The Packer Zone

You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of beer and football but of cheese heads. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of Lambeau Field. That's the goal post ahead- next stop, The Packer Zone......

If you have never been to Green Bay, it's a unique place when it comes to football. For those of you who aren't football fans (myself included), this is the home of the Green Bay Packers football team. Now, this is a relatively small town. No sky scrapers, little traffic, lots of farms, etc. What makes them unique is the fact that the town owns the football team.

The fans here are more than enthusiastic about their team. It's more like rabid...kinda scary really. Everyone, and I do mean Everyone watches the game. And then they talk about it all day the next day. When I mentioned that, no, I don't care for football...well, you would have thought I had three heads with horns and fuzzy green things popping out all over!!! On Friday's, when most companies have "dress down day", they have "Packer Day". Businesses from Banks to hospitals and grocery stores are awash in a sea of Green and Gold. During season, local churches change their service time to accommodate the games. They have parties to "relive" Super Bowl 31. (I'm assuming the Packers won that year) They paint their houses green and gold. They carve big G's into the trees. When people found out that Brett Favre was leaving, they cried...cried!!! I'm talking about grown men! They are seeing an increased number of patients with depression because of this! Again, for non-football folks, he was the quarterback here since, like, 1915 or something. I am not making any of this up! OK... maybe the 1915 part, but that's it! I was told by one mother not to mention Brett Farve to my 10 year old patient because he is very upset about the whole thing. Seriously?!?!

Let me give you a couple of examples:

Portage, Wis.- Upset that his 7-year-old son wouldn't wear a Green-Bay-Packers jersey during the teams playoff victory in January, a man restrained the boy for an hour with tape and taped the jersey onto him

Green Bay, Wis.- David Whitthoff has worn his Brett Favre jersey every day since receving it as a Christmas gift in 2003. His mother washes it every two days and mends it when needed.

Then there's the "Green Bay Bikini Girls". These are three women who wear bikinis to all the home games no matter the weather!! I'm talking about 23 below zero! Even beer freezes at that temperature, which is, by the way, the biggest complaint at Lambeau Field.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I'm including a few pics to prove my case.

I.'s last day

Saturday was a very sad day in our house. I.'s time with us is over and he flew back to FL to start school on the 18th. He wanted to go back to Chicago one more time before he left, so on Friday we drove down there. We spent the day at the Field Museum of Natural History. The museum is NOT free, but if you look hard enough online, you can find 2 for 1 coupons. There were some really cool exhibits. They had dinosaurs, lots of animals, and even a special exhibit on mythical creatures. J really liked that. B loved the dragons and the girls liked the mermaids. They even had the famous P.T. Barnum mermaid.

We made a great find in the Museum Gift shop! Dinosaur sneakers! B and G both needed sneakers, so we got them each a pair. They are so cute! B's have dino's on them and G's have big Dino eyes on them. On the bottom there are dino footprints. Everytime B wears his he chases us roaring! Before you ask, S didn't like them. (weird, right?)

On Saturday we got up early and took I. to the airport. He asks me every time he leaves if I'm going to cry. He tells me not to, and I tell him I will try really hard not to, but I probably will. I always do. Well...I did, and so did the girls. We were just a mess. I wonder if he knows what kind of state his departure leaves us in. I know he was excited to get home to his friends, but we miss him already!

He starts his new school on the 18th and he's a little nervous. If ya'll have his e-mail, some encouraging words would be nice for him.

When we left the airport, J and I decided we would check out Madison. It's only an hour from the airport and 3 hours from home, so we figured we would go while were close. We toured the capital building and walked the downtown. We even found a used bookstore and I found a book I'd been trying to find for a while. J and I decided that we really like the feel of a college town and will probably settle in, if not near one. We're not much for big cities, but being close to one would be nice. Our ideal town is getting more and more specific, and hopefully by the time we do settle down, we'll have it narrowed down pretty good.

One last thing I wanted to tell you about:

The other day the kids and I were at the playground in the mall. We walked over to Shopko (it's like a Target) to get a couple of drinks. I let the kids pick out some flavored water. It wasn't until B was one his THIRD cup that I noticed the "ENERGY" on the side of the bottle!! Holy Cow!! 50Mg of Caffine plus Guarana and Ginsing!!! Well, needless to say he was wired the rest of the day!! I thought he was never going to go to sleep that night. J thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Love to all!!!!

d

p.s. What do ya'll think of J's hair?!?! Everybody vote....maybe we can talk some sense into him!!!

Noah's Ark Water Park

This past Wednesday we spent the day in Wisconsin Dells at Noah's Ark Water Park. If you don't know anything about Wisconsin Dells, It is a small town that is the epitome of tourism. There are 21 water parks plus other amusement parks, miniature golf, go carts, and everything else you can think of. Oh, it's also the place for the "worlds best fudge".





Noah's Ark is the largest water park in the country. We arrived at about 11am. J dropped us off at the front entrance and parked about 2 states away....no, not really, but it was about a 20 min walk. As soon as he drove off I realised I left my bathing suit in the truck!!! When he got back to where we were he had to turn right back around and go back because I had no idea where he parked. The kids and I went ahead to "tadpole bay", one of many kiddie areas. While waiting for J and my bathing suit, I was letting the little ones play in the water. Apparently, there is a large tub that continually fills with water. Periodically, a bell will ring and the LARGE tub will dump on those who happened to be under it. Guess who was standing under it holding B.......!!! We both got soaking wet!! The poor baby was so traumatized it took us 3 hours to get him to go back in the water!! And if he heard a bell....Look out!!! J was actually the one who got him to relax. He even took a nap while floating around the lazy river with me. By the time we left he was crying to stay longer.





We let I. run by himself for a few hours and I think he went on every ride. I really had fun going on slides with him. I know he had a good time, I don't think I've seen him smile so much in a while.





There are pic-nic areas right outside the gate so we packed a cooler for lunch. The only thing I think we had to buy was a swimper for B (in case he pooed) and a waterproof container for money and keys.





G was a little nervous. She is such a cautious child. Once she rode a couple of slides, she was fine. There was only one time when she walked all the way to the top and changed her mind when she looked down. And, having been on the slide, I think she made the right choice. But she did a lot better than I thought she would as far as rides went.





S....ah, my dare devil child!!! She would go on every slide if she were tall enough! J took her on a few of the bigger ones and she kept complaining that they weren't fast enough!! She was even trying to convince me to let her go around the lazy river by herself!





No one got sunburned (yeah!) and everyone was exhausted!!! Definitely someplace we would like to come back to for a week vacation when the kids are older.



I don't have any pictures of the water park (I didn't want to get my camera wet) so I'm just including some recent pics of the kids.


love to all!!!!