Dear Hannah and Nathan,
What a week! I've uploaded over 50 pictures for this post this week. I think this will make all of the grandparents very happy. Well, we got to visit the mid-west for a week and while the weather was not as cool as I expected it to be, I gladly appreciated the upper 80's weather we had the whole time we were there. This post will mostly be chronological since we did so much.
After flying international with you two, a short flight a little over 2 hours was a breeze. Both of you two were so well behaved and calm and before we knew it, we were in Chicago already. The first full day we were there, we went to the Morton Arboretum. This was a great park for kids to play. Lots of neat things to see and interesting things to climb.
We stopped and took this great family portrait. I just wish Hannah was smiling.
Nathan liked to climb this "spider web." You wanted to climb it over and over and over.
Hannah and Grandma both wore matching pink caps. Pretty cute! We were waiting for storytime. The theme was Owls.
And while we were waiting, Hannah decided to climb a few steps. Oh no.
There was also a lego exhibit with huge models of nature-y things made out of legos. I thought this was the neatest one.
And then Nathan spotted the giant Lego man head (and claimed a prize after we found it).
After naps on Friday, we went to great-grandpa and great-grandma's house for dinner. Afterwards we played outside and even got to ride the paddle boats for awhile. Nathan is actually tall enough to paddle with Daddy (although, you need to sit on the ledge below the seat).
And afterwards, you two just played on the sand bar while the adults visited with each other.
We had to watch Hannah, because for some reason, you think that sand tastes pretty good.
The next day, your cousins arrived from Florida. In the morning, Nathan and Hannah went outside to play with the neighbor kids. They had lots of toys and a great playground in their back yard. Nathan and the little boy played really well together. Afterwards, Nathan convinced grandpa to let him play with the LGB trains. After awhile, Nathan came up with an idea to make a roller coaster with the train set by placing the little barrels underneath the track.
After the cousins arrived, the house was pretty wild. I simply loved the energy that flowed through the house. Little feet pitter-pattering, squeals of laughter and little voices communicating to each other in toddler-eese.
After naps, Grandma had planned a combined birthday party for all the summer birthdays. What's a party without birthday hats? Can you guess the theme?
And then there was also pin the eye on the minion.
And a wild game of hot ice cream cone.
And of course, there were presents, lots of presents.
And cake.
Hannah loved her first bite of cake.
Nathan worked diligently on his cake, making sure no crumb was left behind.
Here's everyone who attended the party! Family picture :)
Then, the next day, we all loaded up the cars and drove up to Wisconsin. Both of you did really well, despite next to each other. There was an occasional dispute over a toy, but luckily Hannah is pretty easy-going. I wonder how long this will last.
First we visited "The Farm" in door county. This place was pretty much a farm with lots of farm animals. We fed baby animals bags of feed and baby goats bottles of milk. (Although Nathan was not a fan of feeding) And I even got a chance to milk a goat!
Nathan's favorite baby animals were the pigglets
and the chicks. You stood mesmerized for quite some time at these two little pens.
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| All 4 cousins together. |
Afterwards, we checked into our resort, and hung out at the pool for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, we went out for dinner and that evening, both of you guys slept like rocks.
The next morning, we went to Peninsula State Park to go bike riding. At first, we were going to let Nathan ride the tag-along, but your legs weren't quite long enough to reach the pedals, so we put both of you in a little trailer.
About 10 minutes into the ride, Hannah got tired and you pretty much cried your head off. I ended up carrying you on my back for the rest of the 8 mile ride.
At the beginning of the trail, we hit a fallen tree. We had to all work together and navigate around the tree that blocked our way.
The view was quite scenic. For most of it, we rode through a forest lined with both deciduous and coniferous trees. The light peeking through the branches, along with an occasional glimpse of the lake was simply beautiful. And then, we even got to see a lighthouse.
And a trolley. We took this picture for Nathan's best friend, Abigail, who loves Daniel tiger and the trolley.
After 5 miles of riding, we hit the beach. The kids all jumped onto the tire swing and simply had a blast.
After a picnic lunch, the kids went to the beach to play for awhile.
After we rode back and returned the bikes at the shop, we drove to where Daddy used to visit when the family came to Door County. Uncle Tim rode with us and it was pretty cool listening to them recall memories from their childhood.
That afternoon, we went back to the resort and spent more time at the pool. I don't know why, but for some reason, Nathan, you did not want to put your head under water to swim. I really hope swim lessons didn't ruin your passion for playing in the water.
Then, after a delicious meal outdoors, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset over Green Bay.
Once again, both of you slept like rocks and then the next day, we drove to Cave Point County Park, and found this amazing place. Of course, we had to contribute with our own trail marker statues.
The water was so clear and inviting. You all really enjoyed putting your feet in the water.
The hike at the park was pretty easy and filled with cool obstacles for a little almost-three year old boy.
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| Tree Roots |
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| Low-Hanging Branches |
and not-pictured, fallen tree trunks.
Nathan, you did something pretty clever. You got an idea to make snowmen by sticking twigs between the rocks. I was proud of your idea.
Hannah really enjoys playing with sand. This time you didn't put as much in your mouth, instead you would find pieces of wood or shell and put those things in your mouth instead. [sigh]
We found a lot of smooth twigs and you kids all had fun casting spells on each other with your "magic wands."
Afterwards, we went to the beach and played for about an hour. Hannah really liked crawling around and didn't mind the cold waves as they washed up the shore.
After everyone took nice long naps that afternoon, we went to the famous Al Johnsons restaurant for some delicious Sweedish food. The main attraction there are the goats that hang out on the roof. Unfortunately, we did not get to see them.
Playing out in the sun made everyone hungry.
Can you see the sod that is planted on the roof? Normally, there would be goats on that roof.
After dinner, everyone went and played at the playground and grandma passed out the traditional "Best of" awards. Nathan received the "Best lumberjack" award for his determined efforts at whacking the bark off of a certain tree and Hannah received the "Best Sand-eater" award.
We finished our trip to door county with some tart cherry picking. These cherries are the local specialty and we lucked out by visiting an orchard with trees bursting with ripe fruit.
We collected a total of 3 buckets and took home one. I will be making some cherry pie pretty soon. Yum!
After cherry picking, we drove to a country store to sample and buy various cherry goods. Who knew cherry was so versatile. After lunch at a delicious sandwich place, we went to a distillery/winery and went on their tour. After the tour, we headed back to Illinois and had a yummy dinner at one of my favorite Chicago restaurants, Portillos. Their beef dip sandwiches are AMAZING.
The next morning (this morning) we woke up at 4:30 am to board our 6:30 flight to Austin. Despite arriving at the airport about an hour before departure, the airport was crazy busy. Luckily we were rushed to the head of the line both at check-in and at security and we made it on the plane as they were making the final boarding call announcement.
Nathan quietly watched shows on the Kindle and Hannah slept for a bit. When you were awake Hannah, you would wave and play peek-a-boo with the people around us. It was really nice to see you so sociable.
For the most part, we were happy to be back home. While we were waiting for Daddy to get the car from the parking garage, Nathan, you discovered that you could climb up these little benches by yourself and started to dance like it was a stage. It was too cute that I had to take a picture.
We made lots of great memories, but unfortunately, you guys probably won't remember this trip. That's part of the reason why I'm writing this blog. I hope that you guys will think that these posts are interesting to read when you grow up.
Final note: For the first time, we noticed that Nathan, you are starting to not like "good-byes." Both times when you were saying "bye" to great-grandparents, you became really sad and expressed that you did not want them to leave. Good-byes are tough, my sweet boy, but they don't last forever.
I'm looking forward to getting back into our routine as we have one more month before school starts. Nathan is a bit reluctant about moving up to a different class, with different teachers, but I'm sure once you meet your new teachers, you will love it.
Until next week!
Love,
Mommy
