What a weekend!

This was a great weekend for the Wagner household it’s hard to know where to begin to write about! As most of you know this weekend Tait, Lehna, and I traveled north to visit my mom and step dad in Wisconsin and we had such a WONDERFUL time! It was fantastic!

The drive up was crazy but that’s typical Tait and went up via the Sky Way through Chicago and ALLLLLLL of the Sky Way express ways were CLOSED and there was NO signage that let us know that until we tried to get on the express way so needless to say it was a little chaotic going up it was only stop and go for about 30 minutes but as soon as we left the city it was smooth sailing the rest of the journey!

We tried to keep Lehna up as much as possible on the way up there but we could not stop the train of sleepiville so Lehna crashed about 6:30 and was out clear to Hartford! When we got there Lehna was WIDE awake and ready to play. Luckily Mom and Terry volunteered to stay up with her to get her back to sleep. I love visiting relatives they are always so generous!

Saturday morning we headed to Milwaukee to go on the Miller Company Brewing Tour. I was in when they said FREE SAMPLES! It was a pretty interesting tour over all.
The tour didn’t start until 1:30 and we got there at 1:15 so we hung out in the gift shop. As you can see from the picture below Lehna got to try on some of the souvenirs… It didn’t quite fit.

Stephanie in front of the Beer Sign

Tait in front of the Beer Sign

The tour began with 15 minute video where you watched a BUNCH of miller commercials and a very BRIEF history of probation and the process of the beer brewing. I was a little nervous about the video b/c I wasn’t sure how well Lehna would do having to sit through a video but she was EXCELLENT! We only had to trade her once b/c she got a little squirmy after 10 minutes and even then she was FINE! After the video we headed to the bottling and packaging part of the “miller experience.” We were a little sad b/c the machines weren’t turned on but it was kind of interesting to see all the big machines. They said they only have the machines turned off once a week and that’s on Saturday… you’d think that they would move it to let’s say Wednesday when tours of people weren’t going through but… they didn’t ask me. Below is a picture of the most beer I have ever seen in my life. There were ROWS AND ROWS of this stuff. They said there was enough beer in this room to fill 5 football fields which that’s A LOT of beer!

(Sorry for the blurriness we were walking)

Tait and I joked about him starting at one end and me at the other and meeting in the middle… of course we would probably DIE but it was funny.

After we went through the different stages of processing (they were kind of boring) we were lead into this section called “the cave” this is where F. Miller would allow his beer to ferment after being processed… they don’t use it any more. The “cave” was closed for many years where it was then turned into a restaurant… this cave was creepy it looked like an old mining shaft so needless to say the restaurant was short lived. I thought it would be an EXCELLENT place for a Halloween tour b/c it was just spooky enough. But again… they didn’t ask me 

After the tour we were lead in the “the tasting room” I was REALLLLLLLY excited about this part of the tour. We were seated at tables and then the beer wenches brought the beer. We got to taste three beers total: Miller Light, Miller High Life, and Miller Genuine Draft. I have to say that out of the three I enjoyed the Miller Light the most… but I’m still a bud light girl through and through… Well we were “supposed” to have three beers BUT mom didn’t like her Miller High Life so I finished her’s off… THEN they left an extra MGD on the table soooo Tait and I finished it off. Now normally I wouldn’t drink 4.5 beers in twenty minutes and on an empty stomach but I did and boy was I feeling good.

A little side note about the beer tasting... is they had free pretzels for your beer tasting pleasure and they said when you came in... Please enjoy as many as you like... well there was ONE package on the table for everyone that was it! They never came around and handed out more... it was sad :(

Tait and I were both giggly and I was having some trouble walking. We noticed that the whole room got a little giggly which was funny. Mom and Terry were the sober ones in our group which was good b/c Terry was driving and Mom had Lehna. Here are some pictures of the “beer tasting”

Yummmmmmm Beer.

Empty glasses … Not Possible! Beer wenches come fill our glasses!!

Even Lehna got to try some (just kidding it's a bank)

After stumbling back to our car we headed to Pieces of Eight restaurant.

The view from this restaurant was breath taking. We arrived a little early so we had cocktails and appetizers (yes more alcohol) and relaxed until they served dinner. They seated us in the front of the restaurant so we had a lake view of Lake Michigan it was beautiful and right next to us was the Milwaukee Art Museum. It was quite wonderful below is a picture of the art museum and Milwaukee city scape. (The art museum had the panels open when we arrived and they closed them during the meal… this is a picture of the panels closed)


The food was so wonderful. We had this wonderful soup called Beer Cheese soup and it was like a cheesy bread soup it was very yummy. The soup was just the start of the meals to come. The meal was definitely first class it was just really good. If you ever visit Milwaukee give this restaurant a try you will be knocked off your feet.

After dinner we headed back to mom and Terry’s and enjoyed the rest of the weekend at their house. It was really nice. Mom and Terry really enjoyed being able to see Lehna and Lehna was so wonderful the whole weekend.

Mom, Terry and Lehna
(Don't worry Lehna is only frowning b/c I have the camera out!)

Lehna also had a milestone SHE CRAWLED FORWARD! She was quite frustrated when she did it… but she learned how to do it. She doesn’t quite trust herself completely to move her arms very far in front of her but she did a GREAT job. We were all really excited. Tait and I are hoping to catch her tonight with the video camera. I know that with a few more weeks of practice she’ll be gone once we put her on the floor!

Well that was pretty much our weekend. Tait and I want to go visit them again very soon. I hope that the weather continues to stay mild and maybe we can visit before the weather gets to crazy, but we’ll see.