Steph and Ben's Wedding

7 people in a hotel room!

Rehearsal time, that's alot of snow

Stephen cried while walking down the aisle

Jongsma family 

With the best man

Ring bearers enjoying their rings

Beautiful ceremony

Little flower girl

Pretty flower girl

Aunt Beth, Grandma and Megan

Dancing for their 40th anniversary

We flew to Denver on a Thursday morning and were back home by Saturday evening.  I think we were on the ground in Denver for 48 hours- and an awesome 48 hours it was! We had a smooth flight to Denver and went to pick up our rental car.  We waited 1 1/2 hours before we got the car.  We had reserved a car, but they had serious issues at this place.  The line was ridiculously long and they were giving people behind us in line their minivans first.  Nate was giving a piece of his mind to any employee that walked by.  Sitting in a parking lot with tired, hungry kids was so great.  There was another family with 5 kids there and we connected easily with them.  Unfortunately I missed the bridesmaid lunch with Steph. But, the rest of the weekend was glitch free after the car debacle.

We spent some time at the hotel and then went to the rehearsal.  I don't think any of us were prepared for the snow, ha!  The kids had fun throwing snow balls at each other and threatened Ben and Steph that they would throw snowballs at them after the ceremony. Stephen was not a fan of walking down the aisle.  (For the actual wedding Nate told him to just look at Mommy up front and walk to her.  It worked and he practically ran down the aisle to me.)  After rehearsal we went to Ben's parent's house for supper.  They have a trampoline and the kids were happy.  We ate all of Steph's favorite foods for the rehearsal dinner. It was a fun evening of meeting Ben's family.  

On the day of the wedding, I went off to get ready with Steph and the other bridesmaids.  Nate and the kids went for a hike.  It was nice to spend the day with Steph and share in her excitement.  She was so beautiful.  And watching Ben's reaction all day was fun.  I think he cried the most during the ceremony. The ceremony was beautiful and meaningful. They wrote their own vows, had their parents pray over them and took their first communion together.  Their love for Jesus and each other was apparent.   Lexi and Keira were pulled in a wagon by Caleb.  Julia and the other flower girls threw rose petals and looked very cute.  Caleb and Isaac pulled the runner down the aisle, looking very handsome.  Nate got all the kids where they needed to be and kept them entertained during the ceremony.

And of course the reception was the best party ever!  The kids LOVED the candy table.  I got to toast my sister and tell her how much I love her and Ben.  The food was great and the dancing was off the hook.  Nate and I didn't get to dance together which was a bummer, but we had fun dancing with the kids.  We didn't shut the party down, but we almost made it to the end!  We were an exhausted, but happy family heading back to the hotel.

The next morning we relaxed around the hotel and swam in the pool.  We ate an early lunch, put the littles down for a nap while Nate and the older ones went for a hike.  We then packed up, got to the airport and headed home.

We love Steph and Ben very much and pray God blesses them with many years together!

The rest of April

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma

Taking a nap with Mommy

Lexi and Keira hard at work

First trip of the season to Captain Sundae

Caleb running across the lacrosse field

Playing with Nolbi

Enedina and Nolbi

Family walk at the nature preserve

Looking cute in her Disney Frozen dress

Breakfast at McDonalds while the counters are installed

Looking good

Isaac "working" at the movie theater

Kid Town week at school

This is what a classmate made and Isaac bought. What does it look like to you? 

On our way home from Orlando, we flew back to O'Hare.  We drove to my grandparent's house for lunch and a quick visit.  Grandma went all out- she made us Italian food, salad, bread and let the kids have as much ice cream as they wanted.  The time was short, but we always love visiting Grandpa and Grandma and catching up.

Getting back into the school/normal routine after vacation was rough.  But, we had interesting things to do, like watching lacrosse games.  We also had dinner at the Petersons house with Enedina and her son Nolbi.  It was very good to see them again and hear how they are doing.  We are so proud of Enedina.  She is very close to finishing high school, she's living independently (with help from Bethany Christian Services) and raising Nolbi.  And her English is much better!

We are slowly working on the kitchen.  Nate took out our old countertops, sink and range and Habitat for Humanity took them away. We had new quartz counters installed and they look great!  Now we need to pick out a tile backsplash, light fixtures and paint colors for the cabinets and walls.

One of the highlights of 2nd grade is Kid Town week.  It is top secret, none of the younger grades are allowed in the gym during Kid Town week.  Of course, older siblings like Caleb give away some of the Kid Town secrets.  The class takes recyclables and makes things to sell.  They also have a movie theater, post office, pet shop, pizza restaurant, etc that kids work at and can shop at.  The kids earn "money" thru homework assignments and activities at school.  Isaac was excited to show me around Kid Town on the last day.  One of the top secret surprises of Kid Town is that on the last day, instead of having fake pizza at the pizza restaurant there is real pizza! Shh, don't tell Julia.

Caleb had his last trumpet performance of the year.  It was Fine Arts Night at his school.  Caleb was part of a trio and they sounded good.  We are hoping to keep him practicing trumpet over the summer.
In April we also had Aunt Steph's wedding and Lexi's birthday!  Those posts will be coming.

Spring Break 2016

On our way to Orlando!

Hello cutie

Grandpa takes this seriously

Making s'mores

Feeding the fish

Lego hulk

Lego loch ness

This kid

Enjoying a boat ride

Grandpa and Julia

Relaxing, sign of a good vacation

We went to Orlando for spring break.  Grandpa D has a timeshare so we stayed at the Bonnet Creek condos with him.  We stayed there with Grandpa and Grandma 4 years ago and the place is awesome.  The last time we went to Orlando we did Disney stuff, but not this trip.  We have 2 young kids and we found plenty of other activities during the week.  The resort has about 6 pools, so we mostly enjoyed being out in the sun and swimming.  We also did some mini-golfing, ping pong and arcade games at the resort.  The condo had a kitchen which made meal times much easier than going to a restaurant.
Julia got sick right before we left for Orlando, with a fever and sore throat.  I then got the same bug the day we left.  We both recovered within a day and thankfully no one else got sick!

One of the highlights was our trip to Fun Spot America.  It is a small amusement park/carnival.  All of the kids loved it. Well, Lexi tolerated it.  There weren't many rides she could go on, but she did enjoy the ones she rode! Stephen thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie rides and proudly tells people he rode a roller coaster.  Stephen was not happy when he had to leave early with Mom and Lexi.  Julia was brave and went on the real roller coaster!  She didn't want to ride again, but she did it once! The older kids (and adults) had fun riding go-carts and other amusement park rides.  The park was empty most of the day so we didn't have to wait in lines.  The older kids, Nate and Dad got back to the condo around supper time, tired but happy.  Nate can't wait to take some kids to Cedar Point someday and ride real roller coasters.

We went to Downtown Disney, (which is now called Disney Springs) twice.  We went one morning and  it was not crowded.  We visited some stores like the Lego store and Disney store.  We also rode the ferry across the little lake.  Later in the week we ate dinner at The Rainforest Cafe.  Disney Springs was very busy that evening!  Stephen was still a little freaked out by the robotic animals in the restaurant. (We took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe in Chicago 2 years ago, he was terrified.) There is a "real" volcano outside the restaurant which was very cool, but again Stephen was scared. (I'm sensing a theme with him.)  I think this was Grandpa's first time at the Rainforest Cafe.

We had an early flight home, so we left the condo at 4:30 am.  Julia was crying hysterically (partly b/c of saying goodbye to Grandpa, mostly b/c she was exhausted). Isaac threw up in the rental car parking garage. We were stopped at security, because once again there were water bottles in the kids backpacks.  (We told them to remove them, apparently we need to double check their work.) Nate took one for the team and got a VERY thorough pat down. We were the last ones to board the plane, because we HAD to buy breakfast for the kids.  The plane ride would have been miserable if they didn't have sustenance. After the stress leading up to the plane ride, the rest of our trip was smooth.  The kids did great.  And I have to be honest, technology plays a big part in keeping them happy.  Lexi was happy sitting by Nate as he does a great job of keeping her entertained.

Our spring break vacation was different and a little sad without Grandma, but it was still good. We enjoyed spending the week with Grandpa and many more memories were made.