Hellooooooooo everyone and happy Monday! After a beautiful weekend in Wisconsin, I’m back in Ohio and here once again to bring you the latest and greatest. My oldest brother Peter graduated this weekend from the University of Wisconsin with a PhD in Chemical Engineering, so my family packed up the car and headed up to Madison, Wisconsin for the ceremonies and quality time with my brother and his fiance, Megan. We left around eight o’clock in the morning on Friday so we could make it just in time to the five o’clock ceremony at the university. We arrived in Wisconsin around four in the afternoon, which is awesome considering we got stuck in the bowels of Chicago traffic for an hour. -___- We arrived at my brother’s apartment to freshen up for a bit, and then we followed him and Megan to the university for the ceremony. Here’s some pictures from ceremony numero uno!

• PicStitch 1) Peter looking scholarly as hell in his graduation robes!! Hubba hubba!
• PicStitch 2) Peter and his fiance Megan being precious. They’ll be getting married at the end of July, which is pretty exciting! The pictures in this collage are a combination of the ceremony on Friday and the second one on Saturday. So cute!
• Photo 3) Yours truly sporting her graduation best! As usual, here’s the breakdown of what I was wearing from head to toe:
• Floppy hat: PacSun, Brandy Melville
• Lace blazer: Blue Boutique, Esley
• Floral dress: TJMaxx, Mine
• Telephone purse: Macy’s, Betsey Johnson
• Cream lace up wedges: Kohl’s, Juicy Couture
• Photo 4) My sister Kristen and I doing the damn thing!
• Photo 5) Peter and I!! I love this picture so much and I can’t wait to get some copies printed out so I can frame it and put it in my room where I can see it every day. And I must say, I was really feeling my outfit that day, as Kristen so appropriately Snap Chatted in my featured image with the caption “she’s feeling herself”. Hahaha
• Photo 6) All of my siblings and future sister in law! From left to right: Kristen, my brother Andrew, Peter, Megan, and yours truly!

So the ceremony on Friday was for all of the PhD graduates at the University, the ceremony on Saturday was specifically for the engineering department. There’s not much to say about either ceremony other than the fact that it was boring and the only exciting thing was seeing Peter strutting his stuff across the stage. Thank goodness for free WiFi in the building, because I would have blown my brains out from boredom. 🙂 After the ceremony we found Dr. Peter and went out to dinner at this super yummy Mexican restaurant, Laredo’s. I was SO hungry and completely annihilated my vegetarian dish. I also may or may not have ate an entire bowl of chips and salsa before our food arrived. Whoops 😉 My family was so tired after dinner, so we headed to our hotel to check in for the night. We stayed at the Cambria hotel, which was not too far from Peter’s apartment. The hotel was really nice – especially their insanely comfortable bed and pillows! Their pillows were seriously like resting your noggin on a big, firm marshmallow. Seriously, as soon as your head touched the pillow you could feel it forming to your cranium and it was incredible. My mom and I both agreed that we need to find a pillow like that ASAP, because they were fabulous.

On Saturday we woke up relatively early so that we could get ourselves ready for brunch and the second graduation ceremony at two o’clock. For brunch we went to an absolutely amazing predominantly vegetarian restaurant called the Daisy Cafe, and oh my god it was to die for. Everything was SO good! I got a roasted vegetable omelet with goat cheese and a side of sourdough toast. My omelet also came with breakfast potatoes and a slice of fresh pineapple and cantaloup. It was a breakfast fit for a queen, and it was absolutely perfect. The cafe was decorated beautifully on the inside with bright poppy colors and mosaic artwork. It was also gorgeous on the outside as well, with mosaic pieces and mechanical statues in their garden. Take a look:

^^^ So pretty! If you recall, I wrote about a place that my family visited during our summer vacation to Wisconsin called Dr. Evermore’s, which was a park filled with incredible mechanical sculptures – some big, some small, and all equally impressive. I’m pretty confident that the robot, dog, and flower sculptures at the Daisy Cafe are all done by Dr. Evermore. The resemblance is too uncanny not to be, as you can see by these pictures:

(You can read more about Dr. Evermore’s in my article “Dr. Evermore’s (The greatest place on earth)” !!!)

After a delicious brunch, we went to Peter’s apartment to primp and beautify, then we headed back to the university for the second ceremony. This one was actually a lot more enjoyable than the first because it was a lot more intimate since it was only the engineering PhD’s and their families at the ceremony. We got excellent seats and were able to see Peter very clearly, which was great considering we couldn’t even find him on Friday. Here’s a few pics from ceremony numero two:

• Picstitch 1) While taking pictures with my mom, she said that she’s not selfie material…I say FALSE!!!
• Picture 2) Once again, Kristen and I doing the damn thing.
• Picture 3) Hanging out with Dr. Peter! And as usual, here’s the break down of what I was wearing:
• Trench coat: PacSun, Jack
• Army green wedges: TJMaxx, Guess
• (Underneath the trench I was wearing the blue dress that Kristen had on during the Friday ceremony, which is from Express.)
• Picture 4) Peter in line to receive his diploma!!!! What a stud!
• Picture 5) The look Peter gave me when he realized I was taking his picture! Hahaha

The Saturday ceremony was a lovely time, and once we met up with Peter afterwards we decided to walk around the shops close to campus for a while to work up our appetite because we were all still so full from brunch! Andrew, Peter, Megan, and my mama spent time in one of the stores with a lot of Madison sports gear, while Kristen and I opted for Urban Outfitters. We both got a gorgeous new dress, which you’ll all be seeing sooner or later this week! 🙂 After an hour and a half or so of shopping, we were all hungry enough to eat, so we went to the Great Dane, which is one of Madison’s staple restaurants. Naturally, the Great Dane was hopping with graduation celebrations and Saturday night tom foolery, so we had a half hour wait for a table, which was fine by me because I still wasn’t all that hungry. Once we got a table, we ordered cheese curds for an appetizer, because you kind of have to when you’re in Wisconsin. When in Rome, as they say. 😉 Unfortunately, our meals took a fairly long time to arrive at our table since the restaurant was so busy – but that’s okay because the food was so amazing that it didn’t matter. I ordered a peanut stew, and it was legitimately the best thing ever. It was cilantro rice, butternut squash, red onions, and red peppers all drenched in a peanut sauce. So delicious! Everyone really enjoyed their meals, and after our late dinner, we went back to Peter’s apartment to unwind with some silly television shows before we went back to our hotel for the night.

Yesterday was my brother Andrew’s 26th birthday, and unfortunately most of it was spent in the car for our drive home! (Happy birthday Andrew! I love you!) We met up with Peter and Megan for a quick breakfast at McDonald’s and then said our goodbyes. The next time we see them will be at their wedding! We were on the road by ten-ish and made our long trek back to Ohio. We arrived home in Cuyahoga Falls around seven thirty and I was soooo happy to be out of the car to stretch my legs and most importantly, go to the bathroom. We only made one stop during the entire eight and a half hour drive, and let me tell you – my bladder was probably ten minutes away from exploding. It was AWFUL! After unpacking, we celebrated Andrew’s birthday with some cake and then went our separate ways to unwind for the night. I for one slept like a combination of a rock and a baby and it was simply terrific.

My weekend in Madison, Wisconsin was absolutely wonderful and I really did have the best time ever. I’m so damn proud of my brother, and it was so great to be able to watch him walk across the stage twice! We ate tons of delicious food, that I’m going to have to work off because I swear I gained fifty pounds and had lots of beautiful family quality time. Our weekend getaway was a definite success!

I hope all of you enjoyed reading “Monday Update: Weekend In Wisconsin Edition!” as much as I did writing it! What did everyone do this weekend? Anything exciting? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah