Welcome back folks! If you thought the last post had a lot of pictures just wait, this one might send you over the blogosphere cliff, which I imagine to have the graphics of pong and the sound effects from Super Mario Brothers.
Anywho... this was a week of family revelry, rivalry and a lot of laughter. As an only child, you'd think I'd be terrified by the prospect of spending seven days with 15 members of Jim's immediate family... did I mention we were all in the same house? We were and it was FAB-U-LOUS! I couldn't have had more fun, seriously. We spent most of our time on the enormous I've-died-and-gone-to-heaven screened in porch. (Please note that numerous porch pictures have been added to my top secret renovation file) I like to imagine that one day Jim will just come home to our house with the back side demolished to make way for our house renovation.
But that's another post for another blog. *winks* This is about a fantastic two weeks away from home! The impetuous for this summer's gathering was the Morrell's 50th wedding anniversary. That's right, FIFTY years, people. That is a lot of "in good times and bad." Though obviously mostly good times, I'm sure.
But back to the week, where to beging? We played mini putt putt at least 10 times, had ice cream daily, sometime more than once a day. When we weren't eating ice cream we were eating fried cheese curds. I know I know it sounds vile but its a cheese product and its fried, give me a break its going to be good people. Fried fish, french fries, fried onion rings... are you sensing a theme yet?
We also had some amazing fresh caught salmon! The guys went fishing and caught enormous salmon. I didn't go this year as I wasn't feeling my best, a rather vicious sore throat had me out for the count the first part of the week.
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On Tuesday night we celebrated the Morrells with a 50th Anniversary dinner featuring a "similar" cake and reinterpretation of the flowers from their wedding. Peg and Mary put together dozens of pictures from their lifetime together and we displayed them around the tables. It was truly a room filled to the brim with love and memories. After hearing the "kids" give toasts to their parents we were all more than a little teary eyed. I joke a lot but in truth my in-laws are an inspiration to me and I'm grateful every single day for having them in my life and in my children's lives. |
It was so wonderful for the boys to be around all their cousins and it was a reminder that we need to do that more often. They had a ball running around and playing games with their closest (in age) cousins, Allie, Amanda and Becca. Not to be left out, the boys LOVED sitting atop Cousin Nick and Cousin Jonathan's shoulders, directing their "robots" where to go and what to do. All I can say is the guys were good sports about it! And speaking of good sports, Uncle Pat had to put up with "huggie huggies" from the boys nearly a dozen times a day each day! Bless his heart.
I asked the kid what was their favorite part of the trip...
Colin: "The bunk beds, riding with dad in the go-cart, playing golf and turning on the sirens in Uncle Tony's police car."
Will: "Ummmmm, uhhh, the bunk beds and the go carts."
So with that here is the photo dump. See you in about an hour.
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| BUNK BEDS!!!!! |
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| View from the back of the house to our waterfront stone patio. |
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| Cousin Love! |
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| The porch of my dreams. |
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| What's a family vacation with out a puzzle? |
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| Nap time at the beach. |
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| Boys lunch (plus mom the crasher) at Wilson's. |
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| We have goats!! |
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| Showin' us how it's (oh so carefully) done! |
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| Clearly the boys aren't as impressed with the Morrell's 50 year anniversary dinner. |
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| Yep, that topper is the original from their wedding cake!!! |
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| Throwin' rocks with Grandma. |
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| FOUR! |
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| Another generation at The Red Putter. |
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| Learning how to play chess. |
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| Getting settled for their first drive in movie! |
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| I've never seen Colin so excited about anything in his whole life! |
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| Lunch is served... ON the train driven to you. Pretty cool, yall! |
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| Saying farewell to Sister Bay... for this year at least. |
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| We couldn't leave with out one last trip to Carroll House! |
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Teaching Cousin Allie about Star Wars Angry Birds, which is totally different
than regular Angry Birds. |
We stayed an extra few days at Aunt Mary's house and explored the Crystal Lake area. We even took the boys to a petting zoo that was the site of Jim's ninth birthday! Of course at this point it is day 10 of family togetherness and I think we were all tired of each other. The line between love and sarcasm was wearing a little thin.
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| Mommy yelling: "Boys, act like you love each other!!" |
I included the next shot because seconds before I took the picture not one but BOTH of my boys felt they needed to stick their heads completely into the pelican trash can to get a better look. Its a trash can people! What are you expecting to find? Dori and Marlin?
In an attempt to wear the boys out, Jim got them to run all the way
to the other side of the field and back. Colin happily did it not once but twice. Will quit half way saying it was just too far. That's my boy.
But he LOVED his pony Lightening so there's that.
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| Colin eventually warmed up to his horse Freckles as well. |
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| Its day TWELVE, how are you STILL this excited? |
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| The tour the boys had been waiting for all vacation!!! |
Will would ask Uncle Tony every day, "Is today the day we get to ride in your police car?" "No?" "Oh man!" With full on arm swinging to emphasize his disappointment.
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| The boys like being "in jail" way too much for my taste. |
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| Colin's hair is perfect for a mug shot. |
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| Will decides to take one of the "wanted" flyers. He's going to see what he can do to find him. |
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Please dear Lord, may this be the only time they stand on a cop car.
One that they were placed on my their Police Lieutenant Uncle I might add. |
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| Seriously yall, that is one bad ass SWAT vehicle. Just Sayin' |
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| Enjoying their last night of ice cream with every meal. |
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| God bless you O'Hare Hilton, or maybe it was a Hyatt. I was too tired to remember. |
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| Superheros on duty at ORD! |
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| In the end the boys were a big help pushing the cart with all our luggage. |
Despite all the travel mishaps and accidental rental car damage it was thirteen days I will never forget. I have loved getting to see the boys bond with their family, learn to love on them or I should say "huggie huggie" on them, try new things, see places that mean the world to their dad and in general just have a fabulous time away from home. What more could a mamma frog want?
Cheers,
Mamma, Toad & Frog
Art to attend their Stories in Art, kids program. We had a ball! The kids got to show Namma their favorite paintings and Colin even found a new favorite. We learned about a new artist and Colin even got to make his own painting in the gallery! Will was being a grumpy pants and couldn't be bothered with the arts project. But Colin and I thought it was super cool. I mean how many people can say they finger painted in the National Gallery of Art? I can't say enough about their kids programs, the National Gallery of Art is just the bees knees! 
Afterwards we opened presents and made Namma's birthday cupcakes. Both boys picked gifts that they could do with Namma, Will naturally picked a cupcake making gift so we got busy baking! And as the cupcakes cooled we were off to a Ethiopian feast! Namma was all about new experiences this year so we thought we'd introduce her to one of our favorite foreign foods. Aside from spending a good portion of the evening in the bathroom with the boys then Will knocking over every single glass on our table the dinner was 
fantastic! Namma enjoyed herself and Colin did an outstanding job eating and liking the food. Will not so much but they both loved their first experience with mango juice. We will certainly be taking them back there... maybe we'll wait long enough for the owners and staff to forget about our calamity of a table. 
Over the week we also got a visit from Jamie, Eric and baby Lincoln. Oh good gracious is she absolutely delicious! Her smiles, coos and laughs, killed me dead. Needless to say, Namma was in heaven.
On the last day of Namma's visit we hit the National Building Museum to play the mini putt putt course we didn't get to the last time we were there. The kids had an awesome time on the new course and then building any number of things with Namma in the Play Work Build exhibit. 
