Today was a great day! It was very hot and muggy, but we had a great time going to the memorial day parade in Aurora and watching the girls march! It was kind-of weird, however, as it was just Angela, the boys, and I watching. What a small group! 🙂
The girls did a GREAT job and looked VERY professional in their marching! Metea and Still were the best bands out there! 🙂 Go girls! The boys really enjoyed watching them and also getting some candy.
Today we had dinner with some friends and did some long overdue catching up. We had a great time. A highlight of our night (not a good one, by the way) was when Ben disappeared and we couldn’t find him. We thought he was playing with Zach in the basement. Turns out, he went up to our bedroom, locked himself in, got into the top shelf of our dresser, took out my Blackberry, and dialed 911 THREE TIMES! 😐 When we finally found him, the 911 dispatch had called my phone back, left a message, and actually heard Ben playing with the phone. I was able to get the 3rd call back from the 911 dispatch and talk to them. Talking about apologizing profusely! 🙁 I’m sure they have issues all the time with kids accidentally doing this with a Blackberry phone (don’t have to dial 911 on them to make an emergency call). Needless to say, Ben was in big trouble!
YIKES!
Yesterday, Angela and a bunch of her running friends drove down to Indianapolis, and today, she ran in the Indy Mini Half Marathon along with about 37,000 other runners! This is her 4th race there and she did a GREAT job! Her time this year was 2:12! That is her best time so far (she beat her best by 8 minutes)! She worked and trained hard!
In the picture above, it’s hard to see, but in the stretch of street you can see, are all 37,000 runners! Crazy!
Great job Angela! You are the BEST! 🙂
While Angela was running, I went with Kirstyn to her last NIU EEP session where they (in their teams) presented what they did and their overall impressions to the entire group. It was great to hear all the fun stuff they did and all the fascinating speakers they listened to.
She got her official graduation certificates and patch and was very excited! This summer, she is going to do an extension of the EEP program and participate in a week-long summer camp at Northern Illinois University.
Great job Kirstyn!
Today marks the BIG 20 year mark for Angela and me! Wow! How time has flown. It seems like yesterday that we got married, and now it’s been 20 years, 5 kids later, and a few gray hairs. OK, more than a few gray hairs… 🙂 We are planning a 20th anniversary get-away when we go out as a family to Utah this summer. That said, tonight, we took the kids to Chick-Fil-A and then went to Kirstyn’s middle school band concert! 🙂
We saw a few people at Chick-Fil-A that we knew and when we told them why we were there, they thought we were nuts! 🙂 The kids loved it and Zach got his picture taken with the cow…
After filling up, we went over to Kirstyn’s band concert. She did a GREAT job! I liked that as an anniversary activity! Dinner and a fine concert! 🙂
Kirstyn is coming along in band. She practices probably better than her sisters and loves playing music. 🙂 Keep up the great work Kirstyn!
Over the past few days (26th through today), Angela’s Brother Jim, his wife Heather, and their 3 kids came to visit us. They were out in Wisconsin for the funeral of Heather’s Grandmother and decided to extend their vacation and come down and see us. We had a great time! The boys were really excited to see their two boys and play with them for a few days. 🙂 You can tell how excited they were from the picture below!
Unfortunately, I had to work during the days, but the kids were able to spend a bunch of time together… They went to the zoo and the DuPage Children’s Museum. Last night we also went to Baskin Robins for 31 cent scoop night. We had a great time catching up on things and having some great talks. It was great to see them again! 🙂
Happy Easter everyone! Today we had a great Easter Sunday! Church meetings were wonderful and then after that, we went over to some friends’ house and had a wonderful dinner. Most of my early morning meetings were cancelled so I didn’t have to get up as early and didn’t have any after meeting appointments! Yea! 🙂
Today was a pretty busy day! The boys had an Easter egg hunt with some friends (Kirstyn helped out as well). They got loaded up on candy and had fun playing at the park as well.
After Zach got back from the egg hunt, he and I went to the Kane County Cougars baseball game together. He completed another year of the Ozzie Reading Club and got a free ticket to go, along with a free hot dog and drink, and an Ozzie’s Reading Club t-shirt. 🙂 We go there early and participated in the Ozzie parade. We got to go down on the field and parade around the perimeter, after which the players came out and signed autographs for all the kids. Zach got to have Ozzie sign his shirt and get a picture with him…
We had a great time eating food (Zach’s favorite part was the big bag of Red Vines that we bought). We were full by the time we left! 🙂 We ate our hot dogs, drank our drinks, and watched a great game! A bunch of Zach’s friends were there, and we saw many others that we know from school. Fortunately, we were not along the right field line where most of the foul balls are hit. That makes me nervous whenever I go to a game with the kids. Instead, we were right behind home plate and had great seats! 🙂
When we were shopping a month or so ago at Jewel, Zach picked up a sheet to color for their annual coloring contest. He entered and we found out that he WON for his age group! 🙂 What a kick in the pants we thought that was! Zach is not known for his patience with coloring, but he really put his heart into this! 🙂 As a prize, he won a prize package of a choice of frozen foods, candy and a bunch of other things! We thought that was pretty funny, but oh well, it’s a grocery store, right? 🙂 He went with Angela and picked out some things, some of which were “grown-up” foods that we need and some for himself.
Tonight, we had a western Ho-Down party at the church for all the adults and had a good time. Everybody came dressed up in their fun western-wear. The planners were a little worried that they wouldn’t have enough food, but boy were they wrong! We had way too much food and there was so much “western-type” food to choose from, you couldn’t eat everything. We had all kinds of chili recipes, cornbread, rolls, and all kinds of awesome desserts! There was a karaoke machine there to sing country songs, and they even did some line dancing.
It was fun to get together and have some adult conversation and fun. We haven’t had as many ward activities as we would like to, and most of them are for the whole family. It’s nice to get together with just the adults occasionally.
Yeehaw! 🙂
A couple of months ago, we got a call out of the blue from my Uncle Mike and Aunt Pat. They were taking a trip out to our area (to see Chicago and then Nauvoo) and wanted to know if they could stay with us for a couple of days! We were excited for visitors and we were looking forward to this. I hadn’t seen them for probably 12 years or so! 🙁 They came on Saturday afternoon the 9th, and we spent that evening talking and having them get to know the kids. Sarah remembered them a little but that was it. Brittany would have been too young the last time we visited with them.
They came to church with us on Sunday and they felt very at home. Aunt Pat even got a cookbook from the Relief Society! 🙂 After church and lunch, we left the kids to relax and took Mike and Pat up to the temple to see it. It was a wonderful day and the weather was absolutely beautiful!
After visiting the temple grounds, we drove them into downtown Chicago and showed them all the major sites down there. They probably took a couple hundred pictures during our driving tour! 🙂 We then moved south and showed them the museum campuses. They wanted to go to the Science and Industry Museum on Monday and so we showed them how to get there and how to get back home. We had a great time chatting with them the whole time and got home just in time for a great dinner and an evening of chatting and re-acquainting! 🙂
Tonight (Monday) for Family Home Evening, Mike and Pat took our family out to dinner at Lou Malnati’s Pizzaria. We wanted them to enjoy authentic Chicago pizza before going on their way down to Nauvoo. We had a great time and ordered way too much! We’ll have a lot of leftovers! 🙂
Happy April Fools Day! 🙂
We are finally home from our family vacation now and can sleep in our own beds! We got up early, ate breakfast, and drove the 700+ miles (12+ hours) home. It is good to be back and finally out of the van. We had such a wonderful time and got to see so many cool things. I hope the kids enjoyed the history that they were able to learn about. We went hard the entire time and I think that right now, if the kids had to see another battlefield, they would stage a rebellion, but they seemed to like what we did. 🙂
Time for bed! 🙂
Today was battlefield day and our start for home. We got up, checked out of the hotel, and drove to Manassas to learn more about the second battle there. From there we went and saw Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness Battlefield areas. It is so fascinating to learn about all of these places and to think about what happened there. We wanted to go down to Spotsylvania, but didn’t have the time.
The most interesting place we went was the visitor center and surrounding area of the Fredericksburg battle site. We got in on a walking tour of the battlefield and our tour guide was amazing! He was so animated and knowledgeable that you thought the battle just happened. We got to go into a house that is still standing today which not many people get to go into. It was riddled with bullet holes and the crazy thing is that a lady was living in the house throughout the entire battle and never got hurt, even though bullets were whizzing through her house all day. 😐 Kirstyn got to be the guide’s helper. 🙂
After seeing all the battlefields, we drove down through central Virginia and over the Shenandoah Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley. It was a little foggy so we didn’t get to see much, but I can just imagine how beautiful this place is in the fall! We drove up 81 through the valley and eventually stopped at Woodstock for the night. Angela and I had recently read a book called “The Cross Gardener” that took place there. We wanted to see the places talked about in the book. Turns out that the author loved the area so much, he ended up moving his family from Utah to the Shenandoah valley and now lives there.
Angela got a sweet deal on a suite at the Hampton Inn in Woodstock! We had plenty of space and the pool was great! We swam and then ate and are now totally exhausted and are ready for bed! Tomorrow we’re heading home and will get to sleep in our own beds finally! 🙂
Today was a GREAT day but also VERY tiring! We walked so much we thought we were going to die! 🙂 It was very fun though. We drove downtown and parked way out in the free parking, a good walk from the Jefferson memorial. We walked around the tidal basin and saw stuff we didn’t even know was there! The cherry blossoms were out in full bloom and it was absolutely beautiful!
Although it was a little on the chilly side, it was a beautiful day and the walk was nice. We came across the Roosevelt memorial which is to the west of the basin, between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. We didn’t know it was there (although it probably has been for some time). It’s usually not where we would go walking. It is very large and points out highlights of his presidency, including the depression, etc. We got some interesting pictures…
From there, we walked over to the World War II memorial and had an interesting time talking to the boys about what it stood for. There was a high school band playing patriotic songs there and so we stopped to listen (and take a break for our tired feed)! 🙂 We then started making our way west, down the mall toward the Lincoln Memorial. We split and some went to see the Korean War Memorial while the rest kept walking and we met at the Lincoln memorial. Ben thought that was pretty cool!
The Viet Nam Memorial was next on our list of sites to see, and that is always a highlight. It is so quiet and peaceful there and an awesome site to see all those names on the wall. We explained to the boys what the names were and they hushed right up and were very reverent at that site.
We had to pick up the pace and get to the Washington Monument for our 1:30 tour and made it with a little time to spare (we were the first in line to go up). This is the first time that any of us had gone up into the Washington Monument and it was very fascinating! The day was pretty clear so you could see almost everything!
I couldn’t post all the pictures we took from up there but it was neat to see where everything was from up in the air. I don’t think the kids realized how big the National Mall area was until they looked at it from up above! They couldn’t believe how far we walked and still had to walk to see everything! 🙂
We then watched an Indian performance for the Cherry Blossom Festival before going over and taking a quick look at the Holocaust Museum. We didn’t have time to see the whole thing, but the kids (especially the boys) were amazed at how sad the whole thing was. They couldn’t believe that others would treat people like that. We also saw a few sets of missionaries from the church walking around the mall enjoying the blossoms. It must have been their P-Day. 🙂
By that time, we were starving, so we asked a security guard nearby where we could sit down and eat some food and he recommended the USDA cafeteria, so we walked over and ate there. You would think that being the USDA, that the food in the cafeteria (which was gigantic, by the way) would be very healthy and calorie-conscious… NOPE! The food was very fattening not at all what we expected (greasy burgers and fries, etc.). They did have some healthy stuff there, but there was plenty that was not. 🙂
We hurried and ate and then ran (literally) over to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for our tour on how they make money. That was a highlight for Ben and Zach! Everyone really loved it, but the boys thought it was the coolest thing on how the US prints all the money! Just when we were there, we saw a few million dollars being printed ($1, $5, $10, $50, and $100 bills). Ben wanted to stay longer but we couldn’t because the tour was over. He wanted some of what was being printed and didn’t want to take no for an answer! 🙂
After the tour, it started sprinkling and it was later in the afternoon, so we started walking back to the car. Angela took Ben back while the rest of us took a detour and they checked out the Jefferson Memorial. By that time, all our feet were killing us! We estimated we had walked about 5-6 miles or more. Whew! 🙂
On the drive home, we took a wrong turn and it took us forever to get back to the right road to get back to the hotel. We ate a quick dinner, went swimming, and now we are going to crash and sleep WELL! What a great time we had in DC! Tomorrow, we are going to see some battlefields and start making our way back west and home…
