Weekend Warrior [part 1]

HOLY CRIPES, BATMAN! Weekends off?! I forgot what those were............but I love them. Here's the dealio, since New Year's Eve (which I spent bad dancing at Karma), I've been a weekend warrior. The titan of the truck stop. The pop star princess of car concerts. I've been able to give into every whimsical fancy that floats across my mind involving a car and the open road (within reason).

And now I present to you, my weekends in Reader's Digest form:

1) Britani turns 25+2 birthday celebration extravaganza. This particular weekend started by going out with friends Friday night. Then Saturday morning rolled around, and Ben and I tentatively decided to go to Louisville because, hell, it's within the 6 hour radius perimeter that we had just set and neither of us have spent any time there. After a little Google search I found underground zip-lining outside the city limits. Sold. BAM-A-LAM and we're headed south early Saturday afternoon.

Then the snow started. The freakin' snow. North of Indianapolis, we were creeping along. Our trip was taking longer than planned (granted, not a lot of planning went into the trip other than "head south"). That's when traffic stopped. Just stopped. Before long, tow trucks and police cars and hazardous waste clean up crews were driving past us. And we stayed exactly where we were for the next 3+ hours. The worst 3+ hours of hoping that my bladder would not explode, because that's right folks, this chicka had to whiz from minute uno. (btw, no one was killed in the gigantic accident) After that special bonding experience with my man of choice came to an end, we figured it was best to stay in Indy and leave early for the Lou. Ben found a room, and we ended up staying downtown at a hotel hosting a middle school cheer competition. There were fake eyelashes, glitter, and high ponytails everywhere.

By early Sunday afternoon we were in Louisville, hanging out at the Louisville Slugger Museum because sidenote, I wanted to be a baseball player when I was younger.








We also did a whiskey tour at the Evan Williams Experience, where we tried two shot sized glasses of whiskey.

Then Ben booked a hotel online and we drove over to check in and drop off our luggage. As we were standing in line, we looked at each other and commented about how it smelled like old perfume. We had a chuckle, and waited like perfect angels until our turn came. During this time, I figured I should check in on Foursquare because sometimes I'm social media conscious like that. As the Internet delivered my request, the front desk beckoned us to come forward and check in. At this exact moment, the Foursquare stars aligned and the top comment for Seelbach Hotel popped up onto my phone "careful, the 8th and 10th floors are haunted." I don't do haunted. I don't do scary. I do do Google researching though, and Google researching revealed that yeah, that place has had a few things go bump in the night. One of the things was people smelling perfume...
So long story a little less long, we stayed on the 7th floor which means my ceiling was definitely haunted. I think we were the only living humans on that floor. I may or may not have screamed because I saw my own reflection in the window and maybe I tried to pee with the bathroom door open while maintaining eye contact with Ben. All alleged activities keep in mind.  Creepy stuff...especially when I woke up at 3am to use the restroom and our tv was on (did we leave it on?!) and Insidious was playing.........Ben woke up as I was getting out of bed, saw the tv, and knowing that I'm 100% chicken started yelling "DON'T LOOK AT THE TV!!!" which of course made me freak out. Very little sleep that night... and not even for fun reasons.


Monday was my birthday and for my birthday we went going cave zip lining at Mega Caverns!!!!!!!!! Never been zip lining, and definitely never zip lining in a cave so check that one off the ole bucket list. I adored dangling by a rope and going fast, which my mom tells me is "not right." She's such a nice lady.


Monday afternoon consisted of driving back to WI, and getting Kentucky Fried Chicken while in Kentucky. Obviously.

2) The following weekend was a trip to Winter, WI. This trip was also a last minute "hey-ya-wanna" trip, and also included snowy weather that made us take an early pit stop. This time it was a pit stop in LM at my parents' house for the night. It's cool though, because I got to have a glass of wine with my mom and pop and shoot the breeze. And Ben got to say sassy things to make my dad laugh and my mom's "ears bleed." The next morning we proceeded up nort', stopping at the Leinenkugel Brewery for a tour, then in Hayward for lunch, and finally a stop at the casino before getting to the cabin after dark.

super long walk in the dark...

....seriously.....

Since we had rented a crumby little Nissan Versa (which, incidentally, is the exact same little piece that we totaled in IL one year....) we were not able to make it up the tiny snowy hill to the cabin... so we were going to have to walk. In the dark. In the northern woods where bear have been known to wander and a giant had been spotted the month before near the cabin's front porch. I pouted. I got out and tried to push the car myself. Then (mostly because Ben made me), I grabbed my bags and started sprinting through the knee high snow while wimpering and screaming and carrying on like a gawd-damn fool. Once inside the cabin, I hyperventilated for the first time in my life. I don't understand it, and I probably never will. I can jump out of airplanes, speed makes me happy, heights get me excited............ but you ask me to go down a water body slide without a tube, ride a ferris wheel, or deal with the possibility of a bear and I'm down for the count. The rest of our time there was spent watching old movies, playing games, drinking wine, and watching snow fall on the lake. Relaxing once you stop thinking about being mauled by a bear.



xoxo, b

packers vs browns

I love Packer games. I love being in Green Bay on game day.

cousins

We went to the Packers vs. Browns game this last weekend, and had a wonderful little tailgate group. Ben, Jessica, Kor, J, Danny, Sam, Bart, Heather, Arik... it was fun to grill out, drink from German beer steins, and play bag toss in our Packer gear. And of course, there were game tutu's. I feel like that should go without saying.

the ladies

Kor and J had nosebleed seats (if there is such a thing at Lambeau, but it's fine because J is foolishly a Browns fan), and Ben scored us seats in section 138, row 16...... that's 16 rows up smack-dab in the middle of the Packer end zone kiddos. Makes me tear up a little even now.

tutus!

xoxo, b

2 year anniversary road trip

TWO YEAR ROAD TRIP!!

Kor's Bday party in DC :)

This year's anniversary road trip extravaganza started with a surprise birthday visit to Kor in DC. After hanging out and celebrating the 5th anniversary of her 21st birthday, Ben and I rented a car and started wandering southward down the east coast.






There was plenty of car concert singing before we pulled into the Embassy Suites in Hampton, VA late Sunday afternoon. One fancy Taco Bell drive thru dinner and approximately 23 minutes later, and we were both dead to the world.

road trips & complimentary drinks at the hotel every night

road trippin'

Monday we drove to Virginia Beach. It was HOT. 107 degrees. It was HUMID. It was GREAT. Ben wanted to go into the ocean... but I had just finished watching every episode of Shark Week on Netflix a week or so before. Pair this with the fact that I had scrapped my food while in DC and that I'm not too keen on the idea of being mauled by a shark (who can smell blood up to 1 mile away, thank you Discovery Channel), I politely declined his invitation.


After an hour or so of baking in the sun, we found ourselves some air conditioning and a cold beer. While sipping our suds, Ben struck up a conversation with the bartender about how I wouldn't go swimming in the ocean because of sharks. The bartender, in turn, told us about how there was a great white spotted the week before.... about two miles offshore... for about 4 days in a row.... and that authorities were tracking it because it seemed to be hunting..... told ya so.

Monday night we got a couple complimentary drinks in the hotel lobby, then went for some fresh seafood dinner on the James River. So good!


Tuesday was AUGUST 13th!!! Our two year anniversary!! We had breakfast at the hotel and then drove back over to Virginia Beach. This time, I was feeling feisty and ready to cross off another bucket list item: swim in the ocean.

swimming at Virginia Beach

Here's where it gets tricky.
1- My swim skills start and end with the doggy paddle. 2- I don't do sharks. 3- The ocean is the final frontier. Who knows what type of tentacle-clad gooey monster is lurking beneath the waves thinking about taking a nibble of me. Creepy. Long story short, it took me awhile to wade out and do my anxious doggy paddling like no body's business.... but it happened.


After swimming, we watched some air force jets take off and land right across the street from where we were parked. Feeling the air force fever, we then decided to go to an air museum. There were a ton of really awesome planes.

air museum

For our anniversary dinner, we had decided that we should do fresh seafood (again). So we found a restaurant with an all you can eat seafood buffet. We practically gorged ourselves on fresh king crab meat, oysters, flounder, salmon, clams, blue crab, and shrimp. Ben asked a waiter to take our photo with our "2" sign. Ten minutes later, we had a champagne glasses and a cupcake with a candle delivered to our table.

2 year dinner :)

Wednesday we traveled back to DC for our afternoon flight back to MKE.  But that wasn't before my first trip to Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery

Then there was a quick flight, and bada bing bada boom we were home.

xoxo, b

the ugly cry

first business trip

 Ben departed for New York this morning sometime around 4am. I'm not 100% sure on the exact time because, hell, it was 4am and frankly, I was ugly crying. No single glistening tear on this cheek. No, no. More like a pitiful pajama-clad, bedhead me standing lost in the living room trying to keep it together. I don't know about the rest of the population, but when I'm tired and sad my ugly cry is straight out of an 80's horror film. To hold back tears I hold my breath, my stomach clenches up, and my face crinkles and conforms into ways previously unknown to mankind. The breath-holding causes red-eye bulging and a series of odd choking gasps, boogers, and tears.  To top it off, muttering things between gasps like "You look so handsome! I'm going to miss you so much! The cats are mean and punch me while I sleep!" and I've successfully brought a whole new level of sexy. 

Paris & Nicole helping Ben pack

So my husband's gone for Monday through Thursday night. Seriously, not that long at all. Especially since he rounded up some "brit-sitters" to keep me company this week. I have a busy week. And we are leaving for our two year anniversary road trip on Friday night. That's exciting.... I could totally Google things for us to do.... we have plane tickets and no plans. Just the way it should be!

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WI State Fair

Ben and I went to the Wisconsin State Fair on Saturday. It was glorious and sunny and warm and wonderful. We tried loaded potatoes, funnel cake, ice cream, craft beer, did a wine tasting, and rode the sky glider from one end of the park to the other. We also found the barn with the ducks, but the place was way too crowded for me to steal one. 

riding the sky glider

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And here is a photo of Paris wearing a bikini. 

She's trying to break into the cruel world of swimsuit modeling.

I think she looks fantastic.

Paris in a bikini

xoxo, b

dells date

Routine happens to be the worst thing that could happen to me. It makes me stir crazy. (& Ben too, kiddos). We tend to feed off of each other and then bam-a-lam the crazy just intensified. And since stir crazy is only healthy for super limited amounts of time...... a spontaneous mini trip was needed. Highly needed. Extremely needed. Required.

So we went back to LM. Met up with Jessica on the Tyranena Brewery patio. Roped my parental units into joining us. Ate Pizza Pit pizza and washed it down with craft beer. All was fine and dandy and wonderful.

Then Saturday rolled around and we were in the car headed to the Dells for an all inclusive night at the Chula Vista resort and waterpark. We stayed in a condo unit, had a hot tub right outside our room, and a short walk across the street brought us to the entrance of the indoor/outdoor waterpark area. Obviously, Ben kept a mental log of what we "spent" on food and drinks while we were free to roam all-inclusive between 4pm and 11:30am. During those hours, we both became accustomed to a........ a certain lifestyle...... one where you flash your snazzy blue wristband, point and wink at the tiki hut boy, and receive a frozen drink before you can comment on the weather. Try that same move without the snazzy blue wristband, and all you get is a request for 8 dollars. And maybe a phone number. If you're Ben.

Sunday we squeezed in breakfast, lunch, and drinks to go before 11:30am. Talk about Cinderella's fancy horse and carriage turning back into a pumpkin and a couple of questionable mice.

The rest of the afternoon, we played in the indoor waterpark and watched all the little kids run around like maniacs. Then we ran around like maniacs, too. It was also concluded that kids are like tiny drunk people: they can't walk straight, get overly excited about the weirdest stuff, scream and cry then laugh insanely within a five minute span, and make and lose friends every hour.


We went down a couple of double tube slides and dun nuh nuhhh my arch nemesis, body slides (in the kiddie section). The last time I went down a body slide, it was at the Golden Nugget pool in Vegas. I freaked out, scrapped up my elbows, and that slide made me bleed my own blood. So I'm not on the best of terms with body slides as a whole.

Then we went on a quick little wine tasting at Fawn Creek Winery, bought a bottle of Cabernet and a "bitch bag" mix, and went on our merry little way back to Milwaukee.

xoxo, b

ants in my pants

I have some serious ants in my pants.

I'm am in desperate need of an adventure. Which makes me a desperate lady. And desperate ladies do strange and wonderful things, like make a Master Plan on how to leave the area for the weekend:

Master Plan Step One: Finish your bag of discounted Easter candy fun sized Snicker bars in true breakfast of champions style

Master Plan Step Two: Watch a little 30 Rock while eating breakfast of champions to get your creative juices churning

Master Plan Step Three: Find a partner in crime. Getting in the car and heading out by your lonesome is only fun for so long; you need to have at least one other person to create a car air rock band. Besides, solo travel would get you Brit-napped and sold to a shady individual who would cut out your kidney and leave you in a bathtub of ice with jagged stitches which make you think "hey, I doubt he had sufficient medical training to perform such an invasive surgery." And that would be a hard truth to swallow.

Master Plan Step Four: Find a location within traveling distance for a three day weekend. Or a two day weekend. Or an overnight trip. Or a fancy daytrip. In all reality, whatever you can sink your talons into at this point.

Master Plan Step Five: If all else fails, put on the Discovery Travel Channel while you ball up and silently rock back and forth while gentle sobs and glistening tears escape from your body. You can't win them all, kiddo. How terribly depressing.


Luckily, I believe myself to be rather persistent when it comes to matters such as these. There WILL be fun.

xoxo, b

16 candles + 10

I accomplished another full year of living, which brings my grand total to 26. Lucky for me, I have not had any spontaneous arthritis, need for a hip replacement, or found any grey hair. However, I'm 26 now, and I fully realize I will need to monitor for those types of things from here on out.

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To celebrate such a joyous and monumental occasion-- aka the 5th Anniversary Party of My 21st Birthday-- Ben and I decided to head  north to DeCabin in Winter, WI. We left Thursday, and after a pit stop in LM, showed up at the Leinenkugel's Brewery by 3:30 on the dot. We got our tour on (with a crowd of 4 other people), wrote postcards, and sipped 5 different beer samples. Life was good.

Then the TomTom got us lost. Then we got ourselves found. Then we continued to DeCabin.

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part of the goofy zoo puzzle

The next day, my parentals showed up with their pup, Eko. We didn't do much of anything on Friday... other than go for a Friday Fish Fry at the Wannigan, watch movies (What About Bob!), play games (which I managed to win every single one...), put together a crazy puzzle (that ended up missing a piece in the center), walk around the edges of the lake (because I figured I would fall through or a muskie would fly thru and eat me), and drink wine.

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Saturday, we went for breakfast "downtown" at The Hotel. It was the first time since we got up there that either Ben or I had an Internet connection (but still no cell service). No cell/Internet is fantastic!! After breakfast, we took a little trip up to Hayward, WI. On the way, we stopped at the LCO Casino and played 5 cent Wizard of Oz slot machines. I won five bucks on a spin, which apparently flipped a competative switch in my mom, because she immediately went ahead and won 8 bucks on her 5 cent spin. Typical.

mom with Hook Stone wine to open in the summer!

After winning big at the casino, we did some wine sampling at Hook Stone Winery. We bought a bottle to bring back to LM and open sometime in the summer so that my birthday will continue to last throughout the year. Then we stopped by The Angry Minnow Brew Pub and shared a paddle of their craft beer.



beer samples at The Angry Minnow



After the Hayward trip, it seemed like a good idea to make a gigantic bonfire.... even though it was negative something degrees outside. So Ben and my dad created a 5-alarm fire with gasoline and pallets, and then Ben and Eko shot off some fireworks. I think the macho fire was to prove that they COULD make a fire... since they weren't able to do a dam[n] thing about the fireplace inside....

2 men, 1 fireplace, 1 goal

the birthday tiara and matching earrings

Since my 'rents were leaving in the morning, my mom made a steak birthday dinner Saturday night. It was dee-lish. I was even allowed to wear the AMAZING plastic earrings that went with my birthday tiara to dinner... even though it wasn't my bday yet. Because a birthday tiara is exactly what every [twenty-]six year old needs.

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Anywho, Sunday was my official birthday. I woke up with the sun shinning and birds/butterflies fluttering around and Ben singing a gorgeous melody in a deep and soulful voice while on one knee..........then I woke up from that dream to Eko's wet nose and sloppy tongue on my face. A few cinnamon rolls and a shower later, and it was time for me to wait impatiently by the duck phone for my grandma to call and sing me happy birthday. Because it's what she does every year, solely because she is awesome. 

mom signing the bottle

I wore my tiara and earrings that day, we popped a little pink bubbly, and I turned 26 like a champ.





one of the bottles Ben & I
got in NY on our anv roadtrip!

 

In other birthday related news, Ben bought a strange pie and some candles when we first got to Winter. We ate half the pie right away. The second half we saved for my actually bday. Since there weren't enough candles, a couple of scented pillar candles completed the distraught-looking mess of a bday cake display. It took awhile for Ben to light all the candles, and then I forced him to sing to me. After I blew out all the candles my first attempt, we lit them all again so Ben could prove that he was able to blow them all out in one breath, too.

definition of a beautiful disaster

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By the time Ben and I left, neither of us had any idea what was going on in the world or exactly how many days we had spent at DeCabin. It was lovely.

We stopped in LM on our way back to MKE for some birthday margaritas in Mexico (aka the Mexican restaraunt in town) with Jessica. Brianna and Weiner happened to be in the area at the same time, and stopped by to join us. It was a mini fiesta! Brianna told the waiter that it was my birthday. He asked me if I wanted a tequila shot or a shooter. Well HELL! Tequila shots and I end up making bad life decisions together, but I've always gotten along with a shooter. So I asked for a shooter. He brought me a fried cinnamon stick in a glass of whip cream... a "churro."

birthday "shooter"

Life Lesson from a Quarter Life Crisis: You know you're geting old when you turn down a shot and ask for dessert. And the whip cream on that fried cinnamon stick? The fact that you didn't hear the waiter correctly in the first place.

Here's to 26.


xoxo, b

arizona

Our trip to Arizona was just a couple weeks ago, and it was GREAT!

Ben and I left the MKE airport at the un-godly hour of 7am.... and dropped into Phoenix by 9am local time. We shuttled over to the rental car location, where I promptly parked my buns on a bench to guard our bags and engage in some people watching while Ben checked in. He got the keys, and we headed into the parking structure to load into our rental car. When we finally found our rental car section of the massive structure, the little Hispanic man who greeted us took a look at our claims ticket and simply muttered "white one right there." WELL, the white one right there happened to be a 2013 Mustang CONVERTIBLE!!!! Ben was smiling like a fool because he knew all along, and I think he enjoys surprising me because of my strange reactions. I really tried to keep my shit together, but there's a slight possibility that I lost bladder control and started squeaking in excitement.

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So we loaded into the Mustang, which had FIVE MILES TOTAL on it, as well as plastic protectors still scattered throughout the car. The owner's manual itself was still in shrink wrap. The glorious new car smell lingered in the air... It was a bucket list check mark: Convertible road trip.

We stopped at the Casa Grande Ruins on our way south to meet up with my 'rents. It was interesting and made me want to build forts like I did when I was younger.


We drove down to Oro Valley, which is right outside of Tucson, and met up with my parents at the condo they were renting. They were pretty excited to rock out in a convertible as well.

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One day, we had a genius idea to put 5 people into a 4 person convertible and drive 2 hours to Tombstone, AZ. My mom, Brianna, and I squeezed into the backseat and regretted our decision 30 minutes into the trip. Whoever was sitting in the middle of the backseat ended up sitting on a hard hump, which caused butt cheek numbness. Silver lining: it was a couple hours in a car without wasting sunshine exposure.

When we stopped for lunch at a dusty little town along the way, my mom ended up getting herself stuck in the seat belt in the parking lot of a Quiznos. The jury is still out on exactly how she managed to get stuck with the belt unbuckled yet around her waist... wiggling up so she was standing in the backseat.... and climbing out of the car laughing/yelling at the rest of us that "this is not funny! THIS IS NOT FUNNY! I'M SERIOUS YOU GUYS!! HELP ME!!!!!"

Once we made it to Tombstone, we spent some time walking around. We found a silver mining tour, so we decided to hit up the saloon and then head back for some underground excitement. The Good Enough Mine tour was pretty cool, especially since we got to be decked out in hard hats. As we started to descend into the dark depths of the silver mine, Mama Steph became claustrophobic (I think she flashed back to her Quizno parking lot ordeal of before) and had to leave.

After the tour, and after finding my mom, both Brianna and I found silver rings as a souvenir of our AZ trip. Then we rode back in the convertible..... which is more fun when you have more room. I'm jus' saying.

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Early in the morning on one of the days, Ben woke me up and asked if I wanted to go outside and watch the end of a meteor shower. It's widely known that I do not do mornings as well as other individuals, but Ben was so darn cute that I slid on my flippy flops and ventured outside with him. The desert sky was crisp and the stars were so bright... it was beautiful. We walked up a small hill on a dead end street and laid down on the pavement to watch for falling stars. We saw a couple before the sun started to ruin our view and we began to talk about going back inside. It was at this point that I heard what I originally thought to be a dried leaf blowing across the road. It was immediately following this thought that it occurred to me that we were in a desert, and there weren't any colorful fall leaves blowing around........

Whipping around, I saw that it was a stinky little skunk coming straight for us. I wasn't about to be a part of his target practice, so I took off like a bullet out of a gun yelling the whole time "RUN BEN!! IT'S A SKUNK, RUUUUUN!!" As I was shuffling in my flippy flops down the hill trying to keep up the overly large men's lounge pants I was sporting , I saw a gentleman picking up his morning newspaper at the end of his driveway. He gave he an odd look, but then shouted out a "good morning!" As I cruised by looking like a rockstar, I yelled back a hurried "good morniiiiiiiinggg!" Ben jogged by 10 seconds later giggling.

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Our last day in AZ, we decided to do some hiking in the Catalina foothills. It was an awesome, tiresome, experience climbing up a pile of jagged rocks like a mountain goat.

Being overzealous, I pushed for a 3 mile hike to Romero Pools... which incidentally, included the 3 mile hike back out. I wanted to do this: Romero Pools. However, when we got to the pools, there wasn't enough water in the pools to do any sort of jumping, diving, or swimming. The whole hike was so pretty though, and I think it was worth the extra work!

at the Romero Pools with heat exhaustion

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The ride back to Phoenix to catch our early evening flight was bittersweet. The Catalina foothills started to melt into the distance as the highway stretched before us. Everything was so pretty and basked in sunlight.

Ben was really pushing to do a 180 degree turn and head straight to Mexico with the convertible and whatever we had in our single carry-on bag. The idea of running away and living on a beach somewhere south of the border was and continues to be a tempting idea. I absolutely adore the feeling of freedom when you are on the road with no real plans-- just whatever tips your fancy at the time.

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We arrived back to MKE at midnight, and like every other time we get home from a trip, we were attacked all night by a couple of fluffy, purring black monsters.  Then we woke up a couple hours later and each headed our separate ways to work.

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xoxo, b