Monday, June 27, 2011

Family Trip 2011

We just got back from a wonderful vacation. We spent nearly 2 weeks with family putting our new minivan to the test and doing so many different things that this post is total picture overload. It's just so rare that my kids get to play with their extended family, that we wanted lots of pictures and they all turned out so cute!

We started out with camping in a KOA near Davenport, Iowa. We went swimming, fishing, biking, marshmallow roasting, etc. We stayed in a cabin, Grandma and Grandpa stayed in a hotel (they're the smart ones!), and the cousins stayed in their motor home next door. The cousins are the same ages as my kids - complete with a little blonde baby boy. It was perfect. The kids loved having their cousins to play with and they loved their silly Uncle Z. They are still talking about how much fun he is.












After a few days of that, we went to Nauvoo, IL. It's a historical site for our church. When the mormon pioneers traveled west, they stopped for a few years in the area and built the city of Nauvoo. It grew to be the second largest city in Illinois, after Chicago. Then they were forced to move onto Salt Lake City. However, now you can go there and visit many historic homes, shops, etc. We rode in wagons and ox carts, dressed like the pioneers (although Bella was upset about the hat I wanted her to wear for the picture), watched them make candles, wagon wheels, and cloth, helped print a page of the local newspaper, attended a pioneer school, played pioneer games (like stick pull - even Christian tried it!), waded in the Mississippi river, visited the temple, and on and on. It was a wonderful few days. Benjamin was very nervous about the oxen and only petted one while standing as far back as possible but he later named that as his favorite thing!










Then we traveled on to Carthage, Illinois, another Mormon historical site. It's where the prophet Joseph Smith was killed. We visited Carthage jail and attempted a tour, but Christian was sooo fussy that we all had to take turns going outside with him and missing parts here and there. Alas, it was a touching place and even Benjamin seemed visibly moved by the events which occurred there.


Then we drove on to Hannibal, Missouri, the town in which Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The whole downtown area has signs telling you what role they played in the book - Becky Thatcher's house, the jail where Muff Potter was imprisoned during his trial, etc. The highlight of the trip, though, was the cave. In the book, Tom and Becky get lost in underground caverns in the cave. We toured the cave which the book describes and it was a lot of fun. Benjamin and Bella kept saying how "spooky" it was, but it was their first time in a cave and I think they really had fun. It was amazing how huge it was. The guide said kids in Mark Twain's day would go down in the cave and play around. I'm amazed they ever made it out!



Across from the caves, they had a children's play area with bumper boats. Benjamin loved it and Christian was just as thrilled to watch from the shore. Kelly passed out in the car for 30 minutes afterward from sea sickness and all that spinning in circles!



Then we were going to head up to Chicago, but that morning in the hotel in Bloomington (half way between Hannibal and Chicago), the waitress at breakfast asked, "Would you guys like free passes to the children's museum?" So we spent that day in Normal, Illinois at the Children's Discovery Museum. By far the funnest kids' museum I've been to. And at only $6 a person, it would be a killer deal even without the free passes. The kids had a blast playing with the water table, the grocery store, the pizza parlor, the dentist office, the theater, the farm, and the amazing two-story climber. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It was made of oddly shaped wood pieces, covered in industrial strength carpet, which were suspended by tons and tons of steel cables. They made a fantastic maze the extended from the second to the third floors. I also loved their painting room - glass enclosed with a drain, so the kids could paint, spray with water, squeegy off into the drain, and start all over again. Genius. I could go on and on about this place. I'm so sad Normal, Illinois has to be so far away.





Then we finally made it to Chicago. I LOVE Chicago. I'm a big city girl through and through and I got energized just getting close. I loved being there, but I have to say that being there with three little kids made the whole thing very different. Big cities are not my kids' favorite thing, I discovered. Pushing a large stroller though tight pedestrian traffic is also not an easy thing. But despite the whining and complaining, I loved being back.

We visited Navy Pier and rode some rides (like the ferris wheel), visited Mellenium Park and The Bean. I mostly went there to let the kids play in the fountain because I knew that would be the highlight of their trip. We visited the museum area on the lake (but didn't go in any because they're so freakishly expensive and we weren't there on a free day). We also happened to be there during Taste of Chicago. It's a huge party downtown with food vendors and live bands, etc. It was a lot of fun. It was adorable to see Christian clap and "dance" to the music of the latin band. The kids were completely wiped out by the end. But we had to make one last stop to visit some dear friends. We have lived together in two different places now and hope to one day be neighbors again. We'll see where life takes us. But it was wonderful to catch up with them and let our kids play. Their daughter Jane is the same age as Isabella and they were total bosom buddies from the moment they met. So cute! The kids all ran around together catching fireflies and playing tag. So sad they live so far away. And I'm so jealous they get to live so close to Chicago! :)










We also visited the Chicago temple on the way home, but my camera was dead and I couldn't take a picture. So there's our trip in a large nutshell. Super fun, super exhausting. Today Benjamin said, "I like going on vacation a lot better than staying home." Why? "Because on vacation you get to eat junk, stay up late, and watch lots and lots of movies in the car." So there you have the highlights from Benjamin's perspective. A good time was had by all.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A Classic

My kids come up with some wild excuses to postpone bedtime. Besides the every night ones (thirsty, bathroom, monsters in room), I enjoy hearing what other craziness they invent. I think, however, tonight was the winner. Benjamin, after all the other excuses were exhausted and I thought he was finally asleep, reappeared with a very sheepish grin on his face and said, "My toe nail is too long on this foot (indicating the big toe on his right foot) and it scratches against the sheets. It's so noisy that it's keeping me awake." Ha! I have to hand it to him. That's a classic.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Rewrite

Benjamin was looking at pictures of our zoo trip and continued onto some older pictures and found the picture I'd taken of the paper upon which he'd written, "I hate you." "Is that my mean paper?" he asked. "Yes," I said, "That was your mean paper. That was mean to write that." He got up and got out another piece of paper and wrote:


"Will you take a picture of this now? Because I love you." So sweet. You could tell he felt bad that he'd written that. I quickly got out the camera and took a picture.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

First Zoo Trip of the Summer

Summer vacation has begun and that means finding a lot more things to do during the day. A couple days ago we decided to visit the zoo. I'm not a fan of crowds so I didn't mind going when it was 93 degrees. Kind of like the day I took the kids to the zoo in the snow storm. Oh to what lengths I'll go to avoid searching a long time for a parking place. :)

Despite the official temperature, however, it really didn't feel very hot. The zoo is quite shady, there was a strong breeze, and they have tons of misting stations around the zoo to keep cool. It was a wonderful day. In fact, the first day ever at the zoo that we spent more time at the animals than at the playground! Our first stop was the dinosaurs. The zoo has a wonderful exhibit in which you walk through the woods and see incredibly realistic looking dinosaurs that move and make noise and even spit water at you on occasion. They have some attacking others, some in swamps, some with their babies hatching. It freaked Bella out and she spent the entire time either hiding behind or in the stroller. Benjamin, however, loved it. "Take a picture of me with this one!" was the favorite phrase of the day. It was really fun.





Bella's favorite place was the gift shop. I finally had to drag her out of there kicking and screaming.


We also got to see lots of other animals, including the warthogs which were next to the train which he rode back to the entrance. "Why doesn't anyone want to take a picture of the warthogs, mommy?" Benjamin wanted to know. They really are unappreciated, aren't they?

Us on the completely empty train:


We also stopped for lunch and while we ate, this guy came to visit:


He's apparently used to being fed because when he saw us eating, he had no fear. This peacock, the size of Benjamin, strutted over, squawking loudly, and jumped right onto the bench next to Benjamin, reaching out his beak for a bite of his sandwich. The kids freaked out. Bella jumped off the bench, overturning her container of strawberries, and Benjamin was frozen to his spot, screaming and crying. I yelled at Benjamin to give me his food and get off the bench and he scrambled off like his life depended on it. I tried to shoo the peacock away, but he's far too used to people to scare that easily. He only left us alone after I'd packed up all the food and made it very clear we weren't interested in sharing. This evening the kids named the dinosaurs as their favorite part of the zoo and the peacock as their least favorite. :)

In any case, it was a very nice day at the zoo and I'm so glad he have so many fun things to do around here. To finish up, just a cute picture of Christian. His new favorite thing is to pull himself up to the piano and bang around. It's so fun to watch.

Friday, June 03, 2011

Watch Out! Here He Comes!!


Christian is on the move. I'm a little behind blogging about it, but starting about 2 weeks ago, just after he turned 9 months, Christian started to crawl. I was in the living room with him, trying to get him to move, with no sucess, when Kelly walked into the house from the garage and yelled hello. The moment that little Daddy's boy heard Kelly's voice, he was off and crawling to get to him. Thank goodness I had the camera nearby. It was adorable. So his crawling started out like this:



But after a few days, he was crawling so much that diapering had become nearly impossible and I gave up and filmed him instead:



It's amazing how quickly kids learn. He's now crawling, pulling himself to a stand (watch out if you're a man with hairy legs - he'll pull on anything in sight to get a boost up, as Kelly discovered), and cruising along anything he can find. It is sooo fun to see! I love it when my babies start to move. The world opens up to them and they get so excited to learn and explore. I've also made sure to teach him the stairs so he doesn't get hurt. We practice every day and he's a pro at going up. He goes down well too, if you get him started, but he always forgets to turn around and will go head first if you're not there to get him properly positioned. He'll get it eventually, though. He had his 9 month check up yesterday and he was 75% in height and 25% in weight, so he still growing right on track and doing great. We love our happy, smiley, one-tooth Christian.