Holiday Roundup Part I

In the spirit of catching up, I'm going to try to cover all the recent holidays and festivities in a few posts.

First up was the very rare occurrence of Hanukkah falling on Thanksgiving. We always start our Hanukkah celebrations at Thanksgiving because that's when we're together with Dave's family, but this year the calendar cooperated as well.

We had much to be thankful for this year, as the tornado that swept through central Illinois went right by Mindy and Shawn's house, but fortunately they did not sustain much damage and they are all safe.

This guard rail stuck in a tree is about 25 feet from their house.

It wouldn't be Hanukkah without a picture of the boys and the dinosaur menorah.

The lucky boy got some great presents.

Super excited about Phineas and Ferb!

Alex's First Tooth to Come Out

Alex has been quite anxious to lose a tooth. He's been trying to convince himself and us for months that he had a "wiggly tooth." So, on December 2 when I picked him up from school and he told me that he had a wiggly tooth, I did the obligatory check, and, lo and behold, it moved!

We've been tracking his progress, and it had gotten much looser this week, so I knew it was going to happen soon.

This morning, he and I were hanging out, and he calmly announced, "My tooth fell out." After all the anticipation, he was extremely stoic about it. You could tell he was excited, but he was playing it cool. He did, however, have a lot of questions about the Tooth Fairy and was especially concerned about what would happen if she ran out of money.

A Fun, Old-fashioned Fourth of July

We were fortunate to spend the Fourth of July at our friends' place in Michigan. We had a great time with lots of old-fashioned activities: decorated kids' bikes, a neighborhood parade, and fishing.

Wild Kratts and the Brookfield Zoo

Entering our time machine to go back to June, we first stop at the Brookfield Zoo where we had a great day. Alex likes the PBS show "Wild Kratts," and the Kratt Brothers had an appearance at the zoo so we went to see them. It was super crowded, but Alex enjoyed it. In addition to the show, we enjoyed the zoo and a really cool dinosaur exhibit with animatronic dinosaurs.

The Kratt brothers are coming up the aisle of people here.

Waving to them.

Having a great time watching the show with Dad.

Zoo fun.

My little archeologist! I would have loved this as a kid.

Controlling the dinosaur.

A good time was had by all.

Yes, We're Still Here

It's been an embarrassingly long break from blogging. It's not for lack of content or desire to share, but sometimes life gets in the way. Thanks to everyone who asked/checked in on us. I will do my best to get caught up. We'll start with some miscellaneous fun stuff and then will get some posts up to cover some of the events and activities from our summer and fall.

He's growing like a weed, but his feet aren't that big yet. (Those are Dave's shoes.)

Attacking the bag in the boxing room at our Y.

'Tis the season for hot chocolate.

One of Alex's most recent Lego creations.

Iowa Vacation Part Three

The final leg of our Iowa vacation involved three fun stops.

We broke up the long travel day by stopping at the Fort Custer Maze after a few hours on the road. It's a huge maze with eight stations that you have to find to fill out a card with stamps. We found seven in a little over half an hour, but the last one was a challenge. We were a little hot and tired when we finally found it, but the place was really fun and worth the stop.

The second stop of the day was one I had been wanting to make for a long time. It was so monumental that it will be getting its own post.

Finally, we arrived in Iowa City, our final destination, to visit our dear friends Jeff, Melissa, and their family. Dave and Jeff have known each other since they were three years old. It is always great to see them, and it's pretty special to see the kids playing together. If only we could do that more often!

The view from one of the corner towers

Getting our stamp at Station 7

Off to find the next station

Let's go this way!

Iowa City sculpture fun

Climbing with Audrey and Olivia

It might not look like it,
but this was a spaceship exploring the solar system

Having way too much fun!

Iowa Vacation Part Two

Next up in our Iowa trip was some time at Lake Okoboji. Beautiful water, miniature golf, an old time amusement park, and more. We had a lot of fun. We also discovered that parents in their 40s should be careful in what they choose to ride at the amusement park. Also, we didn't get a good picture of it, but Alex had bunk beds in his room, which thrilled him immensely!

One view of the lake from our room

Alex loves mini-golf

My two pirates!

His first Pez: Star Wars, of course

Exploring the docks with Mom

Attempting to play volleyball

The Tipsy House was both the first and last thing he did

Mirror Maze

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel

Riding the mini-coaster (not the larger one in back)

He had to ride the carousel many times

He had far more fun than I did in the spinning apples

Big slides are always fun!

Alex and I are riding in the blue carriage

See no evil

Our last morning on the dock