Pop-pop's 83rd birthday was on Friday. So the entire Bruni/Bricker family trecked up to Wisconsin to drink a little wine, play a little Sheep's head and look at some old family slides.
After staying up past midnight to finish packing on Thursday night and getting up a little after five Friday morning, I was glad he was so happy to see us. Because, to be honest, if someone brought their three kids to my house on my birthday...I'd probably tell them to get back in their car and get out of my driveway. But I guess that's yet another difference between being a thirty year old mother of three and an eight-three year old, retired great-grandfather.
Continuing my two and a half year phase of a "one woman show", I did all the laundry, all the packing and all the loading up. So that by the time Dustin got off of work on Friday morning we were all waiting for him to shower so we could get on the road. Since we had some spare time...I got a few pre-trip photos of the kids!
Do you think they were excited?!?
I drove so that Dustin could sleep and while I'm glad he got some rest, he missed quite the drive. The kids were good. In fact, they were AWESOME! No tears (not even from Ella) and no fighting. It was like taking a drive before I had kids. But the best part was the view. The trees had started turning colors and by the time we hit Dubuque I had to tell myself to pay attention to the road and not to the trees.
We only had to stop in Madison for a quick potty break and then we were back on the road in no time. And every twenty minutes Lauren would ask, "We got to Pop-pop's house, mommy?"
Friday night we went to eat at The Pub in Mayville, Wisconsin. It's about as old fashion Friday Night Fish Fry as you can get - good, greasy and plenty of it. Ella is busy working on her top two teeth so she gnawed on the table instead.
After dinner we headed home to dig into some birthday cake but not before a jaunt past the old cheese factory. About the time I buckled my seat belt I realized it was going to be a long ride home. Ella was done riding in the car for the day and, by God, she was going to let everyone in rural Wisconsin hear about it.
Thankfully, all we had to do was show her cake and she was all smiles again.
Josh and Lauren wanted to be in charge of the candles. And like any good great-grandfather would, Pop-pop let them defile his beautiful cake with randomly placed candles.
Saturday we set up the projector and looked at hundreds of old slides. I have never laughed so hard in my life! Between the fact that my brother is the spitting of my grandfather in 1952 and the fact that my grandmother didn't know how to cut my mother's hair...oh, man...I have ribbing material for the next five years, at least. What a riot!
Each slide brought stories, most of which I've never heard before. Not to mention, before Saturday I had only seen a dozen, or so, photos of my late grandmother.
Ella spent most her time grazing in the kitchen with the rest of the kids.
Then, of course, Saturday night was the big Hawkeye game. I've come to the understanding, after all these years, that Dustin "shuts down" when it comes to game time. One minute he's visiting and then the next minute he's glued to the tv watching ESPN and hanging on every word of the announcers. I packed everything up and we planned our trip back to the hotel for half time.
And as soon as we got back to the hotel...he was back at it.
Poor Ella was his good luck charm. So she had to stay up till the very end because every time he set her down Michigan scored.
Then it was Sunday and time to go home already. We went to church, went to lunch and took some pictures and we hit the road again.
The kids traveled great and we didn't even have to stop once on the way home!
Happy Birthday, Pop-pop!!! We hope you had a great birthday!
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