Top Ten Tuesday: Why Wisconsin?

We usually go apple picking in late September/early October when the honey crisp apples and golden delicious are ready for picking. However, my friend Amy can never go because she works on Saturdays (but not on Mondays) so yesterday she took us on a bonus apple picking trip.

There is a fantastic orchard out near where she lives, about an hour from here.There were 3 families that went and we had a great time. The only thing they were picking right now was MacIntosh, which I don't usually eat, but they are going to make many batches of yummy applesauce, if I can get Chloe to stop taking bites out of them.

Here are the few pictures that I took. I was busy chatting while the kids were amusing themselves at the petting zoo and fun playground area, and although I wish I had more pictures, it was nice to visit.

There are plenty of apples within their reach but they love to get a boost from daddy.

Here are the workers, me and Chloe were the eaters.

The apples kept her locked up, and gave her applesauce diapers as an added bonus.

The rare picture of me, documenting my existence in the family.

These goofballs were pulled in to the orchard by a tractor. Me and my friend, LeShel had to walk since we had strollers. Oh well, it gave us a chance to chat and get pictures of our families riding in the tractor wagon.

This is how you know you had a great day!


It was a gorgeous day filled with lots of fun. Amy even invited us over for dinner after apple picking so the kids got a whole day to play and they introduced me to the very first Brat that I have ever liked. I have tried really hard to like Wisconsin food and it is not happening but this brat was filled with portabella mushrooms and oozing hot cheese...it was so yummy!

As we drove home yesterday I was looking around at scenic Wisconsin. It is so pretty here that it just blows me away sometimes. Everywhere I looked everything was so green and alive. Trees everywhere, fields everywhere, farms growing and the earth thriving, and yet it is all just a stones throw from a major city. We really have it all here.

Which is why today I will share the top ten reasons I love where I live.

10- Education/Schools

Even though I don't love sending my kids to school, I do love that they are getting a better education here than they would have in Utah.

9- Trees

There are so many trees here and they actually turn green, not brownish green, but green green. It just makes everything look alive and happy.

8- Seasons

This would be higher on the list, because it is truly one of my very favorite things in the world but the winter takes it down a few pegs. It is awesome to live somewhere with seasons. When I moved from CA to UT I remember all the locals telling me how much I would love the seasons. Utah has 2 seasons (summer and winter) so I guess that gives them the right to put an s on the end of season, but I still wouldn't boast about the seasonal diversity in Utah. Here we get 4 distinct seasons. Fall is my favorite. I am so ready for the smells of apples, cinnamon, and pumpkin. I am ready for hayrides and cider and the colors that signify that the world is going to sleep. I love the crisp cool (not cold) air that invites me to bundle up in a hoodie and jeans everyday. Oh yeah, fall is definitely the best. The only bad thing about fall is that it ushers in winter which I can't say too much positive about so we will just skip it. Then the Spring comes and I walk around in wonder just falling in love with the world all over again. All the signs of new life, and warming (not warm though) weather. Then summer hits and life is just bursting forth everywhere. You know how much I have been loving summer.

Even though I pretend that I would like everyday to be 75 degrees, blue skies and low humidity (like yesterday) I really wouldn't trade the seasons for 365 matching days a year. I love each day to be unique.

7- Chicago

I love big cities! I dream of living in a high rise apartment in the city. Chicago is a big city at its finest. I love to walk around Chicago. The buildings are fantastic and the whole place is just buzzing with people. Remember, I like people as long as they ignore me. I like to eat downtown,and shop and ride in taxis. I also love that Chicago is on the water. You can sit on the beach facing the water and then turn around and SMACK! there is a city in your face. I also like that Milwaukee is close by too. Living in between two major cities means that there is always something to do. Museums, plays, zoos, festivals...and then back to dairlyland. I really feel like I get the privilege of living in two worlds.

6- Church

Going to church here is so different than in Utah, or even in California. Most of the people we know at church are transplants and so we have all pulled together as family. I LOVE my ward here, even with all its quirks. I have loved the gospel for a long time but I LOVE going to church for the first time in my life.

5- Lake Michigan

I love, love, love the lake. Some of you have asked me what lake that is in all the pictures. It is Lake Michigan which makes up the entire eastern border of the state of Wisconsin and even down into Illinois. Why is is not called Lake Wisconsin? I am not sure. And why does the upper peninsula belong to Michigan when it is on our side of the lake? Not sure of that either...greedy Michigan. Call it what you want but it is our lake and I love it. We live about 1/2 mile from the lake. The lake looks like the ocean to me and I could just stare at it for days on end.

4- Midwest Living

Although we make fun of the Midwest sometimes, we really do live in a fun place that has allowed us to build so many fun traditions. Apple picking, pumpkin patch, the Dells, the dairy breakfast, road side fruit stands, strawberry picking, dirty scummy white castle cheeseburgers for the kids on grocery day. My kids are Wisconsinites through and through. They are even picking up an accent which makes me laugh (or lay-aff as Alyssa would say it).

3- People

Midwesterners are just nicer than westerners, or easterners because remember I have lived there too. People talk to you here, which scares me but I like that there are places where people are still friendly. I have made some of the best friends here. We hang out with people often and in Utah we rarely went out with anyone who wasn't related to us.

2- Visitors

I miss my family but I do love having people come visit. We have had lots of house guests and so many fun vacations right here in our home. We get to drag our families around to show the place off and then we just sit and play games and laugh. The one thing I love about living away from family is that when we are together we are really together. Not just Sunday dinner or a few hours at the park. We are cramming lots of fun and memories into every day, all day.

1- Home Sweet Home

I don't love my house but I love my home. I love being with my family and being a family. The word home conjures up so many images for me, but for my kids it is just this. I love that. I love my life with my family and as long as they are in Wisconsin, Wisconsin will always be home.

Everyone is always trying to sell me on California. I love California but I have learned that it is not the center of the universe (shhh!). I remember growing up there and having that southern California egocentricity and thinking that it was weird that anyone lived in these other obscure states when CA was where it was at. Silly me. There is so much beauty everywhere and I will love it here until I am somewhere else and then I will love it there.

*Just so no one gets defensive and thinks I am hating on Utah or California I will proclaim that I LOVE California AND Utah too...A LOT. They may even be future top ten lists.

Where do you live? Why do you love it?