So at the end of August I was able to visit my sister, Mona, her husband, Ben, and my two adorable nephews, Bridger & Carter. It was perfect weather in Madison. We had a great time seeing downtown Madison with its awesome farmers market, the capitol building, the museum of contemporary art, and of course the University of Wisconsin campus where we had hamburgers and hot dogs, and watched Bridger feed the ducks. Well, actually, Bridger didn't feed the ducks because he was scared of them, and after getting slimed when he accidently put his hand in a big pile of duck poop, Bridger decided to eat the bread himself (after we thoroughly sanitized his hands, of course) instead of giving it to those stinky old birds. He also decided it was safer behind his dad's legs than out in front closer to the ducks.
I also was able to go to Spring Green, Wisconsin where one of the homes of Frank Lloyd Wright was built. For those of you who are not art history nerds like I am, Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most influential architects ever to come out of America. He is famous world wide for his innovative, if sometimes eccentric, ideas. His home there is called Taliesin, and it is definitely an interesting building. It has a tragic history though. The home was re-built 3 times because it kept getting burned down. The first fire was started by one of Wright's servants who was mentally deranged. In that fire, Mamah Cheney, Wright's mistress and 2 of her children were killed. The second fire was started by lightning. You would think after that, he wouldn't want to rebuild it again, but Wright was very determined. The home is now slowly deteriorating due to lack of funds to keep it maintained, but it is still pretty cool to see.
To get to Madison I flew into Chicago and then drove to Madison. I was able to spend a little bit of time in Chicago where I saw Wicked with my friend, Jeff. It was SO good! I highly recommend it to anyone. Jeff and his family were kind enough to let me stay at their house overnight, then Jeff drove me to Janesville Wisconsin where Mona picked me up. 
On the way back home, Mona and Ben wanted to go to the temple in Chicago, so I babysat the boys while they went to the temple, then we all went together to explore the wonders of downtown chicago before I had to fly back home. Since we had a limited amount of time, the only thing we really got to see was the Hancock building. The views from the top were amazing, even if we did have to sneak past the grouchy security guards to get to the top. :-)
In all, it was a really fun trip. It was so nice to have a vacation from school and work, and it was even better to be able to spend time with Mona and her adorable family!!
