The Aquabats in Chicago

Try not to be jealous, but we got a double dose of Andrew and Alicia this spring. Shortly after their honeymoon, they hopped on a plane to meet us in Chicago for a long weekend. The Aquabats -- a weird ska band that Matt and Andrew have cherished since their youth -- was performing at the House of Blues, so we had to make the trip.

Here are the A's enjoying their first deep dish Chicago-style pizza at Giordano's in Hyde Park, just a few blocks from our old apartment. It's always such a treat to be able to share our favorite cities with our favorite people.

From there, we went down the road to the Museum of Science and Industry. It's one of our favorites. If you get the chance, GO! Even if you can't see everything, the kid area and the WWII U-boat are amazing!

Baby Adele made so many funny faces that day. I can only describe them as like unto Ron Swanson.

I have no idea where this cute little hood hat came from, but it reminds me of a baby Amelia Earhart, and that's just adorable.

Unfortunately I couldn't go to the concert that night with the cool kids because, you know, dependent children. But Josh being a young Aquabats fan went in my place.

There were a surprising number of young kids there, even younger than Josh. I guess that's what happens when the fans have all grown up and started indoctrinating their children from birth. Really though, songs about pizza day and midget pirates and shark fighters are a little boy's dream. 

Josh had these ear plugs in for a while, but took them out when a message on the stage screen said, "People wearing ear plugs cannot be trusted." I guess he was a afraid he couldn't trust himself? 

Also, he was a little sad when the Aquabats did not end up throwing cupcakes out into the crowd. If that doesn't ruin your day....

The next morning, we of course took our visitors to the Bean, which you've seen a million times if you've been reading my blog the last five years, so I'll say no more.

We walked to Magnolia's Bakery to pick up a good collection of desserts to share at the hotel. I take great pride in the fact that I converted Andrew and Alicia to Magnolia's banana pudding. I know it doesn't sound like anything special, but it really does blow the mind. Sorry no pictures -- we were too busy stuffing our faces.

It's much easier getting around in the city when each child has an adult attached to them.

Matt had some meetings one morning (hence the dress shirt), but we met him afterward for Nuevo Leon, Matt's favorite Mexican food restaurant in all of America. And that's saying something, because he grew up with the real thing and has developed quite the picky palate. Jude was so tired he fell asleep sitting up at the table. This was Matt's affectionate way of keeping him comfortable.

It seems like we spent a good amount of time stuck in traffic, but the kids were pretty good in the car. They really like cell phones. And selfies.

I just thought this was sweet -- Uncle Andrew keeping his hand on Adele through the car ride.

After fighting the traffic to get a good parking spot near the Water Tower Mall, we were about to get out and head to the Lego Store for the boys when we realized this had happened:

So we sat in the car and talked for a bit while we waited for them to wake up. After about 20 or 30 minutes of me being outrageously uncomfortable squished between two car seats, I said we should just wake them up. That's when I realized that not only were they deeply asleep, but one of them had wet his pants, and we had no extra clothes to change into. He would have been grumpy and smelly and cold and wet if we had tried to wake him up and go inside. So after all that, we went back to the hotel to rest. 

Matt took the boys back to the Lego store later while I tried to nap with Adele. It didn't work for us. That night we were going to try to go out to a dueling piano bar and dinner without the kids, but I was so unbelievably tired I couldn't function. I really don't think I've ever felt so out of it while un-medicated. I was incoherent, irrational, and absolutely desperate for sleep. Such is the life of a mother of three young kids when she tries to do ANYTHING in addition to caring for her children when away from her own home.

The next morning, Matt found us this wonderful little market called Eataly. (Basically eating like you're in Italy.) We wandered through lots of fresh, fancy, unique ingredients, and relished the authentic Italian pizza, canoli, and gelato. Oh, the gelato!!

Best way to end the trip. You should go there. I mean, they even have a Nutella bar.

The only thing I would do differently next time:  wait until my baby is not a newborn anymore. The combination of sleepless nights (especially in a hotel), breastfeeding, and postpartum hormones still going strong, just completely wore me out. It's a good thing this baby's cute. 

Andrew and Alicia, I promise to be more fun next time. Thanks so much for coming!

Michigan Madsen Christmas

2013 Christmas happened in Michigan! Thanks to mine and Matt's sister's pregnancies, the Snow family couldn't get together as planned this year. So instead, my whole family ended up deciding, one by one, to join us out here. That's how we lure them in...one by one.

Upon arriving in this snow globe, there was immediate snuggling, Rock Band, and controversial political discussion, now that Steph's boyfriend is around to argue with Matt. I find it incredibly entertaining. 

The next morning started with a good attempt at a work out sesh, but somehow ended up as a wrestling match.

The men got right to work the next morning framing out the basement. Teague actually knows what he's doing, and Matt was excited to have so much help getting started on this enormous project.

While they did a few solid days of work, the rest of us stayed busy doing our own kind of work -- reading, snuggling little boys, doing our nails, belting out Lady Gaga music on the piano...

...and doing an insane amount of COOKING. It takes a lot of work to feed ten full-sized people plus two kids three times a day. We went out to Buffalo Wild Wings once, and occasionally stopped for fast food, but mostly we ate at home. And mostly Mimi was the cook. I will say though, I don't think I washed a single dish that whole week. Kitchen fairies are the best.

Most of them got to use the hot tub at night. It was frigid outside of course, but that didn't stop Julia from jumping out of the tub and running through the snowy back yard to our neighbor's swing set for a good ride down the icy slide. In her wet swimsuit. The things teenagers will do for money.

My favorite part of the above pictures:  Steven's crochet work and hair styles. If you can't tell, it was a pretty full house. Steven literally slept under the piano, if that gives you an idea.

On the 23rd, some of us took the boys to the Santa House. It's a big deal in Midland, and apparently everyone else had the same idea that day because we waited OUTSIDE for TWO HOURS to get in. It was so freezing and miserable, but Josh would not settle for just sending Santa a text message instead. He got to run around in the snow with his friend Luke most of the time anyway, so at least he wasn't whiny and bored. 

Josh is still pretty Santa shy, but for some reason he still really wants to go every year.

That night, I made my whole family drive to Freeland for the amazing Christmas lights show. Again, this was something the boys had been waiting to do all month, so I'm glad we went, even if I had to pull some grown-up teeth to get everyone to come.

The next day was Christmas Eve. In the afternoon, everyone went to the church and we tried out my new volleyball net. We also played some very competitive rounds of knock out.

That night, we had our traditional Christmas Eve program, in which everyone has to participate with a Christmasy talent or presentation. Those four on the left sang some hymns a capella in four parts while Steven beat boxed. I helped them a little on the piano, but my talent was reciting "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem while the boys tried to act it out. Josh played "Jingle Bells Batman Smells" on the piano, my mom and Julia played a "Sleigh Ride" duet while Jude rang the bells, Teague demonstrated some toilet paper survival techniques, and my dad read the Christmas story from the Bible.

Then the Elves rang our doorbell and we found the Christmas pajamas they left for everyone on the doorstep.

We left out cookies and milk for Santa and got those kids into bed. Everyone else scrambled to wrap and finish last minute gifts, soak in the hot tub, or fall asleep by the fire like me.

In the morning, everyone got up to see the boys' reaction to what Santa left. We'd never had Christmas in our own home before, so this was special. They got exactly what they had asked Santa for:  a Ninja Turtle Lights and Sounds Sword for Josh, and a Ninja Turtle Shellraiser for Jude. I love that they still want to play with every present as they open it.

Teague and Steph made us the most delicious crepes for Christmas breakfast. And yes, that's how Teague's pants always look.

And I should just probably mention, in the spirit of Christmas and everything, that I really really love my weird sisters.

The next day was our last day in Michigan before heading to Chicago, so some people finally got brave enough to play out in the snow with the boys. There were ice chunks everywhere, and the snow wasn't good for building snowmen, but they ran around and played games anyway.

(Steph was doing my hair that day, so we were kind of stuck inside.)

That night, we drove to the Tridge to show them Midland's pride and joy, and then stopped to play at the church gym again. Some of us needed to get our wiggles out.

The next morning, we packed up and left for Chicago. Here is our failed attempt at a good family picture in the driveway.

After six hours in the car, we checked in at our hotel downtown and put the cars away for a couple days. We walked to Giordano's for dinner, but they were going to make us wait for over two hours, so we settled for the 45 minute wait at Gino's instead. The pizza was not as good this time, sadly, but some of us did get to write on the walls, so that was fun.

...Even though Julia can't even spell her own last name.

Also pictured above are a couple shots from our favorite Mexican restaurant, Nuevo Leon. Melissa and Mike were the only ones who came with us, but it was faster that way and awesomely delicious as usual.

These cute boys just love hotels. They were so happy to have Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, and to see the ice chunks in the river from our window. It's the little things.

We had one full day in Chicago. That morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast on our way to the Cloud Gate, a.k.a. The Bean. There was no shortage of picture taking there.

Let it be known that Josh did not approve of Teague taking the picture instead of being in it.

It was really nice to have all these helpers to tote my kids around the city. After wandering around Millennium Park, the boys and I were tired and tried to nap at the hotel while the others shopped on the Magnificent Mile. Later, Steven and Julia took them swimming.

That night, Grandma and Melissa stayed with the boys while the rest of us went to the Bulls game. Matt got the tickets for Dow's suite, so we had lots of space to ourselves. Looks fancy, eh? It ended up being a horrible game, but I had fun.

That being our last night, we all piled up in the same room to snuggle and chat until late. The next morning people had to take separate vehicles to the airport, and it was so rushed that I missed some goodbyes. Not okay. Next time I'll try to be less scared of those pushy airport ushers and stay until I get my hugs!

It may have taken me a full week of doing NOTHING to recover from all these visitors...but it was worth it.