Earlier this summer, I took my first work trip with the girls along, and I have lived to tell the marvelous tale!
In my job with “InterVarsity Christian Fellowship,”:http://www.intervarsity.org/ I do almost all of my work as managing editor for “The Well”:http://tothewell.org/ from home. I am able to squeeze my responsibilities into the cracks of our day, plus a weekly morning or two of focused work with a sitter or “mother’s helper” around. This situation works out well for everyone!
But a couple times a year, I have an overnight meeting to attend. A couple of months ago, it became clear that our team would really benefit from a short face-to-face meeting with one of InterVarsity’s graphic designers up in Madison, Wisconsin. As we thought it through, we decided that the best way would be for me to drive up to Madison in early June with Lucy and Rosie for the meeting, entrust the girls with a sitter for a few hours, spend the night, and return home the next day. It turned out to be a great scheme!
This was my first overnight trip with the girls by myself, and although I was a little apprehensive, everything went very smoothly. The girls managed the three-hour drive with no problems (with them help of some fabulous music like “_The Little Mermaid_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FZDIL8/octothorppres-20 and “_Bride & Prejudice_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000639YTY/octothorppres-20). My colleague Marcia found a terrific sitter whom Lucy and Rosie just adored. We had a great meeting with Grete, a fantastic graphic designer with InterVarsity’s “2100 Productions”:http://www.intervarsity.org/2100/, and we made some excellent plans for our upcoming site redesign.
Marcia treated us to an amazing dinner of grilled burgers (southeast-asian style for grown-ups!) and cake-pops. Rosie took a little while to fall asleep in the new surroundings (as usual), but she got the job done eventually. And the girls had a wonderful time playing with Marcia’s excellently trained dog (pictured)!
Our family highlight was probably the stop we made at the “Madison Children’s Museum”:http://www.madisonchildrensmuseum.org/ on our way out of town. We were only there for about two hours, but what fun we had! (See top photo.) The museum has wonderful activities for all ages, including:
* a dress-up section in a tree-fort-style area
* a giant gerbil running wheel
* a rooftop garden with snakes, birds, and a sand-pit
We didn’t even venture into the art area (no time!), but we look forward to exploring more of the museum next time. The girls can’t wait for their next Madison trip — and neither can I!
Krista and I were thinking of your family today as I dropped her in Chicago to work at Freshman orientation week at NPU, and here you had a blog up on my wall. I also talked to Kara today, it was 50 and raining in Fairbanks. So, have fun homeschooling the girls this fall. Krista misses them. Madison is great, I grew up in Rockford.
Kip loved the girls!