A Night at the Museum

As I recently mentioned, last weekend I completed the big New Mom Challenge known as “Leaving Your Baby Overnight for the First Time.” I have to admit, I earned a gold medal in this event, but only because Adeline was home with her dad, who I trust implicitly, and I was easily distracted from “I-miss-my-babyitis” by attending one of my favorite Milwaukee events with a few of my favorite girls.

While Joey changed poopy diapers and struggled to put a fussy baby to bed, I attended an annual beer tasting, Food and Froth, at the Milwaukee Public Museum. I love this event because it combines 200 different beers from local and international breweries with delectable treats from area restaurants and bakeries and drops them all into the unique and educational setting of one of Milwaukee’s finest museums. The condensed version of that super long sentence is this: It’s the best beer and the best food in Milwaukee’s best museum with a few of my best friends, and I only miss it if I’m pregnant and can’t partake in the frothy fun.

Not only does this event offer great food and drink, the setting lends itself to rather interesting photo opportunities.

For example, here we are in 2007 posing in front of a replica of an old-school Milwaukee sausage shop. We thought it was hilarious in a way that only sampling dozens of beer can.

Here’s 2008, in front of a bunch of skulls that I’m sure had some kind of purpose besides being the back drop for our photo. And the crazy-looking grin you see? She’s trying to look like a skull. Duh!

And then The Year of The Pregnancy occurred in 2009 and I sat home rubbing my belly instead of sipping on fine beverages.

And here we are in 2010, sans the big prego tummy.

Do you see what I mean though? Where else could you get a photo of your gal pals holding beers while in the midst of an African lion hunt?

As we strolled through the exhibits, my friend, Colleen, and I couldn’t resist joining in the fun of this one, which captured the grooming rituals of African monkeys. Here’s our best interpretation of monkeys picking bugs and dirt off of each other.

Before you chalk that photo up to drunkenness, know that we were stone cold sober. Colleen and I just have a tendency to take photos of ourselves imitating what we see around us.

Here we are on a ski trip in Steamboat Springs, CO. Clearly, we believe that life should literally imitate art.

As usual, Food and Froth 2010 was a great time and I appreciate Joey and my friends for being so supportive during my momentary “How’s my baby?” panic attacks and for rushing out of the bar with me at 1:00 a.m. so I could get to my breast pump before an unfortunate explosion occurred. And yes, I dumped out the milk.

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