A Whole New World

I know I just posted the other day, but Chad and I have experienced some new things in the last few days (well, at least I have).

We volunteered last night at THE WORLD'S LARGEST BRATFEST!!! I had to put that in all caps to make it seem really cool. It was a lot of fun. Chad and I were both cashier runners, meaning we ran to grab drinks when people ordered. We switched off shifts so that someone would always be with Cameron. Chad worked first, so I got my hotdog (I don't do brats) and pepsi and sat to listen to a band, Sunspot. They were actually pretty good. I wish I could've captured it better on my camera, but Cameron started randomly dancing. Hilarious cause it was really loud rock music. Guess he likes that.

They also had carnival rides and little booth-like things where you could get souvenirs or funnel cakes (I did get one of those!). The only kind of annoying thing was that there were two bands kind of battling it out...way too loud. But overall, it was a lot of fun.


















Another new thing for us was that we just got back from our first family bike ride...complete with little kid seat on the back of my bike. So, I've gotta mention that I haven't ridden a bike in a LONG time. I figured getting back into it would just be like...riding a bike. Hee hee. I had to say it. Anyway, so I had this new bike to get used to and then let's throw a 22-pound kid on the back, just for kicks. The first few blocks were rough. Poor Cameron. He probably felt a little motion sickness at the beginning. And I'm so out of riding shape (well, shape in general) that I was really tired when it was all over.

But since we volunteered last night, we got coupons for a free brat (or hotdog, thank you) and ice cream from the Chocolatte Shoppe. Good stuff. There's one located down by the library (about a 10-15 minute walk from our place). So we biked on over there first and then went down the bike trail.

Madison has this awesome bike trail going through the whole city. We rode downtown and stopped at Lake Monona. Really pretty and so much fun.

We stopped at Monona Terrace to look at the water and take some pictures. Cameron was really annoyed with his helmet and being in the seat for a while. I'm not sure how many miles it was down there, but it took us probably a good 30 minutes.

We later stopped at a grassy spot to hang out. I was helping Cameron with his helmet...

And spotted this. Look at his nose. This was a common occurrence on our trip.

Then Cameron decided it would be a good idea to eat a dead dandelion. Nasty.

This is Monona Terrace. Kind of a funky building--it was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright (he's a WI native and some of his houses are around).

I was totally out of focus on this one, but I think it looks cool.

This is on the way back to our place. I felt like I was going to die. Seriously. The trail was really pretty in this spot. It's kind of in the back of a few neighborhoods.

It was great. A lot of work (I think we were gone for around 2 hours!), but a lot of fun. I'm glad we have our bikes now and can go on rides together (and get in shape!).