Sister Trip

My big sister Becki came out for a visit over Labor Day weekend. We drove down to a little town in Southern Illinois called Vienna, but pronounced Vyenna. It was a very small, kinda redneckish town. When we pulled up to our hotel, we were scared! The "lobby" smelled so nasty (stale cigarette smoke) that we asked to see our room first before we paid. The girls said ok, but I could tell she was laughing on the inside. You see, there was only one other hotel in town and this was the nicer one.
Well, our room was alright, we just had to hold our breath to run up the stairs because it was like 40 years of trapped cigarette smoke in the stairwell. That's right, no elevator. Oh well.
So the first night there we drove around to find a restaurant and picked the one that had the most cars in the parking lot figuring that it must be the best around. It was called Jimmy's Char House.....Think Hometown buffet or Chuckaramma........except a whole lot worse!!! There was a lot of breaded deep fried food. I didn't recognize most of it, but I'm pretty sure there were fried frog legs in there. I had mashed potatoes and gravy and I'm pretty sure they were from a can.

Well, you may be wondering why we chose to go to Vienna Illinois in the first place. Well our cousin (actually our cousins son, so that must make him a first cousin once removed or a second cousin or something) was getting married and we hadn't seen that side of our family for many moons so we went. I'm so glad we did! It was so good to catch up with them and spend a couple of days together!

We all went on a beautiful hike to a waterfall where we watched a pore little frog in a pond get attacked by a small fish. The frog lost. I'm still a little creeped out by that. It rained on us on the way back. We also went to a town called Metropolis where we went to the Superman museum. Very cool. Then we went to lunch at an interesting little place that listed about 22 different deep fried catfish dishes. I had a hamburger.

It may not have been a luxury vacation but I had so much fun with my sister and cousins and I would do it again in a heart beat!

Camping in the Black River Forrest, WI

We took a quick 2 day camping trip to the Black River Forrest in WI. It was Beautiful and the weather was great. We had Rain at night and not too hot during the day.

BEST Apple Pie I EVER ATE

In a little town called Troy in Wisconsin there is an old, old electric train that you can ride up and down a track. One of the stops is at this wonderful little market called The Elegant Farmer. It has all sorts of goodies. Cheeses, breads, mixes, jars of salsa, fresh fruits and this amazing bakery. We read in a newspaper that Bobby Flay had challenged the Elegant Farmer to a Throw Down on their Apple pie and the Elegant Farmer WON! So we had to try the pie! We bought a caramel apple pie, some black berries and some cheese curds, took it out to a picnic table, gave everyone a spoon and dug in! It was so good that we went again in September when my sister, Becky was visiting. And now I've found the recipe online and made the pie for the first time over the weekend. YUMMY!

Here are the best pictures (out of the million or so I took) of the kids. Notice we didn't get many with Gray in there. Oh well. Maybe next year. I took tons of pictures....too many to post. Mandy, Lesli, Liz and anyone else who wants one...I'll put them on a CD for you.

The Cousins are Comming!!!

In July we had a lot of visitors! Jeremy's Mom, Bella (Jeremy's sister Liz's girl) Sister in law, Mandy and her kids (Makenna, Parker, Nate and Smith) and later in the week, brother Seth all came for a visit. It was pure excitement and craziness, but as always the highlight of our summer is to get together with family! The girls all slept in Savannah's room and did girl things (giggling until all hours of the night and writing songs) And the boys all slept in the boys room (that was one stinky room!). Here is a peak at our week. The gang arrived on Friday night (July 10th).

Saturday, Mandy and I rode the train downtown to shop the Magnificent Mile. We saw a dress for $3,000 and a purse for over $2,000. We discovered a great store called Lush that sells organic soap where we each bought a "buffy". It is an exfoliating soap that the sales girl said would get rid of our cellulite. Well, I've buffed and buffed, but somehow that stubborn cellulite is still hanging on. Hmmm. In another mall we somehow got talked into buying this great little nail file that shines up your nails to look like you have clear polish on. I still think that was a good investment! On our way back to the park and ride, we (ok, Mandy is innocent....I) wasn't paying attention and rode all the way to the end of the line only to have to get back on to go back a few stops to our car. OOPS! Sorry, Mandy.

Chris

Mandy



Sunday we rested and Monday we dressed the kids up and took them to the park for a photo shoot. I'll post those pictures separate. Tuesday we went to Lego Land. It wasn't great, but the kids had fun.


Parker and Alex

Wednesday, all the girls went back to school shopping while Jeremy loaded up all 6 little boys and picked Seth up from the airport. They went to the lake for the day. And you guessed it. They took zero pictures!


Thursday we went to the horse races at Arlington Park. Then we went out to eat Chicago style pizza and then home for our annual Kids B-day Party.

Friday was our big day! We got up early and got on the train to go downtown. All 5 adults and 9 kids. We ate breakfast on the train then took a bus to Navy Pier where we took a ride on the Tall Ship Windy and listened to the Pirates tell stories about Piracy of the Inland Seas. The kids even got to help with the sails.
Makenna and Savannah on the train

Chris and Gray


Seth and Nate


Jeremy and Gray


Lesli and Savannah




After the Ship and a quick bite to eat we hopped on a couple of these family sized bikes and tooled along the Lake front and back, stopping for a photo op. This was my favorite part of the day! Jeremy and Chris


Jeremy, Chris and the kids.


After the bikes some of us rode the Ferris Wheel.

Savannah, Makenna, Bella and Lesli


Jeremy, Micah and Alex


And then took a long walk through the city to have dinner at a fun diner called Ed Debevic's. A place where the waiters are rude and yell at you and dance on the tables, but it's all in fun. Then we walked back to the train station and rode back home. Very fun day!

Dupage Children's Museum

The kids earned tickets to a children's museum through the summer reading program at the library. It was about an hour away, but well worth it! We went with some friends of ours, the Zimmermans (They were with us on our camping trip to Starved Rock as well). It was very nice to let the kids go and touch and not have to tell them "NO". Well, that is until we played in the water. We about got thrown out because the kids kept making water spray all over all of the other kids and parents. That was embarrasing!

Gray was in awe of this floating ball.



Savannah, Gray, Joseph Z., Sariah Z., Micah, Alex


Building with real tools.


Princess Savannah.


How many kids do I have? Notice my boys are all in Orange so that I could find them easier!

Great big Light Bright!

Wild West Town

We took a trip to a cute little place called Wild West Town. Because of the cooler weather and rain in the forecast there were NO CROWDS!!! Yipee! All of the Cowboys and Cowgirls who worked there were very friendly to the kids and we all had a great time! The highlight of the trip was when a little girl from Alex's class saw him and yelled "Hi Alex!". Alex waved and then tried to be really cool and jump over a fence. His feet caught on the top rail and he face planted. He was so embarrassed. Am I a bad mom because I couldn't stop laughing?





Sling shots


Panning for gold.


Pony rides.


Canoe rides.


Archery.


Train rides.

Hand carts.

Carousal

Free Zoo Day

I made the mistake of taking the kids to the Brookfield Zoo on "Free Zoo Day". Lesson learned. There were way too many people who were not very respectful of personal space. We'll just leave it at that. But I think the kids had fun. Savannah and her friend Emily were way too cool for it all, but I did catch a few smiles!!!
Micah wearing dads glasses to protect his stitches.


In this picture....two random kids on the left. Alex, Emily and Savannah on the camel and Gray in front.