Celebrating Mom's 82nd Birthday in Oshkosh

We just got back from Oshkosh where we celebrated my mom's 82nd birthday. This is the third year in a row that we have celebrated in Oshkosh and each year seems to keep getting better and better.
John, mom, and I arrived nice and early on Saturday morning. Shortly after we arrived, Kev and Vikki pulled in after eating a greasy breakfast in Rosendale. Alissa and Nathan got there after lunch at which point the party could begin. Kev and John walked to Jansen's to watch the Badgers, Vikki and I joined them for a few beers and to catch the Badger victory. Once we got back to Courtney and Paul's we started the party.

We opened the goody box and the gifts and then we had cakes, two of them. They were very yummy.

John, mom, Kev, Vikki, Tiz, and I were staying at the City Center Hotel. We were all a bit nervous about what we would find there since the reviews were all negative, but we decided to take a chance and go for it. Here is Tiz enjoying the slot machine in the bar at the hotel. This reminds me of the old days at the Firehouse restaurant on Saturday nights with Mal and Kev. I spend endless hours on the video machines with Mal. What goes around comes around, I guess. This time it was Kev putting the money in the machine and showing her how to use it.

We walked over to Becket's Restaurant from the hotel. It was a beautiful November day and we walked along the Fox River. We stopped to take a family photo.

I also took this family photo of our Oshkosh hosts, the Van Aukens.

Alissa and Nathan at the Restaurant.

John and I at the Restaurant. Our table overlooked the Fox River. It was a beautiful spot to spend mom's birthday.

Kev treated us all to two bottles of wine which I thoroughly enjoyed. I decided right then and there that I wanted to go out for a few more wines after I got Tiz to sleep in the hotel room which by the way turned out to be a wonderful hotel. Those reviews were way off. We have good things to say about our stay at the City Center, but I digress.

I did indeed get to go out after Tiz was asleep, mom stayed with her at the hotel while the rest of us enjoyed a night out on the town. Many wines later, we returned to the hotel and turned our clocks back to give us a much needed extra hour of sleep.

Tiz was up bright and early as were we. We headed back over to Courtney and Paul's and then went to church. After church we had a nice lunch and our weekend came to an end. but not before Tiz and I had a romp in the leaves:

By next year we hope to be celebrating mom's 83rd birthday in Bloomington! Exciting times ahead for Alissa and Nathan!