I was trying to muster up the energy to write this post all day yesterday and I just couldn’t do it. It was a really crappy day and writing about our awesome anniversary vacation earlier in the week was the last thing in the world I felt like doing. Reality sucks sometimes, guys. Money sucks. Gigantic hospital bills every month suck. And feeling like my hopes and dreams for the summer have already been taken away from me after the very first day sucks the worst. It was a really awful day. But for the sake of my kids, who had nothing to do with the bad day, I will try to move on.
Anyway. Monday was our 12th anniversary. We got up early and dropped the boys and Annie off at their destinations and headed out to Cedarburg. Our first stop was the last covered bridge in Wisconsin. I have a hard time believing this is really the only one! But I guess I can’t think of any other examples I’ve seen in my life other than things in books, so it must be true. 🙂
It was a really nice and quiet park area around the bridge. We stood on a different bridge and watched the water for awhile. Then we drove into Cedarburg to check out the shops. Unfortunately, either because it was a Monday or Memorial Day, a lot of the stores and restaurants I had researched were closed. We went into a few really great places, but it was obvious very quickly that my ankle was not in a mood to cooperate with my plans. I could barely walk. We ended our little morning shopping session with a wine tasting at Cedar Creek Winery. As always, I only liked the sweet ones. We bought two bottles.
I needed a break, so we went to the Highland House for lunch. It was delicious! Afterward, we decided on a whim to drive to the theater nearby and see Life of the Party. I was complaining a few days earlier that we never see the movies I want to see in the theater. There are so many superhero and Star Wars movies every year, our limited theater visits are always directed to those. But the timing was right, so we finally got to see one I wanted. And it was great! I was cry laughing the entire movie. SO funny!!
I felt a lot better after the movie, so we went back into Cedarburg to check out a couple of more shops. I got an iced coffee to try and perk up. Then we drove to a county park that was up on like a cliff above Lake Michigan. There was apparently some way down to the water because people were on the beach, but there was no way we were going to attempt that!
I actually hiked a bit along a trail! It’s really so hit or miss on when or where my ankle is going to cooperate and when it’s going to take me down. I’m glad I at least had a good evening with it! With the shade and lake breeze it was a lot cooler in the park and the bugs weren’t bad, so we sat there for a long time talking. It was really nice.
We finally checked into our hotel and spent some time there relaxing. The “romance package” was included in the Groupon deal, so we were given champagne and six chocolate covered strawberries.
We couldn’t decide if we should order in Chinese or go back out later in the evening when we were finally getting hungry again. Going out won and I’m really glad! We went to Cafe Hollander and it was delicious! I had a fancy grilled cheese which was good, but the sweet potato fries with Thai curry aioli was amazing. Definitely want to go back there sometime! There’s a location in Madison, so I think I can make it happen!
We just relaxed on Tuesday morning for awhile. The hotel had a giant whirlpool which was really nice. Our breakfast was a loaf of blueberry lemon soda bread we picked up at the grocery store the night before. When we left the hotel we stopped back in Cedarburg to see more of the shops that were closed on Monday. One being a bakery my mom highly recommended. I forgot to take a picture until it was almost gone, but I bought these huge rosemary garlic ciabatta rolls which were AMAZING. I also bought a baguette that we had for dinner that night. Yes, I ate three meals of solid bread on Tuesday. That’s literally all we ate.
And because we’re completely lame, we managed to go back to Beaver Dam to pick up Annie and the boys’ stuff and we were home by noon. We had a day and a half vacation and we didn’t even go out to eat or use our time to the max. We always tend to cut our vacations short, but I guess it felt like more of a disappointment knowing that was the only one we got this year and it was already so short. But why go out to lunch when you already had a bunch of bread and know you won’t enjoy the meal anyway? I settled for Kwik Trip iced coffee. And I admit that it was nice to have a few hours at home to totally chill out before the boys got out of school for the day.
Tuesday afternoon we had to head to another therapy session with Caden. While I was really impressed with the therapist the first two sessions, I was pretty angry after this one. He didn’t seem to hear/listen/understand anything we were saying. We told him how worried we are about summer when I’m back to being the full time parent and how I don’t know how to control his mood swings. By the time he was done talking with Caden and wanted to schedule for the next visit, he told us that since school is almost over and the biggest triggers are out of the way, we don’t need to come back for a month. School is NOT his trigger! I don’t know. I was extremely frustrated with how the whole session went and if he doesn’t even understand the importance of coming regularly during the hardest months of the year, then maybe I don’t even want to see him. I wish all this therapy stuff wasn’t so hard. I guess we’ll just see how the next few weeks go.
On Wednesday, I was bound and determined to get to some of my favorite stores while I still could! Unfortunately, it ended up pouring rain all day! If I had known it was going to relentlessly rain that hard all day long, I definitely wouldn’t have gone. My ankle got quite the workout with all the stop and go traffic. Switching between pedals is still really hard and painful. I also walked 9000 steps that day! But I did get to a few of the stores I wanted, so it wasn’t a waste. Just a bit challenging! And wet!
I had an early PT on Thursday morning and decided to spend the rest of the day just relaxing and reveling in the silence. (Above is a picture, on the right, of the new jade plant we bought in Cedarburg.) I did a little work, a little cleaning, a lot of reading, and some napping.
I prepared a huge taco fest complete with margaritas and ice cream cones for dessert as a last school night celebration.
And Friday was the last day of school! I worked all day to try and keep my mind off of my dread! 🙂 Then Greg drove me to school at the end of the day so I could walk home with them for the first time in over three months. Unfortunately, I was too slow and uncool and Caden walked way ahead of me with his friend. Shepard sort of stayed near us. We spent a little time at home and then headed to the library reading program kick off down the street. I also walked there and back! And later after that, Greg and Shepard went to the pool on its opening night. Caden was much more interested in staying home to play with his friends. It’s both a blessing and a curse to have great friends right in the neighborhood. It’s awesome because it’ll keep them out of my hair every minute. It’s terrible when I have to try and drag them away from their friends to actually go somewhere or do something. It’s also like the end of the world if their friends aren’t available to play. We’re only 1.5 days into summer and I can already see this is going to be a massive challenge the next three months.
And that brings us up to Saturday! I guess in good news – I cleaned my car! Technically Greg did most of it, but I helped. I can already cross the first thing off my summer goals list. I also looked into a vacation possibility, but considering how the rest of yesterday went, I’m not sure it’s going to happen. We shall see.
And that was the week! A big week for sure. I’ll write another post tonight about the upcoming week. After I decide what to do with it! 🙂 It’s the only week free between school and summer school, so I’m having a hard time deciding what to focus on. But I’ll figure it out in the next eight hours or so and get back to you!
