Staying Busy in January

 Ah, January. Is there anyone who legitimately likes this month? The holidays are over, it's always cold and usually snowy without there really being an end in sight, and I think that people's immune systems can sense the hopelessness and often give in as well. That being said, we're trying to stay busy despite the bleak conditions outside. Last week, just the kids and I went to the DuPage Children's Museum. We've been there many times (we have a membership), but never just the three of us and never on a day that wasn't crowded. I think that we all had a really good time.

 

It's fun to see the kids beginning to play together.

 

 

Then, last Friday, we took advantage of the Museum of Science and Industry's free Illinois resident days and went down to check it out with Katie and her kids.

Having never been there before, we made some key strategical errors in which exhibits we checked out first, but the kids still seemed to enjoy themselves.

 

Brooke did make the comment that it wasn't really a "girl" museum. I think we spent too much time on the trains and tractors for her liking.

I've also decided that elementary school field trips bring out my Bad Attitude. I know that it's hard to control all those kids and they're usually being led by someone who isn't even a teacher, but still, is it too much to ask that they take turns with the toddlers who are trying to play, too?

Brooke wanted to bring a little style to the MSI by sporting her new shades from Grammie Deb.

This is Miles' response to any request to share lately. You'd think as the second child, he'd be better at it by now. Human nature at it's finest, I suppose.

Speaking of weakened immune systems, mine decided to take a couple days off last week and I had a pretty nasty cold/flu thing. The kids both caught it, but theirs didn't last as long. Now we're all just dealing with the standard Winter Runny Nose/Cough. Here they are on doing "art" on one of our sick days. And before I get an influx of comments about the fun art projects I have going here, don't worry - my "Crafty Mom" blog is in the works.

 

Look at those Sick Eyes. Poor thing.

 

I mentioned this in a previous post, but moving our gross motor toys to the basement and the addition of the roller coaster from Grandma Audie has also done wonders in passing the time. Matt calls the roller coaster the "perfect toy" as it's easy set-up and pretty easy for the kids to do on their own. Miles still needs a little help to get going, but it's nothing intensive.

 

He loves his basketball hoop.

We also visited Matt at work the other day and the kids enjoyed feeding and watching the fish. Miles only tried to catch a couple.

Brooke started soccer and ballet (ballet pics to come). I really want her to love soccer like I did, but I'm not sure if it's in the cards. At this practice, she laid down on the ground with her head on the ball at least twice. She also commented that they "run around too much". I guess we'll see...

And let's be honest, we've also been watching (more than?) our fair share of movies and TV. Is it spring yet???

On the bright side (pun intended), my next post will hopefully be about the trip for Disney that we're leaving for this weekend. Don't tell Brooke - it's a surprise!

Happy January!

Roadtrip Playdate

We didn't get to see Amy and her kids for Christmas, we always miss Krissi and the kids, and we needed to figure out a way to get Ozzie (he stayed with my parents while we were in Florida), so Amy, Krissi and I decided to plan a play date the Friday after we got back from Florida.

We decided that Bloomington, IL, would be a good location and settled on the Children's Discovery Museum given the crummy weather.

We've been to a lot of children's museums, and this one was one of the best we've been to. There was a wide variety of things for the kids to do, there was a large area where we were able to eat, AND it wasn't crowded at all.

It was great!

And, it was nice and open so the moms were able to be in a central area (and talk) and still keep track of the kids.

It was a great visit, as usual.

Luke went pretty hard at the water table and ended up having to have his clothes changed.

All that stuff, and Miles was excited about finding their stash of books.

The stage was also a hit. They were all kind of doing their own performance, but that added to the entertainment value.

We love you guys and can't wait to see you again!

5th Annual Florida Family Trip

...and I'm running out of clever titles. Because of where the holidays fell in the week this year, we had a nice, long visit to Florida. Our family and Mike and Jane left on the 26th. We chose the early afternoon flight, which seemed like a good idea at the time (and I still think was, given our exhausting Christmas and travels before), but also allowed more chance for delays. We ended up dealing with a 2 hour delay. Could have been worse.

We also splurged for a limo to and from the airport this time. It made things SO much easier when checking in and getting luggage.

 

And the kids loved it.

Matt's parents came down on the same flight the next day, then Jamie and Will came on Saturday. Of course we had the obligatory family sunset photo shoot (minus the sunset).

Being silly with Grandpa Brian. Love this one.

Both the kids were about done at this point.

Ladies. I didn't realize until loading these, but we were kind of color-coordinated.

Gentlemen.

Cheers to the sunset!

The kids stayed out of the water for almost the whole time we were there.

Then it was just too tempting.

All four of us slept in one room, which was a challenge, but also could have gone much worse. Let's just say that to keep them from waking everyone else in the morning, the kids got significantly more screen time than they're used to.

Overall, we had great weather. Several very warm days, several warm days and minimal rain. On the one chilly day that we had, we took the kids to the playground and for a walk out to the pier.

Man, I love them.

Miles was a little ticked off that he couldn't get into the water.

We got in a fair amount of beach time. The water wasn't too cold or wavy any of the days, so Brooke loved playing in it.

And Miles had fun picking up fistfuls of sand and aggressively throwing them into the water. I think he could have done that all day. He really loved the beach. As soon as we'd pull up, he'd start saying, "Wawer."

Miles and Uncle Mike rocked the matching shorts. Miles is still working on his six-pack, so he chose to go with the rash guard.

"Sand castles."

I guess maybe it was wavy one of the days...

Always fun to be thrown by Daddy.

Brooke was really into the idea of surfing, but after trying boogie boarding for about 5 minutes, realized it was much harder than it looked and went back to building sand castles.

Miles didn't think surfing was that difficult.

Sorry for the excessive "Miles on the beach" photos. I just can't get enough of his curls!

Beach Babe.

Will was cracking him up.

Family shot! (Thanks, Jamie!)

We also spent lots of time at the pool. Again, Miles was content to hang out on the edge, often either throwing things into or taking them out of the water.

...or eating.

Brooke made a lot of improvement in her independent swimming. She's starting to get the hang of swimming underwater by herself and getting herself back up to the surface. Maybe after lessons this summer she'll have it down.

Another family pic. Thanks, Debbie!

The highlight of Brooke's trip. Seriously, this is what she told her teachers about when she got back to school last week.

The highlight of Miles' trip. Every time we'd walk outside, he'd ask for "more". It took a day or so to figure out that he wanted to see more lizards. Now he says, "Yi-yar" when he wants to see this picture on my phone (which is at least once a day).

Matt took Brooke "golfing" a couple of times.

She had a great time. Of course, she also got ice cream and was only there for about an hour. It really would be great if she ends up enjoying the game as much as Matt does.

We spent a day at the Naples Zoo. It was fairly crowded, but they had a good amount of things to do and see. I think we all had a good time.

Again, Miles enjoyed throwing rocks as much as/more than he enjoyed the animals.

Brooke and Aunt Jamie rode a camel!

We also took a little boat tour of their primate "islands".

Throughout the week, we had several enjoyable dinners out. Again, I was impressed with how well the kids did. Miles' new sign of affection/sleep deprivation is a gentle head butt.

 

Another cute one of these two!

Brooke and Grammie Deb with the alligators at Doc's.

This is what I was saying about it being impossible to get a decent shot of the two of them at once, at least a planned one.

One night after dinner, we headed to the club where there was dancing. Brooke tore up the floor for a good hour.

We also spent some time inside the condo. "Monkeys on the Bed" is always a fun game in Uncle Mike and Aunt Jane's room.

We established that Miles HATES showers with a burning passion. This was post-shower and I had to get a(nother) shot of the curls.

Football was on the TV most of the time we were home.

Cuddling with Aunt Jane.

"Mommy, take a picture of me and Cube," (the name she gave that teddy bear that has become her new BFF).

Waiting to go to dinner.

On New Year's Eve, Matt's parents watched the kids and all the "big kids" went on our annual sunset cruise. Again, minus the sunset.

Then we had dinner with our good friends Andy Roddick and his wife, Brooklyn Decker.

And spent another couple hours hanging out before ringing in the new year.

It was another great trip, although I think we were all happy to be home - even if we did come home to a snow storm and ridiculous sub-zero temperatures. After a 3-hour delay at the airport, we finally made it home. We landed around 11:30 and Miles didn't sleep a wink on the plane. Thankfully, he was slap-happy. I was not. Here are Jamie and Brooke during our additional 1-hour wait for our luggage. Sleeping in our beds has never felt so good!

Thanks for another great family vacation, Grandpa Brian and Grammie Deb!