Beauty From Above

Putting our weary selves back on a bus felt good, and I thanked God we all found seats. Those who got on at later stops had to stand crammed together like sardines. We had a nice view of Lake Michigan as we traveled north to Union Station. One of the boys thought we were driving by an ocean. :) Can you tell we're from the Midwest?

the view from the sidewalk...

Our next adventure was to the top of the city. At Kaleb's request, we rode the 60 second elevator ride to the top of the Sears Tower. Officially called the Willis Tower, but to me it will forever be the Sears Tower! We couldn't have asked for a better view. Lines were minimal, and we spent a looong time at 1,450 feet above the city. It was actually relaxing to me after the noise and frenzy of the museum.

Besides the new name, the building also has some new windows. Glass boxes jut out from the building, giving you the feeling of walking on air. My stomach flip-flops when I climb our attic ladder, so I didn't know how I'd feel stepping out into this clear box. Looking down and out over the city felt fine, but looking back at the tower was freaky! The kids loved it and bragged about having no fear. Kaleb couldn't wait to show our pictures to his teacher, since he's convinced she wouldn't be brave like he was. :)

the very sunny view from above!

Kaleb's favorite thing to watch from the skydeck? A barge traveling down the river. Umm, we could have seen that from the bridge...for free. But he was happy, so I pointed out landmarks to whoever else would listen. :) Braylen bought a souvenir at the gift shop and we set out to find somewhere to eat supper. Craving some good pizza, I was overjoyed to see Giordano's across the street. My family would have been content with McDonald's, but not me. We watched some basketball and ate all the yummy pizza we wanted.

It was kind of sad to walk back to the train station that evening. Our adventure in the city had come to an end. But we had so much fun, and I wouldn't change a thing. That's a good way to end the day, isn't it? Grabbing some donuts and coffee from Dunkin' Donuts made it even better. :) As my mom pointed out on our way home from the train station that night, we'd traveled by car, train, and bus. All we were missing was the airplane! Standing above the city can count for our "airplane" experience that day. Who knew God would give us a warm and sunny March day in Chicago? What a gift. Especially since we drove home on Saturday in the snow. Back to reality, back to responsibilities, but filled with great memories!

To Chicago and Back!

We got away for a week!!!

But before leaving town, Braylen and Kaleb had fun at the Awana Games. Kaleb joined the team of 3rd-5th graders a year early, making it one event for me to attend instead of two. How nice when that happens! The boys placed third but delighted in breaking a few records in the sprint events. A fun way to spend the day before our vacation.

This trip was extra-special to me, since we FINALLY made good on our promise to take our boys to Chicago! We've been taking them to my hometown their whole lives, but never taking them DOWNtown! :) Not only did we spend a day in the city, but we had the most beautiful weather in the city! We took public transportation all day, which is another adventure in it's own right. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

With Mom and Dad off from work all week, they spoiled us. Aaron wanted marbleworks, Kaleb wanted to play basketball, and Braylen became my dad's sidekick. We visited my grandma one day, watched Star Wars 2, 3, and 4 throughout the week, and the boys asked me why I didn't let them bring their light sabers to Illinois. No worries--Grammy and Grampy have all the materials to make plenty of light sabers. Beautiful spring weather allowed them to re-create Star Wars in the backyard, watching their shadows dance during their sword fights. My old Easy Bake Oven baked cakes with Aaron and Kaleb, with Grammy's help of course. I made a giant green cupcake for St. Patrick's Day--in the real oven. :) Mom and I took a day to ourselves and went shopping. What a blessing to spend time with her like that. No visit is complete without my Dunkin Donuts coffee, hotdog from Portillos, and pizza from Giordano's, so of course we did all 3. :)

marbleworks

our 4 generation picture of my grandma, my dad, me, and my boys!

see Kaleb checking out his shadow, and Aaron's determination?

Aaron makes his little cakes with Grammy

my green cupcake for my non-Irish family :)

Our visit to the city began on a train. The kids liked the upper deck, so that's where we sat. Once we arrived at the station, we bought our bus passes and set out to find a bus that would take us to the Museum of Science & Industry. We found several bus stops, just not the one we needed. Thankfully the boys didn't mind all the walking we did. There were too many things to look at for them to be bored. I find it funny that with all the sights to take in, Kaleb and Aaron liked watching the pigeons. We crossed the Chicago river and navigated the streets in search of our bus. Thanks to a helpful bus driver and fellow passenger, we made it! The second bus ride was pretty cramped--but we survived.

Kaleb holding his train ticket.

The Museum of Science & Industry

We found this mailbox right outside the museum. :)

A brand new wing called Science Storms opened on March 18th, which happened to be the day we were there. Wow, was it packed! Other exhibits were not as crowded as the new one, thankfully, so we were able to breathe a bit between the crowds. The boys' favorite exhibit was the submarine, hands down. About halfway through our tour of this exhibit, the power went out and the emergency lights came on. That was a surprise! I was so thankful for those emergency lights.

standing above the U-505 Submarine

We explored all 3 levels of this huge museum, but didn't see even half of everything that's there. It's a bit overwhelming, and we were so tired when we left. At that point, I wished we had a car. But instead we looked for a bus to take us from the south side of the city back to the downtown area. And that is where I'll stop for today, since this post is getting long. More on our other fun times later! :)

Wanna Get Away?

You know the commercials for Southwest Airlines? The ones with the slogan, "Wanna get away?" I've felt like that this week. While Braylen and Kaleb had fun with Daddy at a very cool Cub Scout overnighter this past weekend, I spent the night with Aaron in my bed. Notice I didn't say I slept. That's because I didn't. I'm amazed at how big my little Aaron can seem in my king-sized bed. A bed-hog if there ever was one! He started out in his own bed, like a normal night, and at 1am came crying to me. Poor little guy had severe ear pain--a nasty ear infection for sure. Tylenol and sleeping in Mom's bed to the rescue. And then off to the clinic in the morning for some amoxicillin.

Monday morning our house shook with such a loud crash I thought a car crashed into it. Turns out our garage door spring snapped. I didn't know that though. When I went in the garage to investigate, all I noticed was a wiggling mouse trap. Eww. After taking care of that, I hustled the kids out the door and into the van to go to school. Garage door on it's way up, van started and put in reverse...and thank goodness...I looked in my mirror before backing up. Our door was about 2 feet up, stuck, and so were we. Stuck. My wonderful hubby came to our rescue, but by then we were late for school. Tardy, but with a valid excuse in my mind! After parking my van in the driveway and getting in the house through the back door, I noticed Ginger had dug a huge hole in the middle of the backyard. Since I was already wet from this lovely weather we've been having, I took a snow shovel and patched up the yard as best as I could. Poor Aaron was still waiting for me to come and get him out of the van and bring him in the house. 8:30 and my Monday was in full swing.

Aaron's ear infection is clearing up, thanks to the medicine and some help from our chiropractor. Yes, I really believe in chiropractic care. Kaleb was one ear infection away from needing tubes as a baby, and after taking him to our chiropractor, he's never had another ear infection. He's 8 now! This is Aaron's first ear infection. Hopefully it won't return. Our garage door is all fixed, and I can't tell you how many times I thanked God for reminding me to check my mirror before backing up. Tomorrow is Friday--another blessing. And my boys made me laugh tonight. :)

Tired Kaleb, while taking a shower, asked me this:
K: Does Google know how many, umm, how many--oh, what's the word?--how many sparkly things that are in the sky at night...
Me: Stars?
K: Yeah, stars! Does Google know how many stars there are?
Me: No.
K: No? Not even a computer knows how many stars there are?
Me: Nope, not even a computer!

Sheesh. The boy who learned his first set of multiplication facts this week in school can't remember what stars are called! I'll just chalk it up to Thursday-night-syndrome. One tired boy. :)

Braylen left a mess at the table tonight after his snack. Calling him on it, he replied, "I need to get my eyes checked. Just like Jimmie Johnson." He then proceeded to tell me all about Jimmie Johnson's Nascar performance, an interview discussing his pit stops and his eyes needing checked...oh Braylen, your eyes are fine. It's your laziness to clean up after yourself that's the issue here! I'll blame that on being a 10 year old boy! :)

Good night!

Where We're At

This post is all about where our boys are at. Cuteness, tempers, habits, and everything in between. :)

Let's start with Kaleb, the middle child who is rarely first. I never have to wonder if Kaleb is a morning person. He makes it clear to me almost daily that he is not. A boy after my own heart, I might add. :) This is Kaleb every morning at breakfast.

It doesn't take much to make him grumpy during this time of day. This is his way of saying, "Leave me alone to eat my bowls of cereal in peace, for crying out loud!" Notice I said bowls, not bowl. He's allowed 2 bowls of cereal during the week, for the sake of time. On Saturdays he's allowed to have 3 or 4. If he could consume his entire daily caloric intake at breakfast, he would. On this particular morning, Aaron coughed in Kaleb's direction at the breakfast table. Big mistake.

Grumpy in the morning, and hilarious all day long--that is 100% Kaleb. His latest favorite saying: "I'm going to sock him! Put him in a sock and ship him north!" His hand motions make it even better. He likes to walk on his knees while holding his ankles--and now I know his pants will never make it to Aaron without holes in the knees. He's got both of his brothers joining him in the "knee walk." It makes my knees hurt just watching them.

Kaleb made this wooden box at Scouts and is very proud of it.

Kaleb can not stand to be hot. He even turned down playing baseball this summer because he gets too hot standing out in that field. I hope he doesn't melt away watching Aaron play t-ball instead. Ha ha. Every day after school he climbs in the van, tears off his coat, throws his hat and gloves on the dash, rolls down his window, and turns the passenger heat gauge all the way to cold. Every single day. And every single time, Aaron shouts out, "Roll your window up Kaleb! I'm cooooollllllllddddd!!!" Which brings me to Aaron...



As I've said before, Aaron LOVES everything Star Wars. Darth Vader has always been Dark Vader. Light saber has always been light saver, until recently. Luke Skywalker used to be Blue Skywalker, but he corrected that long ago. Little by little, he's pronouncing it all the right way. That makes me kind of sad. Derek and I decided we'd start renting all 6 Star Wars movies, one at a time. We watch them on the weekend, and then let the boys watch certain parts during the week. Aaron was more excited about this than anything I've ever seen. He squealed with such joy I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel! He talks about his Star Wars Wii game all day long. It's actually become such an obsession for him that we're taking the game away for a few days. Too much of a good thing is never a good thing.

Aaron made this observation this week. "God can see everything in the whole world with his 2 eyes, right? He could do it with 1 eye, but he uses 2." :) A good reminder for me of Psalm 139.

Braylen's all about playing with friends and checking his email. Boy, did I learn a lot about him by logging onto his email account one night. He keeps asking me for permission to join facebook. I keep telling him to enjoy his email account. For Valentine's Day, Braylen gave me a coupon for one trip to Dairy Queen "whenever I want." I took him up on that this week and we enjoyed an ice cream date together. Over ice cream I surprised him with concert tickets for later this month! He and I will have another mother-son date to hear one of his favorite singers. I'm loving these moments with him.


Every year my boys give me a mother's pin at our Cub Scout's Blue & Gold banquet. It's one way for the boys to show mom some appreciation, and it's always a sweet moment for me. Braylen asked why they give pins to the moms but not the dads. I told him it's teaching him how to respect and show love for that special girl in his life. What better place to start than with his mom?! :)

One last thing. Derek gave us a tour of the jail this week. Sounds like a strange thing to enjoy, I know, but we enjoyed it. It helps that the jail has no prisoners in it. Just my boys and my husband. I got to be the one taking the picture of them in their cell. :)