Blitz Trip to Madison, WI

On Saturday, we drove 2 1/2 hours up to Madison, Wisconsin to visit our friends Ben and Stephanie Rogers and their three kids. Stephanie is the friend I had mentioned last week with the sister in the ICU. Steph was home for a few days before she’ll fly back to Atlanta tomorrow to be back with her sister and family that is there, so we wanted to go have fun with them and bring some cheer.

First, we met the Rogers at a deli on the east side of Madison – Ella’s Deli. It was a SIGHT to be seen. Seriously, if you have kids and you’re ever in that area, you have to go see it. This place is a kosher deli and ice cream parlor. Inside is a specacle of animated figures all through the ceiling and the restaurant. There are wires everywhere and figurines going across them. We saw Spiderman, Superman, Harry Potter, Popeye, castles, jugglers, a Beatles diorama, etc. All five children were SO well behaved because they were staring at all of the stuff going on around them. It was hilarious.

Here’s their baby Jackson, who was all bundled up still. It was COLD in Madison. See Ben S. (I have to distinguish since we were with Ben R. that day), there are colder places to live than Chicago… :) (We thought Madison was beautiful though – it has pretty hills and beautiful country outside of the downtown area)

Ben R. offered to take a picture with me in it, since I’m usually taking the pictures. Eli wasn’t up for smiling :)

Here’s Ben R. and Steph. It’s always fun to talk to them because Ben R. has lots of  questions. And Stephanie has to swat him here and there because of his questions (we don’t mind them, Steph – it gives us room to ask them right back) :)

The genie from Aladdin and all kinds of other stuff on the ceiling -

You can see Eli could barely focus on eating because this place was so cool -

One other fabulous idea is the baby plate for those 1 and under. It had everything a kid this age likes to eat – cheese, applesauce, yogurt, turkey, mandarin oranges, and carrots and peas. There were also crackers and jam. Perfect! We need one of these for our house.

The older Rogers kids, Lea and Ellis. They were warming up to me sticking my big camera in their faces :)

There were even toys at this place that you could bring to your table!

In the warmer weather, there is even a carousel outside the deli for kids to ride. It’s a pretty eclectic place, but the food wasn’t terrible and the ice cream was delish.

On our way to the other side of Madison where the Rogers live, we passed one of the lakes (maybe Lake Mendota?) where there were a ton of guys out on the frozen water, ice fishing. I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to get a shot with the 50 or so ice fishing huts set up on the lake, so this is toward the tail end. But it was really neat to see all of that going on. I bought Ben an ice fishing set at a garage sale last summer, but he has yet to try it – he says he wants to go with someone who knows what he is doing… any takers?

In the afternoon, we hung out at the Rogers’ place. Here are some more shots of Ellis:

Lea was still shy when I pulled the camera out…

And Ellis and Jackson with their cute matching sweaters -

We played some Wii tennis (Eli loved it):

I watched baby Jackson eat and eat lots of good stuff (why don’t my kids eat and eat???) -

I played Wii tennis with Eli, which was pretty funny since neither one of us is very good:

and then Eli and Ellis had fun playing tennis together.

The Rogers have moved around a lot since living near us so many years ago (they lived in DC and Pittsburgh before this), but it looks like they’ll be in Madison long term. They are building a house there, so Stephanie drove us over to the site, which is a really pretty area. I’m excited for them to feel settled there and it’s fun to have friends just a quick road trip away.

We drove back Saturday evening and everything went pretty smoothly, except that Eli stayed awake the entire time and watched movies. Crazy kid.

We had a great time with the Rogers – thanks for a fun day!

And on another positive note, Stephanie’s sister is doing well – the doctors switched her from an oscillator to a ventilator and woke her up. She responded well to commands and could use her limbs and muscles. They’re hoping she can breathe on her own today and hopefully get rid of the breathing tube. Yeah!!! Things are looking up.