Fall Break in Chicago

In October, the kids had two days off of school so we decided to do a little mini vacation to Chicago before Chris flew out of there to Australia/New Zealand for 2 weeks. We ended up getting our hotel for free because of how many points we had racked up this past summer when we lived at the Best Western for a few weeks!:)

Ivy got car sick on the way there, but other than that we had no problems! The Cubs were playing a home playoff game the night we got there and out hotel was just around the corner from Wrigley field so that was a fun place to be!

Thursday morning we got up and headed to the Museum of Science and Industry. We spent a good portion of the day there and could have spent longer! It was a great museum that I would highly recommend. It was nice to be there during the week because it wasn't so crowded. After the museum, we headed back to our hotel and then surprised the kids with tickets to the Oilers/Blackhawks game that night! We had a blast at the game and the fact that the Oilers won in overtime was so so awesome! The people around us were really nice to us up until that point:)

Friday we got up and went to the American Girl doll store to look around. Of course Ivy and Mya wanted everything, but since Christmas wasn't that far away, we had them make a list;) We met my friend Jaramee, her husband Jeff and their kids Maeli and Weston for lunch at a Spy restaurant in downtown Chicago. It was super fun because the waiters/waitresses were in character the whole time and the kids thought that was pretty cool. After lunch we walked around Chicago, went to Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and said good-bye to Chris for 2 weeks!

That evening we went to Jaramee's house on the North Shore and we headed to a Strumbella's concert. They're a band from Canada that aren't super well known in the states. The venue was small and the concert was amazing. One of the best, if not the best, concert I've ever been to. Saturday  Jeff took Weston and Max to the Northwestern/Iowa football game and we just hung out and went to the beach. (yes, the beach in October) It was a great little getaway for sure!

The Dubuque Dolphins

Max and Ivy just finished up their very first swim season! My friend Marie really encouraged me to put them in swimming with this team. She spoke so highly of the coaches, the program and the other parents. She was right! The kids had a blast and I thought it was such a great experience for them and I met such wonderful people and got to know some others better as well. Mya was too busy with gymnastics and basketball to join, but of course in true Mya fashion, she watched one practice and claimed she should do swimming as well! Ivy and Max took a few lessons prior to the season just to learn how to flip t urn and get the basics for the 4 strokes. (Ivy just concentrated on 2...freestyle and back)

If nothing else, they are now solid swimmers and got a bunch of really good exercise this winter when they can't do a lot else! Max I know will continue next season, and I really hope Ivy does too! I may just make her if she's not doing anything else...she never wanted to go, but once she got there she did really well, worked hard and had fun!

Max's first time farming

When we were in Decorah for Thanksgiving, it just happened to be a crazy year and the farmers were still harvesting! We had tried a couple other time in the fall to get up to my Aunt and Uncle's farm to let Max help with harvest, but it was always too wet. We jumped at the chance to go and I was so happy I got to be there too! I had never been on a combine and I learned a ton. Chris was with my uncle Geoff, while Max and I were with Andrew (my cousin's husband who now works on the farm and operates the combine) We had a great couple of hours learning how it all worked and watching the whole process! Max also got to drive the tractor while they tilled some land to get ready for spring planting. He was thrilled:)

Edmonton visit

I'm back to the blogger world! I'm going to try my best to keep up with this once I get all caught up from the last 6+ months. The reason is because my kids love reading my blog books...it's like a baby book that I actually did! This is going to be a bit backwards for awhile until I get caught up, but better late than never!

Last Friday Feb 8th, we flew to Edmonton to see all of our friends. We had a heck of a time getting there with the big snow storm here in Dubuque, in Chicago AND in Toronto. I picked up the kids early from school, skipped conferences and headed to Chicago to get a hotel by the airport so that we'd be close for the next morning. Our original flight got cancelled, but they got us on a later flight that day at 3:00. We got to Toronto with 25 minutes before our next flight. We got our luggage, went through customs, checked our luggage back in, went through security and RAN to the gate. the gate was closed, but they opened it for us (guarantee it's because we had kids with us) and we sat down sweating and out of breath! Phew! (if you can see the sign above Max says gate closed)

The first two days there were spent with the Fernandez family...good friends of ours that we met through the kids' school. They threw a party for us and invited a bunch of good friends over. All 3 kids had a play date with their besties, we did some shopping, closed out our bank account and caught up with as many people as we could! The pic below is Max and Mrs. McKendrick...his 4th grade teacher. She wasn't going to be in school the days we were there so she came to the party Saturday night so she could see Max! She was the best.

Sunday morning we got up at 4am to Max throwing up:( This was just the start of the day. We headed to our church sans Max and while at church Mya said she didn't feel well. We decided to head to the mountains anyway because we had bought ski lift tickets and were planning to go for a couple days with our friends. Max had started to feel better by then thank goodness! She got sick in the car the whole way to Banff. It wasn't very much fun, but she was a trooper. She was sick the rest of the night but by Monday morning, she was back to herself! We skied Lake Louise Monday and it was gorgeous. It was pretty cold at the start, but by the afternoon we didn't want to leave!

Tuesday we headed to Mt. Norquay to go tubing for the morning and skiing in the afternoon. It was a super fun morning with the whole Ferhopopmurvan framily (that's all of our last names merged into one) We could have skipped the afternoon of skiing, but we had fun the few runs that we did.

Once back in Edmonton, the kids went to school for 2 days and got to see all of their former classmates! The teachers welcomed them with open arms and it was so great. Honestly I can't even explain how awesome of a school George P. Nicholson is....a gem for sure.

The end of the trip we spent with our backyard neighbors, the Baldwins. I believe certain people are brought into you life for certain reasons and having this family right behind us, saved us countless times. They were our family for 3 years. Their 3 girls are the same ages as our kids and are such great kids. Nicole took Friday off and we took the kids to Galaxyland so they could do the rides and be at the West Edmonton Mall. Saturday we went to the Silver Skate Festival, saw the ice castle, Ivy went skating, the kids practiced their curling, we rode the horse drawn sleigh and the kids played in the snow. It was an awesome day!

Sunday, the kids and I flew home while Chris went to Eugene, OR for the week. It was a lot of work getting home by myself, but I'm thankful my kids are pretty good travelers and do a great job of going with the flow (for the most part). Until next time Edmonton!