Our Trip With Grandma Sloan

One of the highlights of moving to Wisconsin is that we are in Zielke territory!  The Zielkes are Barton's Mom's side of the family. Barton's Mom grew up in Illinois/Wisconsin.  Therefore we have a lot of family around us.  Mama Sloan came to see us and a bunch of her family.  Here is a run down of our week!

Mama Sloan arrived on Friday, September 13th.  We spent most of the time hanging out and relaxing.  Barton gave us a tour of his clinic which is always super fun.  That night we went to a Fish Fry. My first Fish Fry and I loved it!  Who wouldn't love loud polka music, sitting and chatting with total strangers and eating tons of yummy, greasy food!?!

On Saturday we headed to Watertown to visit with Mama Sloan's older brother, Uncle Al.  We also got to visit with his daughter Mary and her family for a bit.  Abigail loves Mary's kids Ella and Logan.  She kept asking for her new friends all day long.

 While in Watertown we got to stop by and visit a couple of places from Mom's childhood.  This is Mullen's.  It had amazing hamburgers and delicious ice ream!  Interesting fact, Mullen's Dairy is who owned the Zielke Farm before Mom's parent's purchased it.

 This is the old farm that Mom lived on for 4 years of her childhood.  I LOVE family stories, so to actually visit some of Mama Sloan's stomping grounds was AWESOME!

 On Sunday we went to church.  After church Mom, Abigail, and I kissed Barton goodbye and left for Illinois.  Our first stop was to see Aunt Grace and Jeanine.  They are such lovely ladies!  Aunt Grace is Mom's Dad's sister.  She is an amazing lady.  One that you could sit and visit with for forever.

  We first got to know these ladies (plus two more of Aunt Grace's daughters in Idaho), 4 years ago when they visited Mama Sloan while she lived in Coeur d'Alene.  We had such a good time with them and with Brandon and Diedre. It is fun to now only be an hour away from Aunt Grace and Jeanine.

Sunday night we continued our travels to Aunt Lanie and Uncle Norm's house.  They are such sweet people.  Aunt Lanie was Mom's best friend growing up and she ended up marrying Mom's cousin Norm.  So cute!  Something every girl dreams of happening with their best friend.

We stayed with Aunt Lanie and Uncle Norm for a couple of days.  Abigail loved all of their toys and I loved hearing all the stories that Aunt Lanie and Mom shared.

On Monday night Aunt Lanie and Uncle Norm had a party for Mom.  A bunch of family came.  It was good to meet so many people.  Here are a couple pictures of some of the people that came:

On Tuesday Morning I got the tour of Aurora.  Here is the house that Mama Sloan grew up in:

 I also got to see a bunch of other places including her elementary, her church, some more relatives houses, her high school, etc.  I LOVED it!

Before we left Aurora we stopped by the cemetery to see where Mama Sloan's parents are buried. My favorite part of the headstone is the caption "Together Forever" and the story behind it.  Mom picked it out for their headstone years before she found the missionaries and joined the church.  Years before she knew that through the Temple they could be "Together Forever".  She just felt like it was right at the time.  And now all of their temple work is done.  We are so blessed to have the power of the Temple in our lives.  

Next we headed to Decatur, Illinois to visit with Great Grandma and Grandpa Sloan.  We stayed with them from Tuesday night to Thursday morning.  It was good to spend time with them. Abigail loved them!

Abigail loved to go out and talk to Grandpa on the swing during his cigar breaks.

I loved watching her push Grandpa in the swing.

Abigail and Great Grandma Sloan

As you can see we had a great time!  But I can't end this post without a shout out to Grandma Sloan. The best part of the week was being with Grandma Sloan.  We love you Grandma!  We can't wait to see you again!