Greenfield Village opened up again this week. Peter could not have been more excited. It's pretty much his favorite place in the world.
First thing he wanted to do was ride the train. He's a little excited. :)
Who knew life could be so entertaining?
Greenfield Village opened up again this week. Peter could not have been more excited. It's pretty much his favorite place in the world.
First thing he wanted to do was ride the train. He's a little excited. :)
What amazing luck that the path of totality this year passed just an hour from our house. So I took the kids down to Toledo to see it. Benjamin went separately with friends to another area nearby. What should have been a 1 hour drive took 3.5 due to all the others trying to do the same thing, but I packed plenty of snacks and we had a lot of fun joking and laughing together and the time passed quickly. Once we were there and seeing it, it was worth it. 100% totality really is hugely better than 98% as we saw in Salt Lake City in 2017. When it hit 100%, it was like the middle of the night. Then you could see the glorious glow all around the outline of the moon. It was so incredibly beautiful. And the impression of a sunset and sunrise that came before and after was also amazing.
Only downside - the light sensing street lights that turned on at the moment of totality, partially ruining the effect!!! We did our best to ignore them and enjoy the moment. However, if I'm ever close again, we are finding a rural place away from an electric light source.
My friend Laura and I decided to get together in Chicago and have a fun girls weekend and then decided it would be even more fun if a bunch of our other friends came too. Happily, nearly all of them could! It was so much fun. Sadly, the bean (Cloud Gate at Millenium Park) was fenced off so we didn't get any cool reflective pictures, but we lucked out with great weather and a wonderful AirBnB in a fun, Hispanic part of town called Little Village. Even though I'd visited Chicago 5 times, I'd never seen this part of town and it was a really fun, cultural experience with street food, loud music, traditional quinceanera dress shops, and delicious churro restaurants. I love having a few days when I only have to think about what I want to do and not shuttling kids around or running errands.
Had to stop at the Nutella store.
The Chicago institute of Arts had so many paintings I didn't know they had there. It was so interesting. Especially the display of miniature rooms. That part was my favorite.
I never get tired of walking along Lake Michigan and seeing the gorgeous skyline from the steps of the Field Museum. The weather was a little rainy that day, but not too bad.
Benjamin has officially been called as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He has been assigned to serve in the Wichita, Kansas mission, speaking Spanish.
The only picture I have of him reading his call:
Bella has now joined the ranks of the straight teeth teenagers. Her teeth look great and it brings me great joy to know that the large sums of money spent on braces went to a good cause.
March 2024:
This year we had a difficult time deciding on a location for spring break because Benjamin had already made plans to go to Orlando, FL with friends. Bella and Christian didn't really want to do any of the same things or do them together, so finding a place for them was tough too. So we decided to make it a "stay-cation" and do things around here with anyone who wanted to join in. It went great. Benjamin had a wonderful trip and we had a lot of fun too.
First day of spring break, it snowed. First and only sledding day the whole winter. Even though it started to melt almost immediately, I forced the kids against their will to go sledding. I couldn't miss the one day all winter! Everyone went grudgingly but had a super great time, especially Peter who loved sledding in snow that didn't poof up into his face.