Christmas, Part 2- more Cali fun!

I have to get the rest of our Christmas trip posted before I forget which days we did what! I left off at Tuesday, our fabulous day in Escondido (aka heaven on earth).

Wednesday we basically hung out at Matt and Cheryl's house. J and H were always happy if they could be outside playing, and Wednesday was the perfect day for that!

J had been eyeing Uncle Matt and Aunt Cheryl's lemon trees and asking to pick some lemons (he seriously loves anything lemon.... I think he was in awe that they can go right out their front door and pick one!). Then Uncle Matt, J, and Evan squeezed the lemons for lemonade!

I had In 'n' Out for lunch again. :)

In the afternoon, the guys (Matt, Adam, Ben, and Neil) headed off to Hangar 24 Brewery, and Abby and I took a walk with Josie and Jeremiah to the park!

Love.

That evening we had a bonfire in the backyard and had s'mores!

And then it was bedtime stories with Uncle Ben!

Thursday was New Year's Eve! We hung out in the morning and then after lunch we went to Knott's Berry Farm! J calls it Knott's Fairy Farm, I don't know why.

The kids had a blast, especially on the rides at Camp Snoopy! 

I love this pic (even though it's blurry) because you can just see the laughter! This was J and J's favorite ride by far!!

Also a highlight- the "snow" they made fall by the saloon! J thought it was hilarious that it was actually made of soap. He kept saying, "Don't catch it on your tongue!"

We had a late dinner at Portillo's and then headed home to get the kiddos to bed. I don't think anyone saw 12:00 midnight, except for EST and CST. We're too old. Happy 2016!

Friday, New Year's Day, was the Rose Bowl Parade!! Adam, J, & I, Abby & Neil, and Matt & Josie all headed to Pasadena and arrived there about 8:45 am. We parked at the end of the parade route, found a spot to stand (yes, we stood the entire time), and the first float came by at about 9:30 am.

Highlights included: the Disney float (J and J were so excited about that one! Frozen, Mickey, Star Wars!!! It was awesome), the Iowa Hawkeyes float and marching band, and the Bachelor float (no I am not ashamed about that at all)!

Oh and the sky-writing was interesting, too.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day. The kind of day that you long for when you are sitting in snowy MI watching the Rose Parade on TV. It was heavenly!

Saturday we had another low-key day. We took the kids to "Big Air" aka "the jumping place." Obviously they had a blast! Hope even walked around on the trampolines, too.

We stopped for lunch, and again ate outside!

I love this face! Obviously CA agrees with her. :)

Uncle Matt (and J and E) made popcorn that night!

Sunday was our day to head back to the midwest. But thankfully not until evening, so we attended Matt and Cheryl's church and also enjoyed some final outside play time!

We left LAX about 7:30 pm and arrived at Midway about 1:30 am. For having such terrible flight times, our kids did great, I do have to say! And thanks again to Uncle Rog for the super late night airport pick-up! We crashed at their house again Sunday night, and made our final trek to MI Monday morning (yes, we kept J out of school. Terrible parents, we are).

So not only were we sad to leave CA and sad to come home to snow in MI, but the sickness continued for us! J had complained 1 night in CA of his ear hurting (same ear as before), but we didn't think much of it. Then Monday night after getting back to MI he kept complaining of his tummy hurting, and eventually threw up 3 or 4 times over the course of the evening/night. Awesome, no school for that guy on Tuesday either! Also after feeding H breakfast on Tuesday morning, I went to her bed to get her blankie and found that she had thrown up sometime during the night, too ("Mom of the Year" Award winner right here- for NOT hearing her vomit, and NOT seeing it when I got her up in the morning! Yay me.) So yeah, what the heck.

J did get to school Wednesday and Thursday thankfully. But then Friday his district called off school because of the funeral and death of one of the high school students in his district. Terribly sad reason for a day off!! But because of that, we made a super last minute and quick trip to the great state of Iowa!! We met Adam's mom in Des Moines to pick up Molly (they graciously watched her while we were in CA!), and yes we were able to quick see just a few friends, too.

And the sickness continues. In Iowa J had complained about his ear again, and on the drive home to MI he was just not feeling good, tummy hurting again. That night at home, more complaining about the ear. So, Sunday morning it was off to our favorite place-Urgent Care (I think we should have our own reserved parking spot there)! And ear infection for J and 10 days of Amoxicilin (either the ear is re-infected again or never got better from before. J says he finally feels normal now, and he didn't feel normal in CA or IA, so I have a hunch it never got better). :( 

Don't forget about Hope! Yesterday she woke up from her nap with a 101.1 temp. Seriously?!!?!!? Aaaaggghhh!!!!! It got worse over night, so off to the doctor for her today. Guess what???? Ear infection! Same ear as 2 weeks ago, so either re-infected or never got better. Who knows. 5 days of Zithromax or the little girl. I don't even like thinking about all the sickness we have had between the 2 kids since Oct! (Short version- H's first ear infection, H with another virus w/ fever on her b-day! and terrible rash, J with a stomach bug, 2 weeks later J with Strep at Thanksgiving, J with a cold for a couple weeks in Dec ending with ear infection, H with croup then ear infection, me with sinus infection, J and H with stomach bug, J with ear infection again, and H with ear infection again).  Things can only get better, right?! :) And yes I know what everyone says about Kindergarten germs and the first year of school yadda yadda yadda (once upon a time I was a teacher and immersed myself in those germs daily!) J was in daycare for the first 4.5 years of his life and also was in preschool last year.... H goes to church nursery and frequents store shopping carts..... they are no stranger to germs! But this year is crazy!! Anyhoo, I'll leave you with some pics of sad, pathetic Hope today. Hoping we've seen the last of the sickness for a long while! Maybe we just need another trip to sunny CA. :)

Poor baby :(

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

Christmas- Part 1!

Before January gets away from me, I need to post about Christmas! Unfortunately, our family (mostly the kids) have continued to deal with sickness, but we are thankful that it didn't stop us from enjoying our travels. We had quite the Christmas trip planned, and were also thankful that we didn't have horrible weather to deal with. 

Remember the weekend before Christmas we enjoyed urgent care trips, an ER trip, croup for Hope, ear infection for J, then ear infection for H? 

Ah yes, all right before we left! So J finished up his 5 days of Zithromax the day we left, and H had just started her 10 days of Cefdinir. We left on Christmas Eve for some time with Adam's family in Dubuque! Weather was great and the kids did great for the 5 1/2 hour drive!

We met up at the Grand Harbor Resort hotel which had a great water park! Both J and H had a great time there! 

Typical. J being silly, H on the go, Adam smiling. :)

There was a really big tube slide that went outside the building and came back in, and Adam was finally able to convince J to ride on the inner tube with him down the slide (J is very cautious, so this was huge!).

See J's terrified face?? This was right before they flipped over. Needless to say, this was the first and last time J went down this slide.

We also did presents and spent some nice time with Adam's family. J was thrilled to see and spend time with his cousins Kyan and Kobe again!

Hope had a great time with the hotel mirror!

We stayed in Dubuque until the 26th, and then we headed to Chicago. We drove to my Uncle Roger and Aunt Sheryl's house- they were kind enough to let us stay the night at their house, park our car at their house, and Uncle Rog even gave us a 3:00 am ride to Midway! So so nice, we can't thank them enough!

Early in the morning of the 27th we flew out to our next destination- CALIFORNIA!! My side of the family all flew out there to see Matt & Cheryl, Josie and Evan! The last time we were all out there was 5 years ago- J and J were 12 months and 10 months old! E and H were not here! So it was definitely time.

We flew Southwest and were less than impressed with their customer service. Terrible lines, rude check-in people, no responsibility taken for making us almost miss our flight.... Etc etc etc. Boo. However, we made it and surprisingly so did all of our luggage!

5:30 am. J was beside himself with excitement, H was exhausted.

We arrived at LAX about 8 am Sunday morning. When we got to Matt and Cheryl's house, J went straight to bed and slept till like 1:30 in the afternoon. Adam stayed with him while the rest of us had lunch at Panera (and we sat outside!). The rest of the day was spent playing outside!

Bedtime stories with grandma!

On Monday we had lunch at In 'n' Out!!!! So yummy!

Abby and Hope were excited!

And who doesn't love a good candid shot of people eating?

I think Hope was yelling "More fries!!!"

The kids spent the afternoon playing outside again! 

Uncle Matt was working on his gopher problem, so the kids watched him put some kind of smoke thingy down the gopher hole.

J was convinced it was dynamite. Also, it didn't solve the gopher problem.

Monday night we did our Christmas Eve tradition of appetizers for dinner and then presents!

Matching PJ's from grandma!

Tuesday morning we did our stockings!

And then we went to urgent care- but surprisingly not for one of the kids, for me! :( I must have come down with what J and H had before our trip- started Christmas Eve with a sore throat, then congestion, lost my voice, cough, etc etc. Just FYI, urgent cares in different states are so different! In CA they are quite quick to offer a prescription, even if they aren't sure if you need it. I got Zithromax, and I think it really did help. I honestly think I had a sinus infection, because on the plane ride home I had terrible pain in my sinuses on our descent. Ouch. 

BUT. We pressed on- this would not ruin our trip!!

We headed down to my hometown of Escondido for the afternoon and evening. First stop?

My favorite place EVER- Wedeking's Bakery!

Hope loves the cookies as much as her mommy does!

Next we spent some time at Bate's Nut Farm (affectionately known for years to our family as Nate's Butt Farm).

Then we made a stop for the guys at Stone Brewery- what a cool place!!

Even J and J thought it was cool!

We ended our time in Escondido with dinner at Cenote Grill for Mexican food. It was such a fabulous day- a trip down memory lane!

Love this place. So much.

That's all for now- more California fun to come! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 

Christmas Fun!

I almost titled this post "Winter Fun," but decided we haven't really had any winter fun since we've had hardly any snow! The winter fun we did have was actually the weekend before Thanksgiving. We got a few inches of snow that Saturday, and it was perfect for snowman-making.

And then it melted. The snow was gone before Thanksgiving!

But the past few weeks we've been having some Christmas fun- doing some of our traditions as well as some new things!

We rooted for the Hawkeyes in the Big 10 Championship game against Michigan State. The game was so close and quite a nail-biter, but the Hawkeyes lost. :( Thankfully that gave them the opportunity to go to the Rose Bowl, which we are SUPER excited about since we are hoping to go to the Rose Bowl parade when we are in California! Fun!!

J and I did some Christmas cookie decorating!

There are none left for Santa.

We also went to The Critter Barn  to see their live nativity! We picked a pretty warm (for MI in December) evening, so it was nice to be outside looking at and feeding the animals!

 Of course we also had to visit Santa! We went to the same place we did last year- a store in downtown Holland called Home & Company. It's free, take all the pics you want, and very short line. Perfect!

J told Santa that he wants a chopper for Christmas. And then he had to explain to Santa what a chopper is (kinda like a combine). 

Hope hates Santa and was trying to climb up and over Adam to get away. Fun times!

Hope loves the Christmas tree! And she hasn't wrecked anything yet! :)

The 17th was Adam's birthday! J and I collaborated on a birthday cake.

Although the writing may look like J did it, that kindergarten frosting handwriting is mine. :) J was in charge of sprinkles! 

No one wanted to cooperate for a picture, so this is the best I got!

Jeremiah had a fun last week of school before break- they had red day, green day, ugly sweater day, and red & white stripe day. Here he is all ready for the last day- pajama and Santa hat day!

Since we will be out of town Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we had to do our own little family Christmas early (J was quite excited to find this out!). On Friday night we let the kids open Christmas jammies and their stockings.

I couldn't find Christmas jammies that I liked for awhile... and then Target had 40% off pajamas plus free shipping, AND I found their matching family PJ section. When I saw these I just knew we needed to have Santa and his elf! :)

Cutest. Elf. Ever.

Hope missed the part when I said to wait to start until I got a picture!

 

H is getting good at opening presents and even says "Oooooo!"

Saturday evening we opened the presents under the tree! I think  over the course of the day J asked approximately 1.2 million times if it was time for presents.

We stick to the "something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read." J is a VERY fast present opener, H is a very careful present opener.

Unfortunately, often along with Christmas fun comes something very not fun- sickness. And we have two under the weather kiddos! :( J has had a cold all week, but never had a fever or anything and it never hindered him from school or normal activities. Then all of the sudden Friday night Hope woke up wheezing with a very croup-y cough. We brought her into urgent care Saturday morning and she was diagnosed with croup, and was given a prescription for a steroid which made her throw up her lunch, and made her wake up at 4 am Sunday morning (like, for the day woke up!). No thank you, good-bye prednisolone. Saturday J started to fade..... complained his tummy hurt, fever 100.3, vomited (WHY does that always happen to him when he's congested?!?!). Thankfully ibuprofen helped both kids power through the present festivities!!! Then J woke up at 4:00 am Sunday morning (not a lot of sleep for any of us last night!!) crying that his ear hurt. More ibuprofen for him. 
 So this morning we made our second trip of the weekend to urgent care- J has a bad ear infection and was given a prescription for Zithromax. We had Hope looked at again, too, because why not? Her cough is not croupy anymore, so that is good. Her lungs are clear and her ears are also clear, and I really hope they stay that way, especially with our trip to CA coming soon!

Snuggling with Daddy helps when you're sick!

So, we have 3 days to get healthy and hit the road! We are really hoping and praying that both kids are back to their normal healthy selves in the next day or 2. Dealing with sickness when you are out of town is no fun, so we're hoping this is IT for our family for a good long while (earlier this fall we also had H with a month-long cold and then ear infection and crazy rash, J with a stomach bug, J with Strep......)!! 

I will be back in the New Year to write about our adventures in Dubuque and California. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy (HEALTHY) New Year!! 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2015

We had a nice Thanksgiving and long weekend at my parents house in Wisconsin! Jeremiah had a full day of school on Wednesday, so rather than rush and then sit in Chicago traffic Wednesday night, we got up Thursday morning (grabbed Starbucks, of course!) and hit the road. The trip was a breeze! Only had to make 1 potty/diaper change stop and practically flew through Chicago (even though we drove through rain the entire way!).

We arrived with a few hours to spare before Thanksgiving dinner! Aunt Abby & Uncle Neil and Uncle Ben joined us, too. We had a delicious turkey dinner, and then of course peach, pumpkin, and apple pies to choose from for dessert.

And I only took 1 picture, and that is of Hope enjoying mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes with Grandma.

Hope was happy to see Aunt Abby again!

Friday morning Grandpa made his famous pancakes for breakfast, and Hope approved!

This girl can eat. A lot.

Friday afternoon, the ladies headed up to Cedarburg for lunch at the Creme & Crepe and a stop at Amy's for carmel apples. No food pics this year- but it was all as delicious as it usually is!! Also Friday afternoon was the big Iowa/Nebraska football game!

Go Hawkeyes! And they won- woohoo!!!

Friday night Abby and Neil made homemade pizza for dinner. J was eager to be a helper!

On Saturday morning J woke up complaining of a sore throat and tummy ache, but perked up after some ibuprofen. We took the kids to a fun indoor play place called Kids in Motion. They both had a blast! J really liked the construction room, and H really liked walking around carrying toys from place to place. :)

J was dying to head outside and do some yard work with Grandpa, and Grandpa was kind enough to take J outside for a bit (which made Jeremiah's day!)!

Saturday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to watch the kids so we could go see a movie with Abby and Neil. We saw "The Martian" and all really liked it! I can't remember the last movie Adam and I have seen in the theater...... seriously, I can't. It quite possibly was "Gravity" (coincidentally another outer space movie) which came out in 2013, so it's been awhile! 

Unfortunately when we got home, J had gone downhill- was complaining about his throat and tummy and also had a fever of 101.3. He slept most of the evening and then we woke him up to go potty and put him to bed. So not normal!! He then threw up about 3:30 am, poor guy. So Sunday, Adam and J went to a Children's Hospital Urgent Care, and Hope and I went to church and lunch with G & G and Abby & Neil. Adam was very impressed by the urgent care experience, and it is so nice that they have urgent cares specifically for children!! They did a Strep test, which came back positive, so Strep throat it is. (I was SO happy that they didn't say "it's just a virus, let it run its course"!). So he's on amoxicillin and was feeling better the next day! Yay!

Lunch at Panera for the rest of us:

She inhaled her mac & cheese. Can't blame her, really.

Monday was a day off of school for Jeremiah, so we packed up in the morning and hit the road for Michigan. It was nice not having to rush back on Sunday- especially with a sick boy!

We are so thankful for a wonderful weekend spent with family. It's hard to believe that now Christmas is upon us and we have our own family Christmas, a trip to Dubuque, and a trip to California all coming up this month! Yay!