I had last Thursday and Friday off.
It is teacher's convention, but I stopped going to those a few years ago.
It was the year that I sat in the most boring sessions and came to the realization that I already know all I need to know about teaching young children.
After 30 years in the field, I know what works and what doesn't work, so therefore I decided to stop attending these conferences.
A great benefit to not attending is that I get to spend these two days and the weekend with Tizita and Soliana doing fun things.
John was able to get these two days off, too, because at his new job, he actually gets vacation.
It seems like I had been planning what to do these days for such a long time.
John and I threw around many different ideas, but finally decided on a trip to Monkey Joe's in Appleton on Thursday, pizza at Glass Nickel in Oshkosh on Thursday night, Discovery Zone in Milwaukee on Friday. Halloween fun in Watertown on Saturday, and Kione (rock band) in church on Saturday night. After all this fun stuff, we would return the girls to their home.
Now looking back it was the perfect plan, but why does the time have to go so quickly.
So much time to plan and then before we know it, it is over.
Anyway, nothing we can do about that except enjoy the time together.
We got up to Oshkosh on Thursday in time for Courtney to teach Zumba and Paul to go to school.
We headed up to Monkey Joe's and spent four hours there.
Tiz was so cute, trying to help Soli do all the "big" stuff. Soli had a great time trying but her little legs get tired quicker than Tiz's, so Soli and grandpa took a nap right at Monkey Joe's and Tiz found a friend to hang out with for the next hour.
Here is Tiz helping Soli find her way around Monkey Joe's.
I did have to give Soli a few pushes to get her up the rather steep steps on one of the slides.
Lunch time! Prices are good on the kid friendly food at Monkey Joe's.
And here are one tired out Grandpa and Soli.
John was not the only many sleeping in this parent lounge area, either.
There was a young dad sleeping, too.
It was pretty funny.
Note to self: Except for the fight that broke out in the Monkey Joe's in Waukesha, I actually liked the lay out at that one better.
Second note to self: Going to Monkey Joe's less than two months apart is not recommended. A visit once or twice a year would suffice.
Third note to self: Price is great. Where else can you kill four hours and not spend a ton of money.
We enjoyed Glass Nickel with Courtney, Paul, and the girls. We all went to bed early so we could be ready for the trip to Discovery Zone on Friday.
We left Oshkosh at about 8:30.
Got to the museum around ten.
Except for the fact that every middle school in the area was there on a field trip, we did have fun.
There is a great aquarium in the Discovery Zone.
Here the girls are touching sting rays.
They did get a bit wet leaning over the touch tank, but it was worth it to touch the rays.
Lots of cool guitars in the museum.
Of course, we had to make the souvenir penny in the smashing penny machine.
We are not exactly sure what the purpose of this thing was, but it was fun to sit in it and look out the window. I am guessing it was some kind of echo chamber.
And, no, I could not find a sign explaining it.
This was the way a bee sees things. These mirrors all turned and no where did it say, "don't touch them," Soli pulled one off while turning it, but a nice museum man came and put it back on and assured us it happens all the time.
Tiz enjoyed all the things to do in the guitar area. Here she is watching her fingers strum the strings with a magnifier.
Lunch was overpriced kid friendly food.
Twice as much as the same food cost at Monkey Joe's.
Tiz and another little girl working the gerbil wheel to make energy to fill up a water tower which they did.
I explained what a telephone booth was.
Soli and I sang into a homemade microphone.
Here Grandpa and the girls are trying to make a big fan go around with their foot power. It was hard work.
There is a great ship in one area.
Tiz enjoyed exploring the ship over and over again.
Here Tiz is using a pulley system to give her sister a ride up in a chair.
Back to the Aquarium area.
Here Tiz is checking out the seahorses.
There was also an area where there were fish under your feet and above your head. It was very cool.
Tiz loved her time at Discovery World, Soli said, "again," to Monkey Joe's but not to Discovery Zone.
Notes to self: Do not go on a weekday during the school year, too many school groups who have no manners.
Take our own lunches next time.
Note to Discovery Zone: Put things with knobs and handles a little lower. Even Tiz could not reach a lot of things without a lift.
Label things that kids should not touch because they will touch everything if it doesn't say, "Don't touch."
All in all a good place to visit and we all did have a fun time.
Friday night we watched Disney and ate sweets.
On Saturday we checked out some of the downtown Watertown Halloween festivities.
We started with a story time at the Library.
I did not know it was going to be bilingual and I don't think Tiz or Soli enjoyed that part of it very much.
The story lady was very heavily accented and hard to understand.
After the story we went outside to watch a show with a horse.
Our friends, Mark and Mary Scherer were part of the show and it was good.
Learned a bit about horses and laughed at the jokes.
We made a cute little owl at Rock River Pizza Co. and then we had lunch there.
Both girls ate very well and John and I enjoyed one of their yummy pizzas.
We frosted and decorated little pumpkin cakes at the bakery.
Both girls had their faces painted, too.
Here is Soli just before she enjoyed her little cake.
We took the girls home after our church service Saturday night.
It was a wonderful three days with them and like I said before, it all went to fast.
Such great memories to treasure with these two little treasures!
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