Chicago Children's Museum!!!

While Andrew and his family were visiting last weekend we made a trip over to Chicago. If you are ever in Chicago you HAVE to make a trip to the children's museum. It's great!! We had such a blast and the kids did too! The price may be a little steep at $10 a person (kids too - except for under one year.) BUT - if you check their site they have discount and even FREE days or half days!!! SOOOOOOO worth it even if you pay the full price. Go prepared to spend a LONNNG time the there!

The first things my boys did and LOVED was the boat/tunnel/ ladder that stretches for 3 FLOORS!! It's kind of freaky with them walking so high over your head!

Carter (of course) didn't hesitate and flew right across it!Bailey (my niece on the left) did great tooo. Hayden (he's on the right) was "overly cautious" and didn't want to walk out after climbing up... Wyatt takes after Carter and practically RAN over Hayden to the end of it..Wyatt going again... with NO ONE to slow him down!! That boy is a bulldozer to the core! Bailey again...

They loved it and since it's in the center we kept "coming back to it".... but on to the many other rooms.

The building room was a HUGE HIT with my boys... all FOUR of them
The building was a little over Wyatt's level... but they have fun little bolt puzzles that were perfect for him!
Hayden just liked dressing up like "Superman Builder Hayden"
This was the first "room" we stopped in... and we (the little boys and I) would've stayed longer, but it was SOOOOO HOT with the sun streaming in. So Wyatt (and I) got bored quickly and looked around. We found the Water Room.. and went to get Hayden .. leaving Bryan and Carter to finish their project...(Bryan didn't want to stop building. It was quite funny to see all the dads and a few moms building and the kids wandering around or gone to another room!) They took some pictures of their finished Tree house... it turned out pretty impressive...

The Water Room was a refreshing cool off after the HOT building room

This picture of Carter is blurry because that's how he spent most of the day.....in a blur running here and there!
Andrea LOVE LOVE LOVE the water....

It even tasted good... YUCK!
Hayden had his missions he was doing... Notice the plea for help in his eyes - instead Aunt Rachael took this picture... LOVE IT!

These two are trouble together!Another room was a town... with different things in the town.. grocery store... bus... auto shop...They had a "undercity" build the plumbing area that Carter spent time in... the boy is such a builder!!!Wyatt driving the ambulance..There were soooo many rooms... insect/garden, dino dig, forest, art, games, safety room...we didn't spend as much time in the rest of them... and I didn't get pictures from them either. I know if we went back there would still be so much to do...

Fire"woman" Bailey.. and Wyatt - the dog!

Fire"woman" Bailey and Hayden - the dog... why are my boys the dogs?

It was SOO much fun... we were all wiped out!!! But of course had to get a picture on Navy Pier (for the record... Rachael and I DIDN'T want to be in the picture.. Wyatt just wouldn't let me put him down!) After that we went for some great Chicago pizza at our favorite place Giordano's... GO there and get their stuffed deep dish pizza.... sooo good - one piece FILLS you up!

ONE LAST PICTURE from the day.... I loved it.. from the dino dig room... Wyatt is such a ham!!!

All or Nothing

I'm an all or nothing girl... that's me....

it's either all on the exercise or Nothing (more nothing than all)...

all or nothing on the blogging... lately nothing more than all.

So now I face the mound of "information" that I want so badly to share!!!

Let's wade through this together...

The past month as been full of plans and preparations... then THE big day!!!

Bryan and I flew ALONE all the way to CANADA for an ENTIRE WEEK!!!!

YEAH you heard right, a full week without the boys (my parents were at home with them).

I know you think we are crazy... heading further north in the dead of winter and all!! But when you have such great friends like Peggy and Joshua... and they live in such a great location to ski...

So the reason behind the get-a-way besides to get away, and to see Peggy, was to "celebrate" our 30th birthday(s). (Bryan turned 30 in October and I will turn 30 in March).

So since this was our first time away for more than a night since Carter was born, and since it was our first time out of the USA...

I have LOTS of pictures to share...

be patient... I'm the all or nothing girl remember?

In the mean time... her are some great pictures to get you to come back!

Vacation 2008 - THE END of the STORY

OK LAST vacation post... I promise!!

After we left PapPaw and MamMaw's house in Mississippi... we headed back to Tennessee the plan was to "break-up the trip home" (it would have been WAY WAY to long to drive that far all at once.) One day driving to Andrew's then leave the next morning to head home!

We didn't make it far before our transmission started acting up again... the "new" one that we put in before we left! It has been acting funny and we need to have it flushed... but until then we have to pull over, turn off the van, and restart it whenever it acts up. That's always fun when you are on a long trip.

I took over driving to give Bryan a break, BUT we didn't get very far before THIS happened and our long drive got MUCH LONGER!

THAT is a FULLY BLOWN TIRE!! This happened while I was driving... only 2 hours from where we left!

This is how close we were to the rest of the interstate for 2 HOURS!!!! (Lots of prayer going on!)

I'll be honest... I was Dying to take a picture LONG before I did. Let's just say the "mood" wasn't right for me to snap some shots until the AAA guy got there. (when we were FINISHED and 2 hours after I called)

The boys did well.. all things considered!

Bryan did say... after he had changed the tire and before we started looking for a new one, "At least this will be something good to blog about!"

(A blessing of boys... the could pee next to the van NO PROBLEM!!!)

Of course our van doesn't have a NORMAL tire... no that would be tooooo easy!

Of course this happened on a SATURDAY, when not many tire stores are open!

Of course it was late in the afternoon when this happened so those FEW stores open with the size tire we need are CLOSING SOON!

Of course those soon to close for the rest of the weekend store with size tire we need WON'T be open on SUNDAY and we would have to get a hotel and wait until MONDAY!

Of course the closest tire store with our size tire is over an hour away with an hour and a half until closing... which means we got to drive on this puppy the whole way.

BUT God is bigger!

After driving over an hour on our spare tire, we found a tire store that was "supposed" to be closed! The guy inside put a new tire on the rim for us and Bryan for the second time that day changed the tire!

We kept driving on and got to Andrew and Rachael's house VERY VERY late! We slept in the next day (yep.. skipped church... we did pray a LOT the day before!)

Since we decided to stay around an extra day... due to the tire drama, we were able to go out to see Andrew and Rachael's new property. The boys LOVED riding the three wheeler!
After a MUCH less dramatic trip the next day we FINALLY made it home!!

SO ends "VACATION 2008" ... now for some rest!

Vacation 2008 - Mississippi

After Andrew and his family left.. we stuck around the rest of the week...
We spent A LOT of time in their pool... our northern blood didn't fair to well in the southern heat!
The boys LOVED playing with Allegro (their new puppy - BIG puppy). Carter was really the only one who could handle her... the others couldn't take the jumping!These were taken in PapPaw's old truck...
Bryan helped make the wooden side rail for the bed of it.

Vacation 2008 - Photo op at Chick-Fil-A

After a few days at Andrew and Rachael's house (Bryan's brother), we ALL headed down to Mississippi to visit Bryan's parents.
We had 5 kids under 5 at their house! It was BUSY to put it mildly!
When Andrew and his family were heading home, we all went over to Chick-fil-A for their "free-sandwich-when-you-where-your-team-logo-day". Nothing says loyalty like 11 University of Kentucky fans in Chick-fil-A in Mississippi!

We took a little photo op...
It didn't start off so good.... But we did get some good shots!

This is my favorite of my niece Andrea!

We love you guys... wish we lived closer so the kids could learn all those bad things from each other... or so yours could learn from mine!

Vacation 2008 - THE DRIVE

So the following week I drove with the three boys from Virginia to Tennessee...
12 hours with the boys in a van..
ALONE!
I am insane!
But I did survive...
It wasn't too bad actually!
My parents followed me (or I followed them) the first section and we stopped overnight at my aunt's house! It was great to see them and my cousins.
This is Andrew ... I guess he would be my kids 3rd cousin!
They had fun and my boys sure kept him entertained!
Sorry, for anything they taught him to do!
My Uncle had just gotten this Harley recently and the boys LOVED sitting on it... no ride... it was POURING rain at the time! Here are some pictures from the next day... Southern Virginia to Clarksville, Tennessee... on my own with THEM! I won't say that I took some of these while driving because that would be soooo dangerous and VERY wrong!
This is the story of survival...
it's a law that all three children can't sleep in a van at the same time.Did you know that? Neither did I until this trip!
Wyatt slept first... then NEVER AGAIN!
As he was waking up Hayden (who actually slept the most) and Carter (who is always awake) both fell asleep.
For those who've never me Wyatt there is 2 words to describe him... bulldozer (he get what he's after) and LOUD (like jet engine loud - he came out loud)
Wyatt didn't want his brothers to sleep and tried to wake them up... VERY LOUDLY!
I tried everything I could... while still driving ...to keep him quiet. (books, flyers, cars, etc)
I finally found the solution...
a pen...
YEAH I let my 1 1/2 year old DRAW ON HIS LEGS WITH A BALL POINT PEN!
But it kept him quiet and the other two asleep a little longer!
It's all about survival!

Keep with me.... I'm almost finished blogging about this trip and then I'll move on... I promise!

Vacation 2008 - Virginia the rest of the story!

So after our "eventful" night away while staying in Virginia. I dropped Bryan off at the airport so he could fly to Tennessee for that tiling job with his brother. For the week we spent at my parent's house we did A LOT!

The Garden Maze at Luray Caverns (where I was a tour guide in high school).

On Friday...Hayden got that "bug" the other two had the week before... So Carter got to go with Grandpa alone to the Demolition Derby at the local fair!

Once Hayden felt better, we took all the boys to "see" the fun at the fair on Saturday! All they REALLY cared about was the tractors... that and wanting to see the Motocross going on in the Grand Stand! (Carter has been praying that he can get a motorcycle ever since!)
The other days we played outside and had fun times... like this one ... Carter convincing his LITTLE brothers to push him in the wagon! Hayden got mad because he wanted to push himself... so he did!