July 2012

Ok so here goes my attempt to catch this blog up to date :) June of last year my parents took us on a family trip to the Wisconsin Dells, along with my sister and her family.  As always the kids had a great time riding the water slides and playing with each other. Payton amazes me how brave he is. He took me on some slides where I screamed and he laughed at me. We had some cute cabin like rooms that were on a lake so the kids got to play in the water there as well.

In July we also had a few other fun things planned like going to the zoo, our annual Leach Dr. camping trip (which was VERY hot this year) and just hanging out at home. We also went on our annual Bears training camp camping trip.

Wow

I can't believe it's been over a year since I have posted!!!  I am posting this message today in order to hold me accountable for catching up the last year of my life. 

Stay tuned...

Celebrating 10 Years!

On June 29, 2012, Graham and I celebrated 10 years of marriage!  WOW!  It feels like just last year that we took our 5 year trip to Europe.  This year, since we were down in Florida for Graham's family trip, we decided to do a cruise out of Tampa.  We left the boys with Graham's parents and took a 7 night cruise to the Caribbean. The stops we made were at Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Roatan, and Belize.  The boat was so much bigger than I had expected and we spent our first day at sea on the "adults only" deck. They had cushioned lounge chairs, their own pool and quiet!  It was heaven!!  When we got to the ports we usually got off in the morning and came back for lunch around 4ish. We had a scheduled dinner at 8:15 where we met some really great people.  In Cozumel, we rented a Smart Car and took our own tour of the island and Mayan ruins. In Belize we booked an excursion to do cave tubing. This was so much fun and definitely not something we could do around here. In Roatan, we just hung out with the couples we eat dinner with on the beach and enjoyed relaxing.  Finally, in Grand Cayman we just walked around and shopped.  Our last day at sea on the way home was a bit rough as tropical storm Deby was right in our path. It thunder stormed all day which made that day a bit lousy but thankfully it was only one day of that.  The winds were crazy, topping out at 65 mph and it even woke us up in the middle of the night.  We were happy to be on land after that part.  The kids had a great time while we were gone but we were both so happy to see them.  I am looking forward to year 15 and another great trip.

This and That

I haven't been very good about posting this summer so here is a recap of what we have done so far.  Graham and I have been enjoying being off for the summer and spending some good quality time with the boys.  We started out the summer with a camping trip with the Chudzicks.  It was fun despite the heat (which becomes a theme with our camping trips). 

We then had our annual family vacation with Graham's family, this time in FL where his parents live.  We spent 9 days at their house. We played in the pool, went to the beach, visited Winter at the aquarium, took lots of walks, rented a pontoon boat and had fun just hanging out. Graham's mom went way out of her way to make sure we all felt welcome and had fun.  The guys had massages one day and spent a day fishing (which made a great dinner) and the girls had mani's/pedi's and had a spa day at a mineral springs spa.  The kids got to pick the activities and dinners for the day out of a tub which they loved and I thought was super cute.  On Father's Day, Graham's sister and family headed home and Graham and I headed out for a 7 night cruise for our 10th anniversary.  The kids got to spend an extra week with Gaia and Grandpa Al all by themselves.  I will post on the cruise later. 

When we got home from FL, 18 days later, we took a family trip to the DuPage Children's Museum. Brady was like a kid in a candy shop. He didn't know where to go or what to see first.

Last weekend we went camping with the neighborhood clan to Turkey Run in Indiana, which has become an annual affair.  With the weather forecasted in the 100's and heat index's above 110, we weren't too sure how it would go.  It was pretty miserable but the kids managed to still have fun. We spent both days in water so that helped. The kids all ended up getting some crazy heat rash and we will NOT be camping in heat like that ever again.