Daniel's visit - fun adventures!

    We got an exciting phone call from my little brother, Daniel, last week.  He was looking for a place to do a mini-vacation with his family.   Since they are living in Chicago for the summer, due to work, we are a mere 2 hours away.  Or faster, if you drive like Daniel :)  He brought his wonderful family up for 4 days, and we had a great time getting to know his kids.

  One of the places we went was the Madison Children's museum.   Here is Spencer starting early on his rock climbing career, with Daniel coaching him.
 

Spencer was interested in almost everything.  Here he is doing a masterpiece on the painting window.

    The one thing Spencer wasn't into, was the craft area. On the other hand, Sylvia and Addie spent most of their time here.  They glued and tied various things together to make some pretty amazing creations.

It was great to have Daniel park Eil in the craft zone, and just hang out and visit.  I love my little brother.

  Eventually the crafting marathon was finished.  Sylvia wore her homemade crown and flower jewelry for the next couple days, until  all the petals finally fell off.

Addie and Sylvia both enjoyed the spinning hamster wheel.  They would've stayed on it all afternoon.

We found critters for everyone to hold on the top level of the museum.  I was surprised at how calmly everyone let mice crawl all over their arms and hands.

They were not as excited to touch the snake... but though it was fascinating.

Later in the evening, we went to a Madison Mallards baseball game.   Asher's orchestra was preforming the national anthem at the start.   (Asher is the handsome blond, front center below.)

The orchestra sounded really great!  I was surprised at how well their sound carried out of doors.

Mattias got a chance to be babysitter to little Eli for a few minutes in the stands.  I forgot how good he is with babies.                                                       

   We had great seats, and were really enjoying the game.  Here we are smiling and unaware of how crazy the weather would become in 15 min. 

  Dark clouds were on the horizon.  They rushed towards the stadium, bringing buckets of freezing cold, side-ways rain, and high winds.  Yes, there was a tornado watch on.    We were totally unprepared, and huddled over the kids, unable to get into shelter for several minutes.  We were so drenched.  Daniel ran to get the van, and we cranked the heat up all the way home.  The baseball game was cancelled, but we still had an exciting adventure to remember.

   Back in Stoughton, the Addie and Sylvia were having a party with Noel, unaware that we were out fighting for survival in the fierce elements.  They had an art party, ate Blue Moon ice cream and played Wii.   Their evening was far less exciting, but I did envy their dry clothes when we got home.