The S'mores Song

Kristin and Emma enjoy subs on Picnic Point

Allie and Karen prepare to roast marshmallows for s'mores

Lake Wingra

Kristin and Emma rowing on Lake Wingra

This past weekend, Karen, Kate, and I spent most of Saturday and Sunday with two of Karen and Kate's nieces, Allie and Emma. I love these girls. Luckily, I have many opportunities to spend time with them, and they treat me like one of their aunts. I love their big hugs and smiles, and just being part of their lives and watching them grow up.

As I've said before, Karen and Kate truly are the best aunts ever. That's probably why Allie and Emma, and their sister Megan, are always so excited to spend time with their aunts, and have absolutely no reservations about spending the night away from home in Madison, even at such a young age.

It's always non-stop fun when they come to town. On Saturday night, we reserved a fire pit at Picnic Point, where we enjoyed subs from Jimmy John's and s'mores. Picnic Point is a peninsula near campus that extends into Lake Mendota, where hikers, runners, and picnickers can enjoy fantastic views of the lake, campus, and the state capitol. It's a great spot to see the city all lit up at night. We had a great time enjoying several rounds of s'mores and even made up a s'mores song, which Allie continued to sing the entire weekend. It was good stuff.

The girls slept over at Kate's new house and enjoyed "blasberry" pancakes the next morning, while Karen and I volunteered at the Trek Urban Assault race. Afterwards, we joined up again for an adventure on Lake Wingra. We rented a row boat and spent an hour exploring the lake. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun, despite making very little rowing progress and being trash talked by a little girl in another boat who cruised by us with her father in a canoe. After such an exhausting adventure, we walked to Michael's Frozen Custard, where we enjoyed great custard and many laughs over the custard that ended up all over Allie and Emma's clothes and faces. That's the problem with custard, it just melts too fast for the little ones!

It was a great weekend, and I'm excited to see the girls again this weekend for one last summer hurrah at Green Lake.