Other Summer Fun

With just over a week to go until school starts, we officially see summer break winding down.  Here are few snapshots from the fun we've had this break.

Both girls learned to ride two wheel bikes this June!  It was a very exciting day in our house!  They have struggled with finding their balance in the past.  I think it has helped tremendously that they've been practicing on scooters for months (Mia got one for Christmas and Mr. Mayo gave his son's old one to Lily).  They asked to try the bikes one day, so we brought them out, and they both picked it up almost immediately.  There was much rejoicing!  They absolutely love it now and ride all the time.  It's wonderful!

The girls were so excited that they were going to ride on their school's float in the July 4th Marietta parade.  They were so disappointed when it got rained out!  We still had a great day and evening though because the Wilkinson family came over for bbq, sparklers and firework-watching.  We were excited to share Yabsera's first July 4th with her; her eyes grew quite large at the first fireworks but she ended up loving it.  It turned out to be a great way to celebrate America's birthday!

At Target one day, I saw these little blue gloves on sale, and it hit me that my kids have never actually played baseball.  I bought them and decided to teach them (easier said than done).  They had fun with it though and caught on fairly quickly.  Lily isn't too interested, but Mia can't wait to play softball!

The girls were very excited to have Macey over to spend the night one evening.  Here they are performing a musical number...wow is all I can say about that.

Ryan and I had such a fun time on our double date with Jeff and Elizabeth Smith.  We have absolutely loved becoming better friends with them over the last few months.  We met them for bowling one evening where Jeff and his lucky towel took us to task.  From there we went to play whirleyball which is where this picture was taken; it was boys against girls after all.  None of us had played before, but it was awesome.  I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard!  After the girls won, we decided some ice cream was in order to celebrate, so we enjoyed just hanging out and talking.  It was a great evening!

The girls came across their old play kitchen food recently, and they've been having a ball with it.  They made Lily's room into a cafe, set up signs, kitchen, register and even a behind-the-scenes tour.  Who can resist?

Mia and I had a fantastic Mommy-Daughter date to Stone Summit one morning.  We spent 2 hours there!  We had a great time trying all the different auto-belay walls.  Mia is really quite good at this.  Me...not so much.  I tried it but man, that used muscles I have completely forgotten about.  I had a great time watching her though.  I love her face in this bottom left picture; she had just realized the name of this course was "Amazing Amelia."  She was stoked!  After our bodies simply couldn't go any more, we headed over to The Varsity for lunch.  Mia was pretty excited to try a Frosted Orange!  I love my time with this fantastic girl!

Mia and I went rock climbing on the day Lily went to White Water to celebrate Rachael's 8th birthday.  She had a great time that day!  Here she is with Rachael and Raegan, both sweet girls from school.

She was very excited that the party turned in to a sleepover.  The girls painted dolphin pictures that evening as a craft; isn't Lily's cute?

Our whole family is pretty excited about the new remote control helicopter Mia received!  We've been having lots of fun with it!

We had a lot of fun today going to see Varekai at the Gwinnett Arena.  We all love Cirque du Soleil, so this was fun for all four of us.  Their acts are pretty amazing. 

New Smyrna Beach 2015

Recently our family headed down to New Smyrna Beach, FL for our family's annual vacation.  This year, we decided to simply take it easy and enjoy our time there; we didn't plan any side trips or before/after trips.  We were appreciative that Mom and Dad let us stay with them; they are always so gracious with that.  Overall it was a lovely week.  Here are several pictures (in no particular order) of the fun we had.

What a welcoming site!  Ryan and the girls headed down to the pool pretty quickly once we got down there, and I headed over to Publix.  This greeted me in the parking lot.  What a great reminder of one of God's promises!

I have to admit that we didn't take this picture; my cousin Lisa did.  Isn't this sunset amazingly beautiful?!  This was our first night there and the view from JB's restaurant.  I couldn't resist keeping it.

Randy and Georgia are so kind every year to play a game where all of their nieces/nephews get their birthday money gift from them and Meme.  Each child ends up getting around $40.  Needless to say, it's a much anticipated event!  Our girls certainly appreciate their generosity!

We surprised the girls with boogy boards this year.  They couldn't wait to try them out!

Trying to catch some waves!

Of course, the beach is also great for playing in the sand.

This is one of the beautiful sunrises Ryan saw...I missed this one (and every other one this week).

Well what do you know?  The boogy boards are fun in the pool too!

Mia loved getting some pointers from Papa on how to catch and throw a ball; she can't wait to play softball this fall!

Lily got the hang of diving this year!

Both girls loved it when Ryan would throw them in the pool.  Mia could catch some air.

Lily was a little more reserved (and just a few pounds more), so she didn't fly quite as high.

One fun little treat this week included a stop at Baskin Robbins after dinner one evening.

We were all so excited to meet our newest cousin, Maggie Jane.  She's five weeks old now.  Her birth mother chose Jason and Jill to be her parents when she was only two days old.  She is absolutely precious, and we are glad to welcome her into our family.  We had a fun baby shower for her and our second new cousin, Bryce, who technically joined the family last year just before the beach trip but was officially adopted in during the year.  We love kids in this family!

Both girls were a little nervous to try the big surfboard, but they were willing to give standing up a try with a little help and encouragement from McKayla and Madi.

Wayne and I enjoyed sitting down by the water catching up one afternoon.

Lastly, here's the shot of the big group after enjoying hot dog day.  My family isn't perfect, but we love each other.  I'm thankful for the traditions that have been established over the years!

On Friday, it started raining about noon, and the forecast said that would keep up the rest of the day.  We decided to pack it on up and head north.  We stopped in Daytona for a couple of hours first though, so I could get my Bubba Gump's shrimp in; still my favorite shrimp ever.  We headed on home after that which ended up working out well.  We missed a good bit of traffic (there's a mass exodus from Florida on Saturday), and that gave us the whole day on Saturday to catch up on laundry and rest.  Trips are always fun, but there's nothing like coming home!

Father's Day Weekend in Chicago

Our whole family was excited that we would get to spend Father's Day weekend in Chicago!  We headed up on Thursday and landed mid-afternoon.  Both girls have become pros at air travel which we appreciate.  I did laugh though as they asked what time we would launch.  I guess that's a carryover from our time at Rocket Center a few weeks ago!  David picked us up from the airport, and we headed towards their home.  The Blackhawks were having their Stanley Cup celebration parade that day, and we decided it was best to stay in for the evening.  We ordered in some delicious pizza and simply enjoyed being with David and Jan.  Nick joined us towards the end of our time there, and it was great to visit with him again.  We finally decided to head over to our hotel, so we could all rest up and get ready for a fun weekend.

I took tons of pictures throughout this trip, but I've tried to condense them down to collages where possible, just to save some space.

On Friday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove over to Lincoln Park Zoo.  It was an amazingly beautiful day!  We were so fortunate with our weather the whole time.  The zoo really wasn't too crowded either, so we were able to take our time and get up close and personal with the animals.  The girls really enjoyed riding the endangered species carousel.  We were all fascinated by the gibbon monkeys and their crazy calls.  I loved being in the big cats' den where we were able to get incredible views of lions, tigers, wolverines, etc.  Lily was very excited to get a stuffed animal from the zoo to match "Linca," the sea otter she got last time. She settled on a cute giraffe that she has named "Necklace."  Mia decided she would save her souvenir buying for a later day.

After several hours at the zoo, we headed out for lunch at D4 which was so good.  Then Jan took the girls while Ryan, David and I stopped by a great butcher shop and our hotel to get a few things together.  Jan started by going to Walgreens to get the girls sweatshirts.  Though it was beautiful, we weren't expecting the upper 50's for the weather!  When the wind blew off the lake, it was really chilly!  After they got sweatshirts, they walked over to Maggie Daly Park where a new playground had just opened.  Mia was thrilled to see the new climbing wall!  She spent close to an hour and a half on it.  She was definitely the smallest person out their climbing, but she had the most determination.  I'm truly amazed at her confidence and willingness to try things like this.  Love this girl!

Just after she started climbing, David and Ryan dropped me off.  Jan and I alternated staying to watch Mia and playing on the rest of the playground with Lily.  It was a pretty neat one with lots of different areas to explore.  It started out being not too crowded but then filled up as the day went on.  We realized that was the last day of school for Chicago kids, so many were celebrating at the playground.

When Mia's climbing time was up, she joined us on the playground.  They had a great time together.

David and Jan were very kind and offered to keep the girls for us at their home Friday night so Ryan and I could have a date.  Nick found some tickets for us which we appreciated.  We cheered on the White Sox this time, and loved that it was "Mullet Night" sponsored by Great Clips.  It was hilarious.  This was a great evening.

While we were at the game, the girls were having a blast swimming at David and Jan's home.  They will always take the chance to go swimming!

They also took this time to play with Taz a lot.  They love that little dog!

On Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast together and then stayed at their home for awhile.  Ryan and I were super excited to visit Eataly for lunch; we love this place.  It's probably one of my favorite places to visit, anywhere.  After that, we went to see the newest Pixar movie called Inside Out.  It was really cute, and we all enjoyed it.  Saturday evening we spent eating all sorts of yummy meats and cheeses from Eataly.  It was wonderful.

Sunday was Father's Day.  We were thankful to have both Ryan and David around to celebrate with.  Our girls have no idea how blessed they are to have Ryan for their father; he's a great one.  We decided to celebrate by visiting the Adler Planetarium.  It was a fascinating place.  The first part was all about the Gemini and Apollo space missions which we all love.  Ryan and I loved that the astronauts read the creation story in Genesis as a Christmas Eve broadcast from space.  The NASA flight manual said they would do this because there was nothing more appropriate than this.  I had goosebumps just listening to it.  We visited the dome for an interesting space adventure movie, and we ate a little lunch in the cafe.  There were some beautiful views of Lake Michigan and the city from the cafe.  The rest of our visit was spent seeing how other civilizations used the planets to create calendars and tell time, and how our understanding of the solar system has deepened with scientists and their tools.  It was a wonderful visit.

Another beautiful day; love this view from the Adler balcony!

We made our way back to the condo and got everything ready to grill out for the evening.  Look at this beautiful view!  This is on the 17th floor of the condo tower where they have lots of grills and patio space for the residents to use.

I think it's safe to say the girls were worn out from this weekend.  This is them all cozy on our sofa bed in the hotel.

This is how we found them sound asleep the next morning.

On Monday, David picked us up.  We enjoyed a breakfast at Yolk and then stopped by to see his new office.  It's in a really cool loft setting.  We got to meet his employees too which was nice.  From there it was time to head to the airport to come on home.  Our flight was delayed for a bit due to some bad weather coming in, but we managed to get out before it hit.  Both girls fell asleep on the car ride home.  It had been a big weekend.  We all loved it though.  We always enjoy our time with David and Jan.  We look forward to doing it again!