Coffee, Please?

Percolator and mug from a former student who is now a Marine

If you know me well you know I'm not a coffee drinker (apart from the year I lived in Germany because you can't live in Europe and not be a coffee drinker).  I pretty much stick to milk, water, and tea.  And a cup of hot tea on cold mornings and a delicious sweet tea is always a special drink.  But things are changing?

I never passed on coffee because I didn't like it but because I thought avoiding the caffeine and potential habit would be a good idea.  But I think I took a leap onto the downward spiral while on vacation last month.

Let me start by saying that I sort of blame this on my sister-in-law Yvonne (Sorry!).  Last year while on vacation in MI she bought me an iced coffee from McDonald's and it was delicious.  So I will admit it has been a little guilty pleasure I've had about once every 4-6 weeks for the last year.

Because I've enjoyed that and not been to adversely affected by caffeine in the morning I wasn't hesitant to take a cup of coffe from the hotel breakfast bar on our first day in TX.  Sleeping in new places is hard for me so I've learned to take an over the counter sleep aid and coffee really helped it completely wear off in the morning.  So I enjoyed coffee every morning on vacation even if I didn't enjoy a sleeping pill the night before.

I got home and found myself craving coffe.  Uh oh!  I then proceeded to buy coffee, dig out the percolator, and drink up.  One day I had 2 cups and that was a hyper and shakey disaster.  I'm trying to limit myself to 2-3 cups a week.  I'm hoping it doesn't get "worse".  But I never thought would be at this place in my coffee drinking life either:)

This post is dedicated to my coffee loving friends, thanks for making me feel ok about this new phase of my life.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a super fun Memorial Day Weekend with Matt's family that I wanted to blog about.  Saturday right after my 8:30 piano lesson we hit the road and headed to Matt's parents.  We got up there and had a nice lunch and relaxing afternoon.  Jane and I hit up a couple thrift stores and then Matt and I went and looked at a minivan (we've been shopping for a few weeks and I'm hoping to have a concluding update on that soon).  Then Matt's parents took us out to eat at a yummy restaurant called Jason's Deli.

Sunday we were able to attend Matt's parents' church (the church Matt grew up in) and enjoy another good lunch at their house.  After naps we headed to Jared and Yvonne's house for dinner because it was Joshua's 7th birthday!  I can't believe how big he's gotten!  We had cake and pizza and a few other delicious summer dishes that Yvonne made.  Another fun moment of the evening came when Matt's parents surprised us by announcing they want to take the whole family to Disney World next year!!  WDW-2014 planning is starting and I think everyone is more than excited.

Monday we all went to Brookefield Zoo together.  J&Y take Joshua every year on Memorial Day for his birthday.  We haven't been with them since he was 1 so it was great to go this year.  The kids had fun looking at the animals and fighting over who got to sit in which wagon or stroller seat.  Jenna impressed me though because she spent a good chunk of the time pulling Grace around in the wagon.  My recap of the weekend might be kind of boring but we had a wonderful time with family and enjoyed the getaway from home.

Driving the tractor

Josh and his Star Wars cake

Cousins at the zoo

Grandparents and grandkids

Best Cousins:)

He Said, She Said

I have two amazing stories of things the kids said that I never want to forget.

He Said...

A week or so ago I had a $10 Kohl's cash that I wanted to be sure to spend.  Unfortunately we have plans every evening while it was valid so I couldn't just run out and spend it after the kids were in bed. So I had to do the thing I dread (all for $10) and take both kids to Kohl's with me.  They did well even when shoved in the dressing room watching me try on clothes.

What Caleb said while I was trying on clothes was confidence boosting.  After every dress/shirt/pants I tried on he said, "You look beautiful Mommy." and he often added, "that's cute."  Let me know if you want to borrow him to go clothes shopping!

She Said...

In the past we've been very surprised about all of the things Grace remembers about her life.  I think lately though she has begun to forget things that in my opinion were a big deal.  Maybe she's just getting too old so she doesn't have the long term memory.  So, I've been asking her if she remembers {insert event or activity here}.  She often looks at me with a contemplative look and says no.  Good thing I'm blogging her early life for her:)

Anyway, yesterday I was talking on the phone to my sister and like a half an hour after I got off Grace randomly said, "I remember 3 things Mommy.  I remember that you talked on the phone to Laura.  I remember we went on vacation to Texas.  And I remember that God is in my heart."  Don't forget that last thing little girl and you'll be just fine!

Touch-a-Truck 3

I'm not sure how many Touch-a-Truck events there have been in Champaign but I put 3 in my blog post title because it's the third one we've been to.  This has to be one of my favorite events our town puts on.  I did blog about the first time we went two years ago but I guess I forgot to write about it last year.

This year was super fun because both kids were old enough to really enjoy it.  We also are experienced attenders so we planned ahead and got there early.  We got to the park to play thirty minutes before the event and got a good parking spot.  Then we wandered over to the field of trucks.  The kids got free Marble Slab ice cream, climbed in a firetruck, busses, pick-ups and a few other random trucks.

After about an hour the horn honking was getting to me and couple of the kids we were with so it was time to call it quits.  By then we wandered back to the playground and had a nice picnic lunch and played for a while.  It was a great spring morning.

Thankfully she won't be driving for at least 12 more years

Girly firefighters with their pink hats

And Caleb insisted on a pink hat too

Caleb "driving" the firetruck

Grace's turn

Weigh In

The purpose of this post is not to discuss the amount of weight I gained on vacation but I will say after finally getting up the guts to weigh in this morning I'm probably going to at least pass on desserts for a bit:)  O well I knew what I was doing when I ate giant bowls of ice cream and the only physical activity required of me for several days of our trip was shifting my position in the car.

The point of this post is to document the height and weight of the kids at a recent doctor's appointment (and I thought I'd use a couple cute pictures Rachel took in Texas)...

Grace
4 Years Old
39 Inches
33.2 Pounds

Caleb
2 Years Old
35.5 Inches
31.2 Pounds

It won't be long before Caleb outgrows Grace!  Here's another shot of them side-by-side in the double stroller (which I still love and use often).

The Drive Home From Texas

I don't have much to say about our drive home from Texas but I wanted to put some closure on my blogs about the trip.

Friday, May 3rd
On Friday we got up, had breakfast, packed our car and headed out by about 8:30 in the morning.  Before actually leaving town we made one more stop at my sister's house to say goodbye and get one last snuggle with Baby Neil:)  It was a little sad because babies change so much so we know he's going to be so different when we see him again.  But hopefully they'll be up to visit us sometime this summer.

After hanging out with them for a bit we finally hit the road at about 10:30.  My parents caravanned with us too.  We only had about 6.5 hours of driving to do this day but with the late start it actually seemed like more driving than the 9.5 hour day.  We spent a short time on the road and then stopped for lunch at a Chili's in Oklahoma.  Then we drove a couple more hours and stopped for ice cream at a place called Braum's which is a Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma chain.  It was yummy!

By this point we decided just to chug out the last few hours and not stop for dinner.  So after driving through sun, rain, and SNOW!!! in Southern Missouri we finally arrived at our hotel in Springfield, MO.  We bought the kids some Lunchables at a gas station and after they went to bed the adults ate in shifts at the Houlihan's at the hotel.

Saturday, May 4th
After 9 nights we were definitely excited to hit the road and head home that day.  We woke up to 1.5 inches of snow on the ground and shorts to wear.  It has NEVER snowed this late in the season in Missouri so no one expected it.  I definitely didn't when I packed all summer clothes for us.

We had a delicious hotel breakfast.  This was probably the best hotel breakfast we had the whole trip.  Unfortunately it wasn't included so the fact that is cost extra made it not quite as good:)  We hit the road before 9 and were able to get all the way past St. Louis before stopping for lunch.  We stopped and had Penn Station with my parents and then we were off on our last leg home.  The last leg was about 2.5 hours and flew by.  We were home by 4 and the first thing I did was take a nap!

All in all we had a wonderful trip.  I'm already planning where we can go next year for vacation because this trip was so successful:)

Happy Mother's Day, Anne

(Note: this is Matt writing this blog post.  I do still exist.)

Dear Anne,

Today is Mother's Day so I thought I'd take the opportunity to publicly honor/embarrass you, so here goes...

When we started dating just over 7 years ago, there were a few things I learned.  I learned that you were an amazing person, fun and smart and thoughtful.  I learned how crazy and spontaneous that you were.  I learned that you enjoyed watching Baseball Tonight with me (or at least pretended to).  Over time, I also learned that you had amazing qualities that matched up what I was looking for in a wife.  You were gracious, loving, passionate about Jesus, and a humble servant.  Your character was beyond reproach and I admired that.  So it wasn't long after that where I knew in my heart that I wanted you to be my wife and that you were the one I wanted to marry.  Years later, I can say that I have not been that surprised by our marriage and the wife that you have become.  Quite simply, I thought you would be an amazing wife and you have confirmed that time and time again.

One thing I didn't think about a lot when we were dating is what you might be like as a mother.  I mean, I could tell that you liked kids and wanted us to have kids, but it's hard to think about what someone will be like as a parent when you yourself are kind of clueless about kids.  So I didn't give much thought about it when we were dating.  It's not that I thought you wouldn't be a good mother; I just didn't think about it at all.

2 years into our marriage, something radical changed when we had Grace in April 2009.  That was when you became not only my wife, but the mother of our children.  Part of me wondered what would happen to you as I knew that becoming a mother is life-changing.  Since that day, I continue to be surprised and amazed often by who you are as a mother.  I mean, it's one thing for you to love me -- I am pretty awesome, relatively handsome, and I eat 2-3 types of vegetables.  But to see the depths of your love for our children, and to see the amount of energy you put in to raising them, that completely floors me.  So now I think about how you are as a mother all the time and I have concluded this: you are an amazing mother and I hope you know that I mean that with all of my heart.

I know the days with the kids in this season of life can feel mundane from time-to-time.  And there are days where you work tirelessly and feel drained and sometimes it doesn't feel exciting.  But I want you to know this -- I notice.  I don't take you for granted.  I know how much of a treasure you are.  I know how faithful you are.  I know how much your heart longs for the joy of our children and how much you want to see them grow up to love Jesus.  I see it.  And I hope you know how much our kids adore  you.  I see it in their faces when they run to you for a hug.  I see it in their smiles when you are teaching/feeding/clothing/playing with them.  I see it in their desperation as they cling to you when they're upset/crying/sad.  I see the joy that you bring to them every single day.  You are adored by them (and by me).  Thanks for being a more amazing mother to our kids than I could have ever imagined.

"Her children arise and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her" -- Proverbs 31:28

Love,

Matt

Dallas, Texas: Part 2

Wednesday, May 1st:
After visiting the aquarium on Tuesday we decided to get bigger and better with the animals by visiting the zoo on Wednesday.  My mom and dad both stayed at the hotel on Tuesday night and were able to spend the morning with us at the zoo.  We all woke up to yet another hearty breakfast and got on our way to get to the zoo right when it opened at 9:00.  It was a perfect zoo day.  The weather was a little overcast and in the low 80's in the morning.  So the animals were out and active and we weren't exhausted walking around the zoo.

The kids loved it.  There are two main sections at the zoo and the first was an African area.  We saw elephants, giraffes, lions, gorillas, crocodiles, cheetahs, and much more.  The highlight of that area was feeding the giraffes.  For $5 we bought 4 leaves of romaine lettuce and fed the giraffes.  Caleb is cute because now if you ask him what a giraffe eats he says salad:)  Grace would not touch the giraffe but she got really close and got to see their long tongues while I fed them.

The other part of the zoo had a tiger, other various wildcats, kangaroos, koalas, macaws and again much more I can't remember.  We spent most of our time in "Africa" but the other part was neat too.  We even enjoyed a yummy and not too overpriced lunch at the zoo.  It would be great to spend more time there and I definitely think Brett and Laura should get a season pass!

After lunch my parents headed to Laura's house and we went back to the hotel for naps and I swam with Grace.  Then we went back to Laura's for a little while and then back to the hotel for dinner.  After dinner I went back to Laura's (lots of back and forth:) with my dad to hangout during Neil's fussy time of day.  Mostly Laura and I hung out in the nursery with Neil while my dad and Brett hung out in the living room.

Feeding the giraffe "salad"

Riding the monkey

Grandma, Laura, and Neil

Thankful for playtime in Brett and Laura's backyard

Thursday, May 2nd:
Thursday we woke up to one of the coldest days Dallas had ever seen in May.  After spending over a week enjoying 80+ degree weather it was a shock that the high was in the 50's.  I did comment at one point I would have been at the park if it was that warm in Illinois a month ago.  However it seemed frigid in Texas.

We ended up spending most of the morning just hanging around the hotel with my parents and then heading over to Laura's house with Texas BBQ for lunch.  We just had Caleb take his nap there and spent the afternoon hanging out with Laura.  After Caleb woke up and Neil ate we all went to a butterfly garden.  It was pretty creepy to me.  I just think butterflies are creepy insects that want to crawl down your shirt.  They are pretty from far away but up close I wasn't a huge fan.

Finally, we capped off the day with some pretty good Tex-Mex and some really strong Margarita's.  The kids were pretty tired and fussy by this point so we were ready to get back to the hotel and get to bed (and watch HGTV).

Looking down from above

Grace

Being terrorized by butterflies

Dallas, Texas: Part 1

Monday, April 29th (PM):
After a 3 hour drive and a little nap in the car we arrived at our hotel in Dallas.  My parents had been in Dallas for several days leading up to our arrival so we weren't sure if they'd be at the hotel or at my sister's house.  Right as we were pulling into the parking lot they called to say they were waiting for us at the hotel so the kids were thrilled to see them right away.

After that we settled in and headed over to my sister's to meet the new baby:)  He is such a cutie.  And for the first time since he'd been born she felt up for getting out of the house (besides doctor's appointments) so we went back to the hotel for dinner.  We stayed at a hotel that provides dinner on weeknights so that was nice to take advantage of a couple of times.

Getting ready to go out

Laura's first outing at the hotel for dinner

Tuesday, April 30th:
Tuesday we woke up and called my dad (my mom had stayed with my sister that night) and he came downstairs to eat breakfast with us.  This hotel had great breakfasts too.  Then we heard from my mom that she and my sister were going to take a morning nap so our family and my dad headed to a small aquarium.  We got there right when it opened and spent a little over and hour looking at the fish.  One of the cool parts was it had a stingray bay where you could pet the stingrays.  Not being a natural animal lover it was pretty hard for me to put on a brave face for the kids and pet them.  Grace barely touched one and Caleb would have nothing to do with touching.  They were so cool to watch though!

After that we went and picked up Chick-Fil-A for lunch and brought it back to Laura's house.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and visit for a bit before heading back to the hotel so Caleb could nap.  My dad came back with us too so he could stay in the room with Caleb and Matt and I could take Grace swimming.  She loved that!

After that we went back to Laura's house for dinner.  We just had brats, mac'n'cheese and veggies (which I felt were much needed!).  Brett was also able to come home from work and eat dinner with us (circumstances were such that he got put on a very labor intensive project the week we were there so we didn't see as much of him as we would have liked).  Then it was back to the hotel and time for bed and HGTV.  I haven't mentioned that because we don't have cable at home I was way addicted to HGTV cable in our rooms.  Because we had a suite with multiple TV's Matt could even watch his sports channel's while I watched HGTV.  Bliss.

Caleb was really nervous turing his back on the sharks

Unfazed by the fish

Petting the stingrays

Grace holding her cousin

College Station, Texas

Saturday, April 27th:
After another good night of sleep (I actually slept amazing on vacation partially due to over the counter sleeping pills that I took the first night in each hotel) we got up and had a delicious breakfast at the hotel.  They had a hot breakfast every morning and we loved it!  Then we met Rachel and Rollin at their apartment and they took us on a tour of the Texas A&M campus where Rollin went to school.  Since it was a Saturday morning the students were all in hibernation and we felt like the only people around.  We walked around for a couple of hours and really enjoyed the time moving about instead of being in a car.

After the tour we headed to a fun taco restaurant called Fuego for lunch and then it was naptime.  After naps we met up with Rachel and Rollin again and they took us to a park near their place.  By this point it was over 85 degrees and humid out so it really felt like summer!  Finally we had dinner at their place and headed back to our hotel for bed while Rachel and Rollin went to prom at the school Rachel teaches at:)

Rooftop garden on campus

Really cool tree on campus

Sliding

 Sunday, April 28th:
Sunday started off with another delicious breakfast and then R&R came over to our hotel to swim with us and the kids.  After our swim we all cleaned up and headed across town for church.  It was neat to visit the church R&R attend (and Rollin is on staff with part time).  The service was great and I enjoyed the pastor's message.

After church we went to R&R's for a late lunch and a few games of Dominion.  Caleb napped and Grace watched several of Rachel's princess movies so it was a very pleasant afternoon.  By the time Caleb was up from his nap we didn't want to wait too long for dinner so we made a quick stop at the George H. Bush Library and Museum.  We didn't go inside but just walked around the pretty lake.  Finally we had dinner at a local hamburger joint called The Chicken Oil Company.  The burgers were ok but the atmosphere was great.  The funny part about dinner was we got the kids chicken bites and fries for dinner and one kids meal was enough to feed 3 adults!

Swimming

At G.H.W. Bush museum

The kids LOVE their uncle Rollin

One of two kids meals at The Chicken Oil Company.  Do they know how small a kid is?

Monday, April 29th (AM):
Monday morning we woke up and had yet another delicious breakfast.  Rollin had to work Monday but Rachel took the day off so she was able to meet up with us for a bit in the morning.  We headed to a park and fed ducks and played on the playground.  It was a nice quiet morning.  After that we headed back to the hotel to pack up and ate lunch at a restaurant called Blue Baker.  It's a local place that kind of reminded me of Panera.  Then we jumped in the car and took a 3 hour drive to Dallas.  Next post will be about Dallas!

Rachel and Grace

Rachel and Caleb

The Drive to Texas

After 2100+ miles, 10 days, 9 nights, 4 different hotels, 2 families and 1 cute new baby yesterday we returned home from our awesome vacation to Texas.  I don't think we could have had a better trip.  Maybe a few tweaks to the weather but even that was pretty darn good. To summarize it I'm going to divide my blog into 3 or 4 posts so here is the first one.

Thursday, April 25th:
We started off our journey at 2:50 in the morning on Thursday, April 25th.  We woke the kids up and tossed them in the car in hopes that they would fall right back to sleep and give us a few hours of driving before having to entertain them.  In the end it took them until 4:30 to fall back to sleep but they just sat there staring at us like we were crazy and wondering what was going on.  So it wasn't bad that they were awake just kind of weird/creepy.  Then they slept about 2 hours for us before waking up.  After they woke up we put a few more miles on the road and stopped for breakfast at McDonald's.

After a quick breakfast we were back on the road with 4 of our 9.5 hours planned for that day under our belts.  That felt really good!  The kids were great and gave us another 3 hours before having to stop for lunch in Little Rock, Arkansas.  We ate at Cracker Barrel and then stopped at a nearby park to play for an hour before getting in the car again.  At this point we had only 2.5 hours left and were feeling great.  Caleb slept for the last leg and Grace played quietly in her seat.

We arrived at our hotel in Texarkana, TX late afternoon and were able to enjoy our hotel room for a bit before dinner.  There was a McAllisters across the street from the hotel so we walked there and enjoyed eating outside.  By this point we were pretty wiped from missing sleep the night before so we all got a great night of sleep.

Friday, April 26th:
Friday morning we woke up refreshed and ready to hit the road.  We had a very easy 5.5 hour drive through Texas to our first destination of College Station where Matt's sister and her husband live.  So we split it exactly in half and stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  Matt and I determined neither of us had been to one before (although I have had their food catered) and we really liked it.

We got to College Station by 3:00 and were able to take the kids for a swim in the hotel pool before heading over to Rachel and Rollin's for dinner.  Rachel made us a yummy dinner and it was nice to not eat out.  We enjoyed spending the evening with them and had a great rest of the weekend with them too.  That will be my next post!

Caleb is getting ready to eat his first of many chicken nuggets and fries meals.

Lovely hair Grace:)

Enjoying the park.

I loved this park!  Shade covering, made for young kids, so perfect!

DVD players were the main reason our kids traveled so well:)