Ok, so just jumping back into blogging isn't going as quick as I would have hoped being that I have to sort and organize photos first. Yeah, along with not blogging I have just been dumping all our photos in one large folder on the computer as well! So I worked through those first and now am starting back here. The first official big thing I did not blog about this year was our spring break trip in March. Well, technically I blogged about the first travel day of it
here for a Fun Friday post. But we had such a great week it is worth re-visiting and finishing telling you about it. =) It's going to be a long one too as way back when I was going to split it up into a couple posts, but since we are this late, I will put it all in one to "simplify" things. ha!
So we had left and drove the first part of the way to Michigan on Good
Friday, staying in Chicago for the night.
Saturday we drove the last few hours to MI. The purpose of the trip was to go and visit S's Grandma B, who we have not been out to visit in quite a while! She had not met H yet, so it was high time for a trip out to see her. Grandma is 96 and still living in her own apartment, but she has slowed down considerably in the past few years. She no longer drives and doesn't get out of her apartment much anymore. We didn't know how the kids would react to
Grandma at first (C didn't remember her at all), but we were so
proud as all of them walked into the apartment very nicely and said a
big "HI Great-Grandma B!" and gave her hugs. Even H! They were so good
at giving her unprompted hugs all weekend and that melted Grandma's heart along with
all of ours. Sometimes you just know God is directing things like
that.
Grandma B is a very good knitter (we LOVE our knitted slippers from her!), so G was very excited to show her her knitting. She sat by her great-grandma and knitted for quite a while, and enjoyed chatting and Grandma's cooing over her project.
Since this was Easter weekend, S's parents and sister M also came out to visit so it was fun to have everyone together. We weren't quite sure how much Grandma could handle with that many people at once (we had contingent plans to visit in shifts!), but she did great and seemed to love having us all there and especially watching the kids.
S's mom's side of the family is all in MI as well, so Saturday evening after leaving Grandma's and getting settled in the hotel, we went out to supper with aunts and uncles and cousins and their kids. We went to a great restaurant that S's cousin Brett is a chef at and the food was delicious (I had wild mushroom and butternut squash ravioli that was out of this world!).
We had adjoining rooms to S's sister and folks at the hotel which was so much fun for the kids. And since it was Easter weekend, Aahma B brought along a set of ressurection eggs and had a little egg hunt and bible story time with the kids each night after they got in their jammies.
We had new Easter church outfits for the kids as a surprise for Easter morning, and I asked S's folks if I could lay the outfits out in their room so the kids would be surprised in the morning. I later found that they had laid out their own outfits with to make sure that they all coordinated. =)
The next morning we celebrated Easter at a very big church near our hotel that was recommended to S's dad by their pastor back home. Quite different from our small church at home, but what a big way to celebrate the resurrection! After church we went to Grandma's apartment for Easter dinner. Grandma didn't feel up to going out to a restaurant, so we brought a meal to her, finding chicken and veggies and bread and dessert at the local grocery store. Grandma usually doesn't eat much, but boy did she sure eat at dinner with all of us! The food was delicious, and I think the fun of everyone being there really brightened her spirits and appetite.
After dinner H napped and the kids had fun showing their great-grandma how to play on the iPad. Definitely something she doesn't see everyday! When H woke up we were ready for some group photos.
four generations with H
our family with Grandma B
the whole B family!
One of the things G and W remembered most about Great-Grandma's place is that she has a ceramic cat and dog that they liked to pet, and a footstool that was fun to sit and play on. H (and C) completely agreed. The other thing they remembered is that Great-Grandma would always have ice cream so they were all tickled when she asked if they would like some ice cream before we left!
As Grandma gets older we know that the time that we get to spend with her is more and more precious. We certainly enjoyed our time with her on this trip, and are so glad that we were able to spend Easter with her.
The kids did great at Grandma's all afternoon, but they needed to burn some energy off! So while S's sister and folks went to visit his dad's brother and wife, we went to the park near our hotel. We met back up around suppertime (we still had breadsticks for Sunday night -found a Little Caesar's for crazy bread, yum!), and S and his sister took the big kids swimming in the hotel pool.
Monday morning we spent by S's Uncle D and Aunt S's place. S's cousins T&C were going to be in town visiting with their boys, and his cousin B came over with her boys too so it was a great time for our kids to just play play play together. G felt a little out of place though as it was all boys. This is unusual for her as in MN all the cousins are girls! She bucked up and had a lot of fun with all the boys.
Uncle D is a very talented wood-worker and their whole house is filled with his beautiful work. It was fun to see this wall in his basement with all the samples of the different woods that he has to work with in his collection in large barn out back. These are all natural, no stains so it is fun to see all the different wood colors there actually are in nature.
Three years ago
we came out to MI in April to celebrate Grandpa A's 90th birthday, and Aunt J had organized an Easter Egg hunt for all these little kids. They had so much fun with it back then that the gals and I planned ahead of time that we would do it again this year. So we all brought eggs along with fun snacks and pennies in them and hid them around the yard for the kids to find. We varied the level of difficulty due to a bit of spread in age and we also limited the number of eggs each one could have, so here C is giving out instructions to the very eager crew.
Easter egg fun was had by all...
After a delicious lunch (thanks Aunt S and cousin B!), we grouped the kids together for a quick group shot before we left. This was the best we got from eight kiddos between the ages of 1 and 9...
...since all they really wanted to do was this!
We had such a great time seeing family over the weekend! The second leg of our trip was just a get-away for our immediate family though, something we haven't done very often with just us. We usually travel to see friends and family, which we love, but there was something very special about this time with just us too. We headed to Chicago, which was on the way home, for a few days of fun, and got there just before rush hour traffic on Monday - phew! We ate famous Chicago style deep dish pizza at Giordano's for supper, and then just settled in and got ready for a big day at the Shedd Aquarium the next day.
The Shedd aquarium is located on Lake MI right by downtown - what a beautiful location! It is a very popular place to visit as well, especially during spring break week, right when we were visiting. We took S's cousin T's advice and ordered our tickets online the day before including the aquatic show, so getting in to the aquarium was quite easy, opposed to the line that stretched at least 5 city blocks at the door of people who didn't. There was a few more fees involved, but that was SO worth being able to walk right in. I could write 5 posts alone on all the amazing things we saw at the aquarium, but for the sake of brevity, I will post our top three.
1. The Aquatic Show: We weren't sure how we were going to be able to see anything at first with the gorgeous sun shining in off of lake MI through the big windows, quite a view! But they dropped a curtain and we were treated to a great show highlighting especially the Pacific white-sided dolphins and beluga whales. The beluga whales especially were amazing. What beautiful creatures!
2. The Jellyfish exhibit: We have been to the jellyfish exhibit at our local MN Sea Life and thought it was very neat so I didn't expect the Shedd to be any better, but I was wrong. The amount and different types of jellyfish and how they had them displayed was amazing and ALL of us were fascinated.
3. The Wild Reef: It was huge and the colors and varieties of coral and fish and sharks and eels and other sea life was mind boggling. It was especially neat because W had just completed a unit on the coral reef in Kindergarten so he was full of excitement and knowledge (even more than normal!).
After finishing up our day at the aquarium, we hung out outside by the lake a bit. The kids were in awe at how big the lake was (yeah, it had been a while since we last saw it), and G was also excited to see the little lighthouse on the pier as she had just finished studying and drawing lighthouses in art at school. We loved that both G and W were able to see and connect with things that they were studying at school! Then it was braving traffic to get back to the hotel, find a Noodles and Co for a quick supper.
After supper the kids vegged while S and I figured out the plans for the next day. We were supposed to have gone to visit dear college friends of ours, D&T and their 4 kids, who had recently moved to the Chicago area from WA state. We were very excited to see them and have our kids play together since they are all very similar in ages. But D&T had called us and their kids had been sick and running fevers and our kids had colds as well, so it was hard but we all decided that maybe this wasn't the trip to get together. Boo!!! But hopefully now that they are closer we will be back to see them soon!
So we decided to spend the day at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The forcast was iffy so we figured that being the zoo is free we could go for however long we wanted and bail if it started to rain or we got too cold. Turns out we had a beautiful day and so much fun at the zoo. You know our family loves the zoo!!!
It was so nice that there were some great play areas for the kids to burn off some energy too. They had SO much fun. We did this right away while H slept in the car with Dadda. Then as soon as H woke up it was off to the animals! Here are the favorites:
Jaguar - S and the big boys' favorite. He was really active and so it was neat to watch him roam his area.
Giraffe - H's and my favorite. I love giraffes, and H had just learned the sign for them so these giraffes were fun to find.
Gorillas - G's favorite, mostly because there was a baby gorilla to watch too! The boys could have cared less so S wandered after them, but G and I could have stayed and watched this primate family for hours.
Our four little monkies!
After the zoo we walked a little ways and made a welcome stop at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. The warmth of the tropical areas was so nice compared to the cold wind outside at the zoo. Although we were loving the weather outside too and also being able to see grass as back home we were still under a foot of snow. Who would have thought of traveling to Chicago for warmer temps on spring break!
Goodbye Chicago! It was so much fun!
It was time to head home. We made reservations at a hotel in Rockford, IL for the night and were pleasantly surprised at the pool area there - had a zero entrance and few slides and splash features! So we played there before bed and also the next morning. Fun in the warm pool was a great way to end our spring break trip. So thankful for the time and adventures we had together as a family!!!
