It's Just Another Manic Monday

Mike flew out of Grand Rapids at 6am this morning and landed safely in Burbank, CA around 1pm Eastern time. He was not looking forward to leaving again and neither was I. We were just getting back to being a family unit again and then everything changes.

It is wet, and cold, and dreary today, which matches my mood exactly. The girls are feeling it too and have been ornery. They refused to take their naps today, ignored lunch and at dinner tonight with my sister and her family, Lauren had a downright meltdown. Which in turn caused her 15 month old cousin to have one, which in turn almost caused me to have one! We all literally ran out of the restaurant...it was terrible...in the end, all we could do was laugh. It was bad!

The one bright spot this week was that the girls and I were going to start taking a Mommy & Me class, Tues./Thurs., which runs in two week sessions. Each session focuses on a different theme, such as cooking, crafts, singing, world culture, etc. and it is being offered through our school district. Then I get the call this afternoon that the first session did not have enough participants so we would not be starting school after all. I didn't know what to tell the girls. They were so looking forward to going. I quickly enrolled us in a different class that's all about science and starts on Thursday-I hope that class isn't canceled too!

I just have to focus on the next three weeks and getting everything ready to go, since as soon as Mike gets back, we are going on vacation for a week to the Poconos in Pennsylvania. 1 whole week together as a family sounds so nice! No work, no worries, no household chores...just time. Time with each other. Time to relax. Time to have fun. Time, what a wonderful gift it is...

John G. Shedd Aquarium

It was a beautiful day as we drove into downtown Chicago. I think the last time we were here was when our friend, Jason, was attending the University of Chicago back in 1996 or '97. Has it seriously been that long? We've driven through, of course, but not actually gone into Chicago again until this week.

I wanted to take the girls to see the Shedd Aquarium, and since Mike and I had never been there, it seemed like a good idea. We figured out how to get there without too much trouble and there wasn't any lines to get into the Aquarium either. The building was majestic, intricate and overwhelming. There was a dolphin show coming up so we headed there first. I was excited to see it but my initial thrill was quickly snuffed when the show was over 10min. later. After, we were all getting hungry but the food was so pricey that we could have eaten just about anywhere in Downtown GR for less. Oh well...

After a bit of grub, we started heading to the different exhibits. I was quickly saddened to see that many of the "tanks" were located at eye level for adults but for kids, they were completely useless. We kept having to pick them up or carry them on our shoulders. And the people...oh, the people. The crowd was becoming so dense that you couldn't even get to the exhibits without being pushed or shoved out of the way. It was terrible. So, we called it good and headed back to the car for our 3 hour ride home. We were very fortunate that we had ZERO traffic problems the whole weekend and we had a pleasant trip back.

I'm glad that we went but it's not something that we'll be doing again any time soon. And to make matters worse, I now find out that they jacked the prices up for the Labor Day weekend which cost us an additional $35 more than it would have normally. Gosh I hate that.

I am including some photos that I snapped while we were there and I thought that I would share them with you. Enjoy!

Swim Like a Fish!

I wanted to use those beautiful "Marriott Reward Points" (which Mike has been racking up in CA) to book our rooms and was able to find a brand-spanking-new SpringHill Suites in the Gurnee/Waukegan area. And when I say new, I mean that we stayed there the 2nd and 3rd night they were open! No one had ever slept in our room before, used our shower or laid on our sheets! It was all done in teals, browns and creams with a modern flare. Needless to say, it was a hit!

We took the girls to the pool the first night we were there and went swimming for an hour or so. Tara has really shown us this Summer that she wanted to start swimming without us so I picked up some arm floaties at the dollar store and let her give it a whirl. Low and behold, I present to you, the "Independant Swimmer"! Within minutes she was swimming all over the pool by herself and jumping in from the steps, which she loves to do, going under water and everything! Lauren was still a bit more cautious and clung to Daddy or myself while having her own fun time.

Sunday afternoon we were lucky enough to catch our friends, the Wentworth Family, at home and so we headed up to Wisconsin to have a very nice grill-out and let the kids go swimming in their pool. We were joined by their two grandsons, T.J. (4) and Derek (3), who were just adorable and played so nicely with the twins. They are both excellent swimmers (they certainly don't need floaties) and encouraged the girls to be a bit more brave. And what do ya know? Lauren finally let go and just swam. Cute as can be! And Tara started jumping off the deck! As a parent, just like the girls, sometimes it's hard to let go.

Later, we gathered the kids up and drove the 1/2 hour or so over to North Milwaukee to bring T.J. and Derek home and check out all the work that their parents, Amy and Dave, have been doing on their home. The place looked great and I was jealous of the size of their backyard. Someday, Ren, someday....

Monday it was time to head back towards Michigan and a stop in Chicago to see the Shedd Aquarium. More on that tomorrow...stay tuned!

(from left to right) Derek, Lauren, T.J. and Tara

It's a Small World After All (sing with me!)

I made a family decision to book a weekend away. I wanted to go on a road trip but not go too far-just enough that it was a break from the day to day routine of life. I starting looking up Hotels that would fit all four of us comfortably within 4 hours of Grand Rapids, and Chicago seemed like a good choice. We have not been across the lake in over 3 years and I thought that it was about time.

On our way around the bottom, we stopped at a Rest Area in Indiana and quickly grabbed a Geocache there that we had not found yet. While we were signing it, we noticed that some friends ours from the Kalamazoo area had just signed it hours before us. We wondered, "Are they going to Chicago for the Labor Day weekend, too?". Having their cell phone # handy, we gave them a ring and found out that they were literally traveling to the same area that we were to visit family. So, we met up the next day and went caching in the morning together. It was great! "Phishbonz" aka Dave and Laura (and Laura's sister Debbie) hit several geocaches with us before we went our sperate ways but the ones we did together added such a nice little touch to our trip.



We were able to cross off another State (IL) that we can say we have Geocached in and we picked up an EarthCache in Wisconsin as well. Bonus!

We packed a lot into these short 3 days so I'll write more tomorrow about visiting our friends, The Wentworth's, in Wisconsin, the girls swimming alone for the first time, visiting the Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago, and staying in a Brand NEW hotel. So much to do, so much to see!

Mike and the girls just after a caching loop in Michigan City, IN.