Charging Eastward again. This time for a stop at the Buchmann’s. These friends were in one of early small groups in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After years of Thursday evenings doing life together and diving into God’s Word you really bond and that is why thirteen years after last seeing each other you can quickly catch up and feel comfortable. What a blessing the church of God is!
We passed from South Dakota quickly into Minnesota, then on to Wisconsin. The driving is definitely getting more mundane for poor Douglas. We miss the mountain roads and long-range views with little traffic. I-90 leaves a lot to be desired as you weave around semi’s and bump over concrete slabs.
On our traverse through the states, we also made our second crossing of the Mississippi River. We are officially back in the East of the country.
It took about 7 hours to get to the Buchmann’s home near Madison. We were warmly welcomed, the kids immediately helped themselves to the trampoline in the backyard and we adults caught up in the kitchen over cheese curds, blue cheese and brats, Wisconsin’s finest. After dinner we took a long walk along the Ice Age Trail that runs along the Buchmann’s neighborhood. This is a technical National Historic Trail. So close to being a National Park, but it’s not, so no sticker for the car top carrier. But still cool that we did it (and unplanned!). Even better was that we were craving exercise and fresh air and it was just what we needed.
On the way back we stopped at the playground. Here’s Penn and Owen. They are about a year apart in age, but did a great job jumping into chatting and getting to know each other.
A great first evening together. Our boys were all sharing a room and there was some definite misbehavior that made it frustrating for the younger ones to get to bed. But eventually we adults got a few minutes to catch up just us before heading to bed as well.
On Tuesday (August 2nd) the boys started the day off on the trampoline (in their pajamas!).
Eventually we got them into outfits and we all headed out to check out the city of Madison, a cool, thriving college town with a beautiful capitol building. Here are just a couple of pictures. So much detail and such ornate and opulent details in the materials. Very impressive!
We got to go up to the observation deck at the base of the dome. Beautiful views of the city and the lakes on either side of the building which stands on an isthmus.
And beautiful view of the Buchmann and Melder kids together.
We walked over for lunch at Ian’s, an iconic Madison pizza place. It was delicious!
Then we headed home for a quick change-up into swimsuits and grabbed the beach gear to head to the local Verona Beach. A small lake at a quarry with a sand beach, splash pad and a playground. We made the most of this great spot for the afternoon. Perfect place to be on a hot day!
The Buchmann’s provided a lovely family dinner again and the kids literally bounced between eating, playing on the trampoline and riding scooters on the driveway. Then after dinner Kyle and Doug took the kids to the neighborhood’s National Night Out celebration. Our boys had a blast meeting a police dog and watching a demonstration of him at work, eating fresh corn, and dunking a police officer!
Penn and Jansen got to try on some cool police gear.
Not to mention, Tav won a bike!!! Challenge accepted on getting this thing back to NH. Look at that smile!
Super full day. Our boys were exhausted and happy after just a normal day of kid-play (no driving and no national park overlook stops, ha!). Bedtime went somewhat smoother and they slept harder!
Wednesday morning we let them play and gave ourselves some grace and packed up slow. We left around 10:30am. A short visit, but so wonderful to reconnect with Kyle and Leah and to watch our kids get to know one another. Very special memories.
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