Eight Years Of Nicholes Fabulousness

This post is in partnership with Holiday Inn. All thoughts, opinions and lovey-dovey language is my own. 

You know, in the age of social media, folks never tire of letting you know just how sick they get of couples that say that they love each other. Let that marinate for a moment. People get tired of seeing people say that they love each other. I know the type of posts they are really tired of though. It’s those posts that make the mundane seem magical with their significant others. You know, eating dinner, or just sitting on the beach gazing longingly into each others eyes. I appreciate those posts. I was there at a point in my marriage, and I’m sure after all of the kids are out of our house, I may be there again. 

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Right now, I’m deep in the throes of the love of parents with four children. Waking up to children bombarding their way into our bedroom as we hastily try to cover ourselves up if we’ve decided to risk getting naked during the evening. It happens. I shall not be a parent that has to give up sex just because little footed ninjas traipse around. I’m pretty convinced that someone will learn how to pick locks soon. 

This moment, we are the couples that take photos of hot food that we get to enjoy. We take photos of clean rooms, and the ability to watch anything other than Qubo, PBS, or Disney Jr. We take goofy photos of us running errands together, and taking our time. Shout out to Mor Mor Baby and Poppy for allowing us those indulgences this weekend. My parents are also four child parents, and they did a pretty decent job with all of us. I mean, we grew up to be pretty happy kids, and to do awesome things. Like scurry away on a trip just so they can watch a Harry Potter marathon without having to stop to break up arguments over who gets to sit on the south side of the couch. So we left that land of arguments, and general craziness and decided to pack up and go north. We already have a love affair with the city in our backyard – Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Pewaukee isn’t that far away from Milwaukee, and I was wanting to see my college campus as well, since so much of our growing up was done that way. So, Pewaukee, Wisconsin it was, and our stay at Holiday Inn Pewaukee was much more pleasant than I anticipated. 

Pewaukess isn’t so far away that it would take us forever to get there, but not close enough for people to come knocking on our door. Our stay at the Holiday Inn in Pewaukee was possible thanks to a brand ambassadorship that I was asked to be a part of, and we loved it! The Holiday Inn brand has really stepped up their style, and gotten rid of so much of the green and white that I remember from childhood. Our lobby was the perfect cozy backdrop to our fall wedding anniversary, and our room was the perfect escape after long days of exploring around Pewaukee, Waukesha and Milwaukee. I wish that we could take more trips like this, and I want to do it every quarter. I honestly want to find little quaint towns to explore and ramble around without an end in sight. 

 

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During this trip to Wisconsin, we were able to visit the Holy Hill Farm Market . We wandered around and saw every aspect of Wisconsin there was to see. Green and gold, red, black, and white, that I had a hard time NOT yelling out BEARDOWN even if we are doing poorly this season. What I DID see were many vendors passionate about their crafts, and a husband who understood the look of fascination in my eyes. There were soap makers, and repurposers. Vintage decor hawkers, and yarn purveyors. It was my type of place. There was even a place for cranberries collected fresh from the bog, and deep fried cheese curds and butterfly fries. Basically, I was surrounded by magic, even if some of it was shrouded in the wrong color. 

Several of the artisans had great soaps, and handmade items, but the area that I loved poking around in the most was all of the vintage stuff. This wall phone would look GREAT in our kitchen, and I would have loved to scoop it up right then and there, but everything was cash and carry, and well we were looking more like plastic and carry. This is why it is such a bad habit to only carry your bank cards around with you. Lesson learned. I also saw this vintage toaster that was then featured in a Downton Abbey episode and made me swoon all over again. 

We will have to make sure to take a longer weekend (a lacrosse match was the cause of us not staying a full three days) the next time, and we have a list of so many places that we want to visit. It keeps growing. We did manage to hit up the Milwaukee Public Market, my college campus, and the Dairy Queen that I worked at during my college years. The thing I won’t forget is that wonderfully comfortable bed that we were privy to, and the wonderful guest service that we received from hotel employees with an extremely packed house. Between lacrosse and a wedding reception, there were people all over the place. 

I can’t wait until the next time we get to visit – we’re trying to take our mini trips at least quarterly, and I think that we’ve found our place to lay our heads! I’ll write more about our adventures the rest of this week.