First off, I have to give a big THANK YOU!!! to our friend Carolyn, who is incredibly sweet and generous (and crazy). When she heard that I wouldn’t be able to go to the MERA meeting, she volunteered to watch the kids for a day so I could go up and be with Peter. And she didn’t tell me until I got home that she had a migraine the whole day (not because of the kids – she said – she gets them every so often – but still!) What a huge gift!!!
But that was Tuesday; on Monday Sam, Hannah, Naomi, and I (and about 75 other people from our homeschool group) went to the Pumpkin Patch for our field trip. It is always a highlight of the year (the kids have been asking to go for over a month, and now they’re asking if we can go again!) They have a corn maze, petting zoo (with miniature horses, llamas, lots of goats, sheep, bunnies, and kitties; and chickens, guinea hens, doves, and ducks that you can look at), hayride, inflatable bouncy tractor, and the kids’ favorite – an old boat set up over a “cave” of haybales that they can just run around and play on. Normally it costs $11 for a “do everything” pass; if you have a large enough group (I think it’s over 10) on a weekday you can set up a tour, and then it’s only $4. So it’s definitely worth going with the group, especially if you have multiple kids!
Anyway, so that was our Monday. Debbie even volunteered to watch Elaina and Josiah, so I didn’t have to worry about chasing them around and could enjoy myself with the older kids (not to mention chatting with the other moms!)
Then Tuesday, thanks to Carolyn, I was able to go up to Cable to meet Peter for lunch. As I was driving up, I passed some of the places we had wandered to on our honeymoon – a great start to a romantic afternoon! Although I did a little wandering of my own on the way up – I had forgotten the name of the resort where he was staying, so I ended up driving up to two other resorts nearby before I struck on the right one!
But I still made it before he was out of his meeting, so I got to chat with some of the other wives from Peter’s office before he came up. They hinted that he had a story for me about his drive up, but said I’d have to wait for him to tell it.
When he did arrive, we decided to go away from the convention to eat, so we could have a chance to talk without being interrupted. This was more easily said than done in a tiny northern Wisconsin tourist town! We tried at least five different restaurants, and they were either all full, closed (apparently most of them were only open for the ski season, or not for lunch), or crummy little bars that didn’t even serve pizza! So, after a gorgeous drive around Cable for about an hour (the colors were at their peak – it was the perfect time for a drive! Although my growling stomach didn’t seem to think so) 
we went back to the resort, where thankfully the dining room had cleared out and we were nearly alone.
On the drive, though, Peter told me his story about the drive up Sunday night – apparently he’d hit a deer while driving his motorcycle! Since he was alive and smiling in front of me, I didn’t have a heart attack then and there at the news (!) but I did wonder how he had escaped apparently unscathed (I had seen his motorcycle, too, and there was no obvious damage). It had been after dark, and he was almost to the resort, when he saw a deer at the side of the road. Its back was to him, so he wasn’t too concerned. Next thing he knew, he felt something hit his knee, and the bike swerved, but he was able to bring it back under control and keep going. He said later that he found a slight ding on the bike, and he didn’t even have a bruise on his knee.
The strange thing was, I was feeling particularly paranoid about deer that day, since I’d heard on the radio that morning that more deer/vehicle accidents happen in October and November than any other time of the year, so everyone should be more careful. I guess they were right!
Oh, and on our way back into the resort for lunch, a car stopped next to us as we were walking through the parking lot, and, rolling down the window, a hispanic man called out hello to Peter. He was one of the technicians from an office in Colorado, and apparently quite a character. After Peter introduced us, he said to me, “I thought you couldn’t come because you couldn’t find a babysitter. Your kids must be brats!” Not quite sure how to respond to this, I must have paused before smiling at his joke, because his mortified wife (who was in the back seat – they had five people in the car) rolled down her window and apologized profusely for his rudeness! I assured her that I was not offended, and we passed on. But every time we saw them the rest of the day, she apologized again for her uncouth husband
After lunch we went back to Peter’s room, which was not a normal hotel room, but looked like it was someone’s personal condo or something – there was a name on the doormat, and family pictures in the bedroom. It was very odd. I kind of felt like we were trespassing. But it was rented, free and clear, by the company, so whatever!
The family who apparently rented it did have an odd sense of decorating. This was on the wall in the dining room area:
and the rest of the rooms in Peter’s suite also had a nordic/northwoods theme. In the downstairs bathroom there was a picture of bears with their pants down next to a stream with the caption “Moon River.” Yeah. Lots of bears and ski poles. I’m guessing they came up every winter for the Birkebeiner (I hope I spelled that right – apparently the spell check has never heard of it!) a very famous cross-country ski race that draws people from all over the world. It’s a big deal up here.
Anyway, for dinner we made our way down to the annual company Awards Banquet. Oddly enough, we ended up sitting with the couple from the car that afternoon (and yes, she apologized again) It turned out they had brought along an older couple from Madison, who had sponsored him when he first came to America (he was originally from somewhere in the Amazon basin). The older couple was pretty quiet (but the younger man more than made up for them!) I got along very well with his wife (mothers always love to talk about their kids!) and we had a great time. And when it came time for the awards, he not only got a 10-year pen, but he also won the award for Member of the Year! We sure sat at the right table!
The last award of the night was for Best Costume. We had been told to dress on a lumberjack theme, so Peter and I had pulled out our jeans and flannels (I was so glad I didn’t have to dress black tie, as was usual for these banquets!) They first had each table pick their own “best dressed” and, since no one else at the table had dressed up, it was between Peter and I, and somehow I got sent up. In deeper waters now, I was really no competition. Here’s a picture of the three finalists:
For the record, the man in the center is from Scotland and wears his kilt every year (but not the hat and the wig; that was new this year!). The man on the right works in Peter’s office, and he is a big hunter and fisherman, so this wasn’t too much of a stretch for him. The man on the left, however, really went all out – he even had fake teeth. I had no chance
But anyway, we had a very fun evening, even though I had to leave early to get home and relieve Carolyn (I didn’t make it back until 10:30 as it was!)
One of the best memories of the day, though, didn’t come until this morning, when my sweet, wonderful husband called from work to tell me how much he’d enjoyed our afternoon together, and couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it was to spend the afternoon with me. :) :)
