7 Years

Wally and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on October 15th.  With it being a Monday and the kids both being sick, we didn't celebrate much on the actual day.  But we did have a weekend away planned - just the two of us!

Last weekend around 1 PM on Friday, we headed to the St. Joseph, MI area.  Along the way we stopped at the Michigan Welcome Center and New Buffalo.

We stopped to take some pics at the beach in New Buffalo.









And then we were off to St. Joseph.  As soon as we got there, we parked downtown, grabbed some hot chocolate and just started walking.

We made our way down to the beach and began the walk out to the lighthouses.  We were on the wrong side, but at that point, we weren't sure how to get to the other side so we just went with it.











We then checked into our hotel, relaxed a bit, and took a cab to get some dinner and take in some night life!  We ended up at really cool bar with an awesome band.  They played mostly 90's alternative music, which totally brought Wally and I back to our high school days!  And you guys, we stayed out until 1:30 AM - what?!?!  We enjoyed ourselves!





The next morning we had a huge breakfast and then drove around a bit and made our way back to the lighthouse.  Except, it was SUPER windy and the waves were scary so we didn't venture all the way out.



Next up was a tour, wine tasting, and dinner at Tabor Hill Winery in Buchanan, MI.











After a fairly early dinner, we headed back to the hotel.  I was still not feeling 100% so I decided some dayquil and a nap would be good so we could enjoy the rest of our night.  Well, I took some Nyquil by accident and was out for an hour and woke up with a terrible headache (probably because I wasn't really supposed to wake up yet, right?).  I decided that a little caffeine would help and we were on our way to New Buffalo again, but this time to hit up the Four Winds Casino.  We found ourselves wandering around for about an hour because neither one of us could pull the trigger and gamble our money away - ha!  (Times have changed!)  So we were just about to walk out and head to the car when I was like we can't come to the casino and not play anything.  So we decided we would play $30 at the roulette table.  Wally lost his $20 in about 5 minutes.  I played on my $10 for nearly an hour.  In the end, we didn't win any money, but I at least won our $30 back.  It was fun!

Sunday morning we had breakfast, went to church, and decided to head home.  Well actually we went to Toyland at Farm & Fleet.  I know, seriously!  But, we are basically done Christmas shopping for the kids so it was definitely worth it!  Wally found it strange Christmas shopping in October, but I felt relief knowing that I at least had 2 people done!

All in all, it was a great anniversary trip and a much needed getaway for Wally and me.  But we missed our babies and couldn't wait to see them!  We have plans for a bigger trip for our 10 year and hopefully some more mini trips in between!

Weekend of Walking

Last Saturday morning Luke and I, along with my mom and Kathy, left La Salle bright and early (6:15 AM) to head down to Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington to participate in the nursing program's 50th anniversary run/walk (Aunt Car Car is a nursing major there - only one more year - woot!). Stacey took the train down there on Friday night too. It was a bit chilly since it was pretty early - the run/walk started at 8 AM - so we had to get bundled up. Stacey and Carly ran, the rest of us strolled our way to the finish line.

He wore my gloves for awhile!




Nice Carly and Luke, ha!


Being silly with Stacey


Run Carly Run!


Strolling along with Aunt Kathy

After the race, we took a little tour of the nursing classrooms/lab and wandered around campus for a bit. Luke wasn't digging the stroller at this point so he did some walking and we did some carrying! We then made our way to Panera for a late breakfast. Lukey fell asleep in the car though and was OUT! I thought for sure he would wake up when I took him out of the car - NOPE, then he would for sure wake up when we walked into Panera and ordered - NOPE...he was tired! So we sat at a booth and I laid him down and there he slept for probably 30 minutes or maybe even longer. Once he woke up, he enjoyed the bagel we had bought for him and we were off to do some shopping.

Look what I found!




Passed out at Panera Bread

I was in search of a new picture for my kitchen/dining room so we headed to Gordman's. Between 5 women and a cute little boy to buy for, we did some damage there. Kathy said she could spend 6 hours just shopping there - I think we all could! They have so many fun, unique decorations/stuff for your home. I think I could re-decorate my whole house just from buying from there. Then we made a quick stop at The Children's Place and headed back to Carly's apartment to hang out.

After some chaos when leaving Carly's (just confusion and plans gone awry), we headed back to La Salle. (Stacey stayed another night and took the train back to Chicago on Sunday morning.) My parent's had a 50th birthday party to go to that night and Wally was in desparate need of seeing his little man (he had games every day this week and only caught Luke maybe twice before he went to bed) so Luke and I headed back to Monee around 7:30 PM. I wanted him to have some "out of car" time since we did lots of driving that day. So I put him in his jammies and off we went. He fell asleep about Morris and was out until our exit. Wally had his 2 assistant coaches over so Luke and I hung out with them for about 45 minutes and off to bed we went. Luke was still up bright and early (5:40 AM) so Daddy got lots of time with him on Sunday!!!!

This was at my parents - Luke somehow got music to play on the computer!!!

Sunday we went to church, Luke took a nap, and then we took a walk to the park. After some fun there, Luke decided he didn't want back in his wagon so he ended up walking all the way home (probably about 4 or 5 blocks). I couldn't believe he made it the whole way. And he walked on the sidewalk and didn't even dilly-dally too much. We had some more fun in the backyard and then it was time for dinner, bath, and bedtime. It was a long, but fun weekend!!!!

Wwwwweeeeee!!!!!






Check out that hair!








He thought he would pull the wagon home.

Easter Sunday

We woke up Easter morning at my parent's house. (Wally and I were feeling pretty good after the wedding the night before, we were just tired!) Luke found his basket and picnic table from Grammy and Papa. He really wanted Mickey to come off of the basket though, LOL.



Checking out the goodies!


Because not everything fit in his basket, there was also a big bag filled with lots of summer clothes...Luke wanted to make sure we got everything :)


Then it was off to church where Luke did very well (a few almost meltdowns) and then we headed to the Zukowski's for some brunch. We did the Easter egg hunt there on Saturday morning so we just got to relax and Luke got his Easter basket. He is really into buses lately so he was excited about this present (more on buses later :) ).







Luke and Grandpa went for a stroll in the front yard.






We then stopped over at my grandparents house where Luke got 3 more Easter baskets (he is one lucky boy!). Before going in though, we had to go down the slide!





Luke had some fun with some "old-school" toys!




Our last stop of the day was over at my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jack's house. Luke was very impressed with the school bus sitting outside their house...since retiring from the City of Peru last year, Uncle Jack now drives a school bus. That makes him super cool in Luke's eyes I'm sure. So we had some fun running around on the bus!


Sophie was the driver first!












Maddie helped Luke drive!






It was a great Easter, but by the time we got back home in Monee, we were all exhausted!!!!!