are closed from 10-4 and open only to bikes. It is way cooler than it sounds. It's a 6 mile loop and it was so much fun to be able to bike on those roads and not have to worry about cars! There were tons of people out riding bikes and everyone just seemed super happy. Sunday evening Mark and I watched Up and just relaxed. It was a lovely weekend.

Weekend #2

Mark and I had a really nice Memorial Day Weekend.

Saturday we got up early and went to the Farmer's Market (of course). It was a quick trip though because we wanted to go to Britta's frisbee game. She and my other friend Fernando were in the National Championships for ultimate frisbee which just so happened to be in Madison! Mark and I got to watch part of Britta and Fernando's games. It was really fun. After that we had to get some chores done before heading up to Camp Balsams. So we did laundry and went grocery shopping and then we were on our way!

Camp Balsams is in Eagle River which is about 4 hours north of Madison and in a part of the state that Wisconsinites and actually a lot of midwesterners would label "up north." As in, "We're going up north for the weekend." This was my first experience up north. Camp Balsams is owned by Mark's parents' church. His Dad is the head of the Camp Balsams Committee. Memorial Day is opening weekend so a group of people go up and get things ready for the summer (when the cabins are rented out to church members). We got there Saturday night just in time for dinner. Mark gave me a tour around the Camp and we also went canoeing. The next day we got up and went kayaking. Then Mark did some work around camp cutting trees. We helped put in a pier and then went and had a picnic lunch by a dam. It was a super super windy day. A lot of the work had been done the previous day so there really wasn't much for us to do, but hang out and relax. After lunch we went swimming and took a nap. That evening it rained. You could see the rain coming across the lake and it was really cozy to be inside the little log cabin as it poured outside. Mark and I played Rummikub (which is a board game similar to rummy).

Monday we went for a bike ride around the lake. Mark cut some more trees. Then we had lunch, went for a quick canoe trip and then we headed back to Madison. It was a really nice weekend. Exactly what we both needed before finishing up the last two weeks of work.