Fun Times in Wisconsin

Thursday was a day of travel for the Holden's as we headed off to Wisconsin to visit Carter's Grandparents. Mom and Dad were pretty nervous putting Carter on a plane seeing as his energy levels seem to continue to rise and his need for stimulation is unquenchable. To combat his restless nature, the flight to Wisconsin was purposely scheduled during Carter's lunch and nap time. The hope being that after eating his lunch on take-off, he would take a nap in Mom and Dad's lap... needless to say, this didn't happen. Mom and Dad did all they could to keep Carter entertained with books, snacks, and a quick Baby Einstein DVD and 1.5hours later we were landing in Milwaukee. Although Mom and Dad were exhausted from keeping Carter content and quite, he did a good job and a nice lady even stopped by as we got him settled in his stroller to comment about how well behaved he was on the plane.

Grandpa picked us up at the airport as he had flown in just an hour prior and we were off to Madison, of course Carter slept the entire time and hardly made a peep. Our first day in Madison was relatively relaxing with some backyard playtime and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. However, a small roadtrip to a local store (Duluth Trading Co.) in Mt Horeb which proved a much needed energetic release for Carter as he ran all through the store chasing Grandma and Grandpa... only to stop and look at the hardware museum.

Luckily all the tools are well secured, but Carter still had a great time as all the tools on the lower shelves were well within reach for his wandering hands. Then it was back to Grandma and Grandpa's for a more relaxing evening playing with the Grandparents and enjoying a great Wisconsin evening.

The next day we woke up excited for the day to come. We started out with a morning outing to a local playground an then a nap, then on to the excitement. We were off to the Madison Children's Museum. We are members of the Atlanta Children's Museum and have been to the Charleston Children's Museum, but this one was a bit different and a lot of fun. We first started off the Wildernest on the first floor, Carter immediately walked on the overhead bridge and surveyed the play are below him.

He quickly decided to walk to the back with Grandma and played a bit of dress up with a great cow skin vest.

Grandma wanted a picture, but Carter was ready to move. He started to crawl around the tunnels and bridges.

After a bit of fun crawling around, Carter found an area that really grabbed his attention, the water dome. Mom quickly helped Carter put on his protective bib (Mom and Dad thought it would help keep him dry... Mom and Dad were wrong).

Carter quickly found that the measuring cups did a great job of catching, and then throwing the water in the air.

He provided plenty of entertainment for all as he explored this new way to play with water.

Carter's entertainment seemed to multiply as the amount of water he splashed on himself increased.

Before Carter became wet from head to toe, we distracted him towards the music room hut and other huts in the Wildernest. Here Carter tried to show off his new found skills of cleaning things up and putting things away (notice how wet his right side is, it took all afternoon for him to dry off).

From the Wildernest we took Carter to the second floor to explore the Possible-opolis (yeah, that is spelled right). Although the area is geared towards kids 5 and up, Carter had a great time walking around and interacting with all the exhibits. He first worked on drying out his curls on in the old style hair dryer chair...

There was also a fun art area in the Possibile-opolis, here Carter worked on developing his painting skills. Although most of the paint he worked with ended up in his mouth or on his clothes, it appeared that he somewhat was getting the idea.

It really appeared that the part Carter liked in the art room was his cute little apron.

After our art adventure, it was back to the exhibits, Carter had fun playing with the marionettes with Grandma and then locked himself in an old style phone booth.

Then we were off to the Rooftop Ramble, we didn't know what to expect on the roof, but we exited the elevator to a great green roof. Before exploring the garden, we headed to the Clubhouse. There Carter met his first chick, and the nice employees even let Carter get a quick pet in.

After seeing the baby chicken, we were back outside, Carter opened the compost bin top and there before him were big grown up chickens. Carter stared in amazement, and even once he was put down, he still wanted another look.

We continued to play and explore the rooftop garden. The facility is beautiful and across the street from the State Capitol which made for some great picture opportunities.

It was a great and entertaining day, finished with a quick visit to Carter's Great Grandparents house, and then a nice fish fry dinner. Here are a few more fun photo's from the museum.