The Apples Are Coming!!

Talk about a fantastic weekend. Seriously. We had a great mini-holiday in the city of Milwaukee- and our whole family feels refreshed and wonderful. I can't say that I have anything profound or food-related to share. We ate basic food, never went downtown to the Latin Festival, and other than the zoo, we spent all of our time at the hotel. However, that hotel time was most certainly not wasted or spent at leisure. Here in this first picture, family will see something never really seen before...


See that! Yes, that is Zander. In water. And he is smiling! This is where we spent most of our weekend. :-) The hotel we were at had both an indoor and oitdoor pool, and we spent equal time in both. Our son conquered his fear of water and was enamored. He just loved it. And for a little while there, he even tried a bit of swimming by himself with the aid of a pair of noodles. And not to be outdone...

Abigail conquered her fear of the underwater by learning how to hold her breath and plopping under for a few seconds. She was so proud of herself... We were in and out of that pool so often, our suits never dried inbetween pool visits. But the fun the kids were having was sooo wonderful, that we completely did not mind spending our weekend poolside. Although at the same time, we were also commenting on how it won't be long and we'll be able to do more of the vacationing we want to do- visiting ethnic parts of town and going to oddball festivals. But right now, we're more than content to spend our vacation time doing what our kids want to do.

Here are a couple of shots from the zoo trip. We were in luck this weekend as next weekend is the end of a dinosaur exhibit at the zoo. They had a little section of the zoo with robotic dinosaurs in natural habitats- it was very cool, and Abigail loved it. Zander... not so much. Many of the dinosaurs were scary to him. Thankfully, we did the dinos first, so he had a zoo-full of animals to take his mind off the scary dinosaurs with big teeth.

Next is a picture of the kids at the family farm standing with a fake cow. The Milwaukee Zoo has really been upgrading and revamping a lot of thier exhibits. The whole zoo is really very nice and well-done.
What would a trip to the zoo be without a few snacks here and there. Here Daddy is encouraging Zander to be Mommy's little piggy.

It was fun. And waiting at home for me was a stack of magazines- apparently this was the weekend to get most of them. The reason I mention this is that September's issue of Gourmet magazine arrived, and it's really a good one. It's their anniversary issue, and many of the recipes this time around are not as tedious as usual Gourmet fare tends to be. It's really home-cook friendly, and a majority of them look fantastic- it's definitely worth the few bucks to pick it up. Actually, to be honest, my quick perusals of September's issues of Cooking Light and Everyday Food also seem to be promising- so if you see these while you're out and about- definitely give them a look-over.

And finally. The apples are coming! Today on the way home we made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up a few perishables, and I found Paula Red's at Woodman's in Appleton. They are the very first apples to hit the shelves in this part of the country, so that means it's officially the beginning of apple season. And of course, the very first item on the apple agenda was an apple pie. A simple classic- there is nothing that my entire family loves more than a freshly made homemade pie. So tonight we feasted on apple pie at bedtime, and it was spectacular. A fitting ending to a great weekend.