Vacation...Woodlands Style

My last post was called "Vacation...Destin Style!"  What a great trip that was with the whole family.  And, what a great opportunity to enjoy my own house in the Woodlands without the boys.  I love my boys.  Really love them.  And I love time at the house when they are not there.  That was like vacation, because honestly, I'm not sure it has happened in the past million years at least.

For the first time, we put the boys on a flight by themselves to see the four grandparents in Chicago and Goshen.  They were SO excited.  We missed the first several flights and it was very tight, but they managed to get on, with their iPods in hand, their snack bags, and their books.  (Yeah right.)  With big smiles and no tears (except for me and Mikayla) they walked down that jet-way and didn't look back, literally.  TJ told me he wasn't going to turn on his iPod right away, and he was going to save it.  They asked me ahead of time what kind of drinks they could get, and I said well, "those are the kinds of smart decisions you will have to make on your own on a trip like this."  (I heard later on that they got ginger-ale and apple juice. :)

In any case, they split their time with Mimi and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa and had a great time!  Without all the stories to tell, and most pictures compliments of Luka, I can just list out for the record what they were able to check off their bucket list.

Chicago:

• Million Dollar Quartet
• Brookfield Zoo and an evening concert there
• Brown Cow every night, if they treated each other with respect
• Navy Pier, including a stained glass show
• Rolling down the parking garage ramp on their Heely's
• Shish-ka-bobs 
• Arts and crafts

 

 

 

Goshen:

• Bike riding on the Pumpkin Vine Trail
• Lunch at the Rolling Scones, owned by Cousin Joyce
• Field trip to the train museum
• A shopping trip to the Depot, a resale store where they find lots of goodies
• A visit with Great-Grandma and Grandpa Garber
• Trip to The Chief
• Field trip to the cemetary (which they will probably never forget!)
• Arts and crafts

(I'm sure I'm forgetting things, over a month later, so grandparents, please do fill me in.)

At times we'd talk to the boys a couple times a day, and sometimes we'd go a couple days without hearing from them.   Giving Luka an iPod just before the trip proved to be pretty helpful, as he was very communicative and shared a ton of details about their daily plans.  One thing we reiterated to everyone, however, is that the expectation was for the boys to read first, and then they could have equal time on their iPods.

Here is one of the better (yet typical) texts from Luka:

While I didn't get a true vacation at my house as I was still working, and I had Mikayla, here is what I did not do, every day:

• Cook
• Grocery shopping with 3 kids
• Run kids to camp, race home to work for 3 hours, then pick them back up and pretend to work the rest of the day
• Pack lunches
• Schedule play dates
• Find creative ways to get the boys to read before they asked about their iPods
• Spend 45 minutes doing "bedtime"

Soon after those 6 days were up, I headed to Chicago to see one of my besties and her sweet little girl Emarie who I had not yet had the chance to meet!  It was so great!  We hung out at the hotel, played with baby girl and chatted it up for almost a whole 24 hours...a royal treat!  Mikayla got to stay with Mimi and Papa.

Then it was off to Goshen to see my grandparents myself and give Mikayla some time with her other grandparents.  She sure enjoyed picking grape tomatoes from the garden!

Well, and that about wraps it up for Michiana 2014!