ONU Homecoming

This last weekend, our family traveled with Stephen's mom and dad to Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois for homecoming. This is the university where Stephen's grandpa went to school, his parents met, he went to school, and where he proposed to me, so it's got sentimental value oozing from every building. :)

The kids travel very well, and in no time we made it to Bourbonnais (3-4 hours away). We stopped for lunch @ a McDonald's with a super-cool playplace, so the kids got to burn off some extra energy. There was a minor scare when it was time to go. Katy had come out of her "one more time" through the slide, but Caleb didn't. After waiting a bit, we sent Katy in to look for Caleb and bring him out. She came out saying that Caleb wasn't in there. Coming from a girl who has difficulty seeing things right in front of her, this didn't mean a lot. So Daddy volunteered to remove his shoes and look around. When HE came out saying that Caleb wasn't in there, I confess to a moment of panic. (Aside: I'm not a mom who has to see her kids at all times to know they're ok, but Caleb is only two, and loves his own gender so much that he would gladly walk away with any male, especially if they're around grandpa age.) We looked closely one more time, and we were very relieved to see him hiding in another part of the play area. Hiding, you see, because he had pooped his pants.

Great.

Stephen -- who is assigned to boy clean up -- said it was the worst clean up job he had even encountered. I'm inclined to believe him, because he came out of the RR with two smears of poop on his forearms.

When Capt. McStinky was strapped in, we went to the campus to pick up our tickets.
Sadly, the music department canceled the afternoon concert (BOO!!), so now we just had the football game and the evening planetarium show.

The football game was versus Taylor University, where my father-in-law taught for many years. He was pleased because he couldn't lose either way, but the rest of us had more at stake. The kiddos liked the cheering, but they LOVED the marching band and mascot. As it turns out, the mascot was a guy who goes to our church. (Hi, Ben!) Katy got her picture taken with Toby the Tiger and could have died a happy girl. :) The Tigers didn't win the football game, but we didn't even stick around for the end. Having missed naptime, the kiddos were fading fast. They fell asleep on the way to the restaurant, and I stayed with them in the car to let them have a little rest.

We got to eat with Sarah's brothers and their wives -- always a treat. The kids were about sleeping on the table until our wonderful server brought out their meals early. THANK YOU!


After supper, it was time for the planetarium show. ONU is one of three digital planetariums in the state of Illinois, and it was a great show. The kids got to see how small we are in our universe, some cool constellations, and a laser light show. Great end to a great evening.

The drive back was even good because I didn't have to do any of it. :) Thanks, Mom and Dad! We love spending time with you and thoroughly enjoy having kids close to their grandparents.

Hopefully I'll be able to add some pictures later when I've got my camera cord with me.

Keetha's Vacation Post First

Well, Keetha, as promised.... An Irish Feast!

We arrived in Ireland after having missed our night's sleep on the plane. We thought it was Saturday, but, as it would happen, it was really Sunday. We were lucky to find this place open and serving breakfast. This was my first encounter with a Full Irish Breakfast, which my in-laws both ordered. It included (at this place) two fried eggs, two white sausage links that were the size of hot dogs, two dark sausages of the same size, two slices of rashers (like Canadian bacon, but larger), beans, grilled/roasted tomato, toast, and, of course, tea.

WOW.



The first time I remembered to take a food picture for you was of the yummy tiramisu from Morellis. We were Americans eating at an Italian restaurant in Ireland. We were the United Nations. :)


The next big food adventure was at Bunratty Castle's Medieval Banquet. They had the kind of food that you don't really need utensils for, great music, and fun entertainment. This is Stephen and I with our nieces, Megan (L) and Savannah (R). Savannah had to sit by some lady who didn't like to see meat on the bone. Boy, was she in the wrong place! We had rib racks, roasted potatoes, chicken ON THE BONE, veggies, and other yummies.



One of our evenings was spent touring the Dingle Penninsula, a very scenic location that was draped in fog and clouds for most of our visit. While we didn't eat at this restaurant, I thought it was totally interesting that the entire building was made from stone.


Another day trip was to the Aran Islands, specifically Innishere (or Inis Oirr). In a typical Irish day, in the morning, the weather was cloudy and cold. The girls needed some hot chocolate to warm up.


By the afternoon, it was warm enough for us to lay out on the beach and have a picnic. PBJs, cheese, and fruit taste even better with a view of the water. I even accidentally got some serious sunburn this day. Now I have a half-tanned right shin and a quarter-tanned left one. Don't you wish you were cool like me??


I spotted this Q sign in a take away place. While we were there eating our pizza (no, we didn't "take away"), we met one of the town councilmen, Cllr. Cantwell, who gave us an extensive, unsolicited history of the area, including information on when Braveheart was filmed in the area. Cool stuff.



On our tour of Dublin Castle, we saw this dining room, but we didn't deem it appropriate to eat here.


Nor here, in the fancy room, where they were setting up for some kind of shindig.


Your last "taste" of Ireland is a picture of Stephen with Molly Malone, who sells "cockels and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"
(Please excuse Miss Malone's lack of upper coverage. I'm sure things were soooooooo different back then...)


Well, I hope you enjoyed the first bit of Ireland I've had time to write about. More to come as soon as possible, but hopefully tomorrow will be occupied with the beginnings of potty training for Caleb.

Vacation - All I Ever Wanted

We're back. We've been back since about 1 AM Father's Day. But I still haven't written the multiple posts the trip deserves. In the meantime, just wanted to let you know we're safe and sound. The kiddos had a great time on their vacations too. :)

Spring Break - Part Two

Really I'm only calling this part two because I said there might be such.  But it'll be bulleted.  Just giving you fair warning....

• Tuesday night was ballroom dancing night.  It was so much fun!!  We learned cha cha, rumba, and samba.  I also learned a little about taking Stephen's lead.  (Shocking, I know!)  I thought we did pretty well, and we would love to find a class we could take in the Marion area.  Of course then we have to worry about babysitters, free nights (which we don't have), etc.  Oh well.  It was fun while it lasted.
• Wednesday we took Sutton and traveled to the Virginia Living Museum.  A little pricey, but it is a great interactive museum for kiddos.  Pics to follow as soon as I feel like taking them off my camera.  :)
• Thursday was MAN DAY.  Since there were 4 females and 10 males, it had to happen sometime.  We went to Bass Pro Shop and Harbor Freight, both firsts for me.  Thursday night was another swim night.
• Friday was time to leave.  :(  There was much begging for us to stay longer, but we had stayed as long as possible.  Little did we know that "Baby" Deacon (2 yrs old) had plans to keep us anyway.  As we said our goodbyes, Deacon was playing in the car and LOCKED HIMSELF IN!!  Our keys were already in the car.  The stereo was blaring, and he had started up our GPS.  Smart kid.  So we laughed and tried to get him to hit the unlock button to no avail.  Then his mildly brilliant older brother, Truman, thought of using a laser pointer to show him what button to push.  It worked like a charm, and we were on the road.
• We drove to Cleveland where my brother is in the hospital having some tests run.  It was nice to see the family, and they appreciated having visitors since they're five hours from home.  Tomorrow is the big day where the docs will review Nate's collected data and let him know if surgery is an option.  
• Home again, home again, jiggity jig

And now we're in the home stretch to the end of the school year.  Yessssssssssss.

Spring Break - Part One

It's really dangerous to title a post "Part One" because it seriously implies that there will be a part two.  I'd just like to say upfront that there is a possibility that there will not be a part two.  

The trip out here was L---O---N---G.  Luh-ong.

We went to pick up our nephew Friday afternoon.  It was a little bit out of the way, but it's great to have him with us.  So with the extra trip, we were facing a 16-hour trip after spending three hours in the car already.  Whew.  We drove for about 11 hours total the first day, stopped at a hotel, and crashed.  There I did something that I try never to do -- sleep in the same bed as my daughter.  (Note: It is usually in times of frustration that I refer to her as "my daughter.")  She was wide-awake when we arrived at the hotel, and it took her about 40 minutes to fall back asleep, insisting the whole time that I needed to keep my arm around her.  Ugh.  But it was fine after that.  At 7, merely 5.5 hours after we had gone to sleep, Caleb stood up in the room and made his alert status known.  We thought it was a good idea to eat breakfast and have the kids swim so they could burn some energy before sitting in the car for another long day.  It went fairly well, but my kids are a little water nervous, which is nice since they don't swim.

Today we did some shopping and worked on Caleb's speech therapy by getting milkshakes.  Yum.  That's my kind of therapy.  Mommy and Caleb shared a Cookies 'N' Cream one, and Katy and Daddy shared Strawberry.  Notice any similarity between Mommy's mouth and Katy's mouth.

This evening, Jodi and I went to the Y for her yoga class.  This was my first attempt at an hour-long class.  Results?  I have a new appreciation for the difficulty of yoga and sore triceps.  :)  I told Stephen that if I hear "downward facing dog" one more time, my triceps will spontaneously combust.  It was nice to do something different, but I would have to get a lot better before yoga would become relaxing to me.  I worried about doing the move correctly, breathing, and not falling on my duff.  After yoga, everyone went swimming.  Katy and Caleb, having just been in the pool a few days ago, were much more comfortable this time.  No pics -- I was swimming in my new swimsuit.  :)

Holiday World

Our Sunday School class takes an annual trip to Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN. This was our first year to go. After leaving Caleb with Grandma and Grandpa Swan, we left Sunday afternoon. Stephen and I had both heard that it would take about three hours to get there, so we didn't pack a whole lot as far as car activities for Katy....a few books, a couple snacks, and her ubiquitous milk. As it would happen, it's more like 5 or 6 hours away. She was READY to be done in the car.

We stayed at the Jasper Inn, which is great for kids. Stephen spent most of his evening in the big pool while I played with Katy in the kiddie pool. She loved it, but again, we had planned poorly and didn't have toys for her. (I didn't realize that pool time was like bath time and required cups, etc.) Anyway... After swimming, Katy went to bed. We socialized for a little while (ADULT TIME!!), but we turned in earlier than most, excited for the shot at a full night's sleep. Around 3:30, Stephen turned over to face the bed where Katy was sleeping, just in time to see her fall out. Thud. I went over and held her for a bit till she went back to sleep. (Honestly, I don't think she'd have a problem with falling out if we brought her own pillow. She feels the need to wiggle off of the hotel pillows. Too poofy.) So I was awake for about an hour, afflicted with a slight case of Mommy-panic. I didn't want her to fall out again. But she didn't, so I went back to sleep. Oh well on the full night's sleep. Maybe next year. :)

Day two started with a trip to the hotel's breakfast buffet. Katy had a bit of a meltdown because she had to wait for her milk to be served. She drinks more fluids than most adults I know, so hydration is very important to her. It was all better after SuperDaddy found some grapes for her, though. We ate, then drove the last little bit to Holiday World.

We were a little disconcerted when we saw all the forward-thinking parents who had brought strollers with them. "That would have been a good idea," we said to ourselves. But never fear! Family-friendly Holiday World is equipped to rent strollers and wagons to those who come without. We got a wagon for our girl and headed off to Rudolph's Reindeer Ranch, the section for little kids. Katy loved riding the merry-go-rounds and other rides. The only part she did NOT like at all was the ball pit. She asked to go in, so I put her in. Then she cried, so I took her out. Then she wanted back in, so I put her in. She cried again. Yikes. Time to move on.

After a bit, Stephen saw a ride that he wanted to try. It was the kind where you spin really fast in a circle so that you're stuck to the sides, and then it tilts up. Since I knew Katy wouldn't stay in one place for very long, I told Stephen I'd meet him at the exit and I took her around while he waited for his ride. She wandered around, climbing on and off the curbs and fences. When I thought Stephen might be getting done, I slowly steered her back toward him. However, before we got there, she saw a kiddie ride. I took her around a couple times, but then we kept going to meet up with Daddy. As we walked past, I noticed he wasn't in line anymore, so we planted ourselves at the exit to see him when he came off. The ride started, and Katy was very concerned for her Daddy's safety, especially when the ride started tilting. "No, Daddy, no, Daddy, nooooo!!" When it came to a stop, we waited for Stephen, but he didn't come. I told Katy that he must be on the next one. Nope. Maybe the next one... Nope. After five groups of people had come and gone, I knew something wasn't going according to plan. So I let Katy fall asleep on me, put her down in the wagon, and waited some more. My parents always told me that when you are lost, you should stay in one place. Technically I think Stephen was lost, but I couldn't very well go traipsing around carrying two bags and pulling a sleeping girl. So after my backside fell asleep sitting on the concrete block, I moved to a nearby bench at a crossroads, thinking I'd have a better chance at seeing Stephen there. I waited some more while Katy slept. After almost two hours, I borrowed someone's cell phone to try and call him. I left a message detailing my whereabouts and waited some more.

During this whole waiting process, my inner thoughts were very....negative. Things along the lines of "How hard is it just to WAIT at the EXIT?!?" and "Boy, when he finds us, he's gonna pay!" were swarming in my head. However, when I saw Stephen finally coming up the hill toward us, I was more relieved than anything. I can only imagine what it must be like to lose a child in a place like that. As it turned out, Stephen had gotten through with his ride, and we still weren't back. So he noticed that a nearby ride had a short line and went on it. When we still weren't back, he figured we had gone on to the water park. After looking EVERYWHERE, checking everyone's wagon to see if it was ours, he got my phone message. Unfortunately, the part that told him WHERE we were waiting got garbled. So he kept looking and eventually found us. He never heard the part about us waiting by the exit. (Argh.)

After a few minutes of reunited bliss, Katy woke up, so we went to the water park. We got changed and sunscreened, prepared for hours of cool water. Stephen and I rode the lazy river, and Katy rode on me. :) She somehow missed the memo that she might get wet on a water ride, but she was used to a little splashing by the 5th time around. There was an area just for little kiddos where we spent the rest of the afternoon. All in all, a great day. Enjoy some pictures....

Here's a picture of the two of us from the top of the eiffel tower. 

Thought I would test out the capabilities of blogger bot. Thus the whole reason for switching tools. Oh, this is a picture of an entrance to the Everglades. Deven and I drove by last summer.