Family Vacation in Illinois: Part 2

10 Highlights Continued.

Click here for 1-5

#6 Sister time. Enough said. Why are these two not my next door neighbors???

It was pretty fun to watch these sisters together too. 

And yes, I have already started encouraging them to be neighbors some day.

#7 Cousins. Oh what joy it brings my heart to watch these kids play together. Painting, dancing, playing games, being silly, swimming, feeding the neighbors horses, face painting, watching movies...these kiddos LOVE each other and can't get enough of each other. This was as good as we could get for the "yellow chair picture" this year (ages 7, 6, 5, 3, 2, 10 months, 8 months).

#8 BIG family reunion. This year we had a reunion within a reunion and we got to spend two wonderful days with my aunt, uncle, cousins (and spouses and kids), and grandparents (Mom's side...the Midwest side). What a treat. Although we were missing three much loved family members and there was a feeling of incompleteness we still thoroughly enjoyed and cherished the time together. It was unbelieveably special to watch my 87 year old Grandma bond with my 10 month old. We also snuck in a girls pedicure and a couple late nights catching up with the cousins after our 9 kiddos were put to bed. We didn't get a big group shot on our camera, but you can trust me that there were 26 of us, and we looked great.

#9 Celebrating Midsummer. Here's the thing you should know about this family of mine...we are Swedish. That is why we call my mom Mormor, sing prayers in a foreign language, eat bland/white food, enjoy water and winter, and find ourselves drawn to the colors yellow and blue. Midsummer is a BIG GIANT holiday in Sweden (we were actually there for it in 1995, all 15 of us)...and my parents decided that if we were going to have this many Swedes together so close to summer solstice then we should raise a maypole, make some flower crowns, let Grandpa break out his fiddle, and eat some meatballs. And that is exactly what we did.

Here is my 93 year old Grandpa playing a Midsummer tune for us.

Yes, this happened too.
 No, I won't be posting that video.

#10 Just being together. Holding babies, playing games, celebrating a 7th birthday, walks, bike rides, water fights, bedtime stories, frozen yogurt, drive-in movie, 15 of us sleeping under one roof, laughing, talking, just enjoying the gift of time together. What a gift it was.

Thank you mom and dad for your gift of hospitality and all your hard work! It was an amazing 10 days.

Until Christmas...
When we will return to barren trees and cold temperatures and I will romanticize the heck out of winter.

Family Vacation in Illinois: Part 1

We got home from Chicago on Monday and now I am in the post-family-vacation phase known as "the great depression". Without fail, every time we return from a week with my family in Illinois I get pretty down because I AM SO SAD I DON'T LIVE BY MY FAMILY, and I miss the Midwest.

There are only three things that help with the great depression:

1. Planning the next time we go there or they come here. As my mom says, "air travel is like childbirth and eventually you do it again because you forget how terrible it is".  I'm sure I will eventually forget about the plane ride on Monday and I will book tickets to Chicago for Christmas, but I'm definitely not there yet.
2. Doing a blog post about the trip that I can look at about a million times in the weeks that follow.
3. Time...after 5-7 days I usually feel better and work on "being all there/here."

That said, here is #2.

Ten highlights from Family Vacation 2013 in Wayne, IL.

#1 Tree house and zip-line. When my dad said he was going to build a tree house and zip-line for our summer vacation I'm pretty sure no one pictured THIS. It was beyond amazing, and lucky for the adults the zip-line held up to 300lbs. This kid-paradise is hidden in their woods behind the house and includes a massive tree house with stained glass, viking head, baby swing, picnic bench, bucket-on-a-pulley, super fun lighting for night, and zip-line. Oh wait, but there is more...there is also a tire swing area, a little "hobbit house", and a small perch to watch and wait for incoming zip-liners. Wow. Just WOW.

Here is the zip-line in action.

#2 Backyard fun. As if the tree house and zip-line area weren't enough there is the regular backyard where we enjoyed watching the kids play in the pool, smash ball (this was the game of the year for the son-in-laws), volleyball, mini car and jeep for the kids to drive, lightning bugs, the hot tub, fire pit, porch and patio. This place gets more out-of-control each year and WE LOVE IT!

#3 Day in Chicago. It truly is "my kind of town". A trip to see my parents always feels incomplete without a trip to the city. My parents graciously kept the babies at home so we could go with the big kids unhindered. We took the train from the suburbs, a water taxi in the city, and enjoyed walking the city streets to our destination. We kept it simple this year and focused our urban energy on Millennium Park where the kids frolicked in the "face fountains" and we admired "the bean". It was a great day in THE BEST city in America (if you ask me).

#4 Weather. If you have ever been to Chicago in July you will appreciate that it was in the 70s and low-80s the entire time we were there...with minimal humidity...it was a minor miracle. We even got one day of rain, which is a novelty for us drought-stricken Californians, so our girls enjoyed a "rain dance" in their swimsuits.

#5 The Midwest. The massive trees, the smell of summer flowers, the huge grassy yards, the bugs, the moisture, the air-conditioning, the warm nights, the (unhealthy) food, the space, the people, the accents, the basements, the corn fields.

I know it is all totally romanticized for me at this point in life, but still, it is my people, my roots, it is all so familiar and comfortable, and the Midwest will always be "home" to me.

One thing that is not romanticized in my mind was bringing the kiddos to put pennies on the railroad tracks and pick berries behind my parents' house (something we used to do as kids at my Grandma's house).

Yes, that was just as Midwest-magical as it sounds.

To be continued...

Favorite Five...PLUS five: A glimpse of June

June has been a busy month full of fun events and fun people. 

Here are ten pictures that sum up the month...because five wasn't enough.

The Secret Garden is finished and being enjoyed by all.

Abby is...three...not my favorite age. At least her cuteness helps me deal with her three-ness.

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa earlier this month.

Chris' folks got to see Sam's church choir musical. Here is the congratulations hug.

 Hannah is still cute as ever.

She is also crawling and opening cabinets and pulling herself up and we need to baby proof PRONTO.

Sam finished Kindergarten and we are all really going to miss her amazing teacher Miss Z.

We had two college friends visit this month. What a gift to watch friends love on our kids.

We had a special visit from our CA cousins and had a lot of fun together. 

Fun including but not limited to: first camp out, "skateboarding,"

a beach day where I lost Abby (mother of the year!), and general quality time.

And then there are the special normal little moments that fill each day and each month.

Those are my favorites.

It has been a full June and now we are looking forward to July and our Midwest family vacation!

One father's dream come true

I'm pretty sure this is my husband's Father's Day dream come true...

"This coupon is good for us to go on a surf day together."

Today we will spend some quality family time at the place you will find us every Father's Day...

And today, like every Father's Day, I am feeling incredibly blessed and thankful. 

I am SO BLESSED that I have an AMAZING father who is now an AMAZING grandfather.

And I am SO THANKFUL for my husband who WOWS me daily as a dad.

Here are a few previous Father's Day tributes.

2012: Fathers who reflect their Father

2011: For the father of my children on Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

A quick trip south of the border

Over Memorial Day Weekend Samantha and I had a great adventure together. We went to Mexico.

Our church partners with a ministry called Amor and does a trip each Memorial Day weekend called Come Build Hope. This year 300 people (some from other congregations) joined together to build 18 homes for families in Mexico who needed some help.

For those of us not able to join the camping and building crews there is a one-day bus trip to Mexico to get a tour and mini experience of Come Build Hope. I decided this would be an awesome outing for me and my Kindergartner since she is super sensitive to poverty and people in need and interested in other countries and cultures. I was so excited to watch her little mind be blown by the fact that there is another country so close to our own home.

I didn't anticipate how much MY mind was going to be blown.

I have seen and lived around poverty before, but usually I have to get on an airplane and fly far far away to get there. I am still processing the reality that all that I saw is practically "down the street" from me. The border experience alone was hard to comprehend. I have crossed country borders in Europe and Africa and the difference between one country and another isn't that striking in those continents. But crossing the border between the US and Mexico was like that scene in The Wizard of Oz where the movie goes from black and white to color. All I mean by that is that the difference in the two worlds divided by a man-made "border" is striking and dramatic and immediate. I am still processing it all.

Our first stop was at the campsite where everyone sleeps. 

They served us a delicious lunch and Samantha loved her rice and beans.

Sam also loved meeting the "alarm clock" and playing in the wood pile.

Then we transferred to a smaller bus and went to visit a few of the build sites. 

The roads were steep and windy and dusty, and the only time I was nervous the whole day was when I was praying the brakes wouldn't give out on the bus.

Here is one of the houses in process. 

Samantha couldn't understand why they would build the families such a small house.

My little buddy and I had a great day together. We even had some pals her age on the bus and our guide for the day was also a dear friend. As we have been debriefing Samantha has said some interesting things about the experience. Here are a few of Sam's observations:

"You can make people happy by giving them something small and even broken, because they will know that you care." (She brought a couple small cars that she gave away to two little boys, and she felt bad that one was missing a wheel.)

"They all look sad." (She kept saying this about the kids. I think what she saw as sadness on the kids' faces was probably more confusion at seeing this bus load of white people walking around their neighborhood.)

"They all have the same face." (Her way of saying that they looked similar to each other, and different from her.)

"I don't want to live there." (An honest response from a 6 year old who now has seen with her own two eyes that the world is a lot bigger and a lot different than VERY comfortable coastal San Diego.)

As I said before there is still a lot to process from this trip. Mostly I feel a conviction and responsibility for our family to have an ongoing relationship with this country that is so close to our home.  It is hard to picture what that looks like with 3 very small children, but we will keep talking about it.

One thing I know we can do is go on this trip again next year, and I am already looking forward to it. I definitely plan to recruit more friends/family/kids to come with us next year!