Not enough days in Dayton

Our days in Dayton went by too quickly, as I knew they would. We had a most wonderful time staying with the Geaslens. The kids played together as if they had never been apart and the mommies, well we did the same. I guess it's part of the bitter-sweetness of military life. If it weren't for being in the Air Force we would never have met these FABULOUS friends. And if it weren't for the Air Force we wouldn't have to live so far away from these FABULOUS friends. I guess the up side of it all is that we know that we are such good friends the miles that separate us will not keep us separated.

Oh, and for all of you who keep saying I'm crazy for taking this trip by myself with 4 kiddos; a good friend in Dayton came over one afternoon and stayed with my 4 kids, Tracy's 4 kids and her own 2 (that would be 10 kids ranging in age from 6 years to 8 months) so that Tracy and I could go out to lunch and do some shopping on our own! Now that's crazy!!! Thanks Jess!!!!! :)

Pit stop in Ypsilanti

This is my friend Barb (who has previously been showcased on my blog) and her sister Brenda. We stopped in Ypsilanti, MI at Brenda's house for one night on our way to Dayton. Years ago when Bob went to Officer Training School for 3 months (the start of his military career) Abigail and I lived with Brenda, well Barb lived there too but she got married during that time and was always busy.
It was great to see Brenda again, even briefly. She's a kindergarten teacher so hanging out with 4 littles is right up her alley. We had lots of fun!

For the love of the game

...or maybe just because I love my husband and he really wanted me to take our kids to a Tigers game during this trip. This was definitely not one of my best ideas. Here's what happened. When I finally got the schedule for the trip all figured out the only tickets left for the Tigers game were "Standing Room". Bob told me "NO PROBLEM". I've told you before how he ALWAYS works good seats at ball games, well he had talked to an usher when he went to a game in May and they got pretty buddy-buddy. He told this usher "Karl the Snarl" that he was deploying and that his wife and 4 kids would be coming to a game. Karl told Bob to have us come to his section and he would hook us up with seats. So I thought the standing room tickets were not a problem because we'd go find Karl and get seats. Well we found Karl's section but guess what...No Karl, he wasn't working that night. TOTAL BUMMER! So we searched for a spot to stand against the wall. I don't think I mentioned that my brother, his 2 step sons and a step son's girlfriend accompianied me to the game. We found a place to stand against the wall in left field behind the bull pen. The kids were getting hungry so I decided to take them to get something to eat and ride the tiger carousel. I told my brother and the boys to hold our spot on the wall (the game was a sellout and we didn't want to lose our place to stand). Try to picture me carrying Josiah, wearing a backpack. The other three kids are holding on to the straps that hang down from the backpack. We're all wearing our Tigers shirts too. Lots of people were staring at us. So we rode the carousel and things were going alright, except my arms were already really tired from holding my 30 lb son. Then we went to get some pizza. I ordered a small pizza for the kids and a cherry ICEE drink. We didn't get 10 feet from the pizza stand and Joshua and Abigail were fighting over the ICEE. The top popped off and Joshua's hand was covered with red slush. He started crying. Thankfully there was a large trash can with a flat top right in front of us. I set the pizza down on the trash can and knelt down trying to get the slushy situation under control. All the while I'm trying to keep Josiah trapped between my knees because if I let go of him he would bolt. A very nice man saw that I needed some help and went and got me napkins. We got cleaned up and headed back down to where Mike and the big kids were standing. Fortunately we were standing right behind a handicapped area and there was one open seat there and the usher let Abigail and Joshua share the seat. They ate their pizza and we watched some of game. By this time it was the 4th inning and I thought I might be able to find somewhere for us to sit. So I took all the kids with me and we wandered the stadium looking for seats. This is where things really started to fall apart. Chloe couldn't keep a hold of the backpack strap and she wanted to hold my hand but that meant I was only holding Josiah with one arm and my arms were REALLY getting tired at this point. So Chloe was crying. Abigail and Joshua just wanted to sit down and they kept asking for food. At one point I think they were all crying and the people were really staring at me then. I was telling my self in my head that this was the dumbest thing I've ever done and why did I put myself in situations like this??? It was not good. So finally I decided to give up the search for empty seats and go back to the wall. I stopped and got the kids cotton candy and that made them happy and sticky. We got back to our spot, watched more of the game, and sang take me out to the ball game. Things were getting better. The Tigers were up over the Royals and people started leaving. The very gracious usher showed us to some seats in the 8th inning. We were right behind the left field foul pole and very close to the bull pen. It was all good. In the 9th inning our closer, Todd Jones, gave away the lead and the Royals tied it up. But our Tigers prevailed in extra innings when Brandon Inge hit a 2 run walk-off homer! It was a good game!!! We even stayed for fireworks. So in the end it turned out well. Would I ever do it again? Absolutely not! :)

Willkommen to Frankenmuth

We had a good time in Frankenmuth with my brother Mike, his wife Dana and her boys. The kids really enjoyed walking up and down the streets of town. They liked all the buildings and they especially liked the horse drawn carriages. Every time one would pass us by they would yell out to the driver, "What's the horses name?". The drivers were all very nice and answered them. We even got to pet a few of the horses.
While we were there I attended the church that I grew up at in Saginaw. It was actually a bit disappointing because it doesn't seem to be a very friendly church anymore. It's very big and not one person came up to me and said hello. I, of course, recognized many of them but I think I've changed enough over the years that they didn't recognize me. It's a reminder to me of the importance of making visitors feel welcome in your church.
After visiting my old church, I took the kids past my old house. I lived in the same house from the beginning of second grade through high school. The entire neighborhood looked smaller but some things looked exactly the same. My house was up for sale. I wish they were having an open house because I would have loved to walk through it.
Aside from my Sunday jaunt to Saginaw, we had fun playing with Uncle Mikey and Aunt Dana. Joshua played football with Mike and did a bit of rough housing. Thanks Mike! It was fun.

It's good to be back

I have pictures...lots of them. Just no time to fiddle with them right now. I'll get to them as soon as I can. Just wanted to give an update. We've been in Frankenmuth and Ypsilanti these last few days and now we're back in Dayton. Michigan was great and we really loved seeing Bob's family, my brother and my old pal Brenda, along with her husband William. Oh and we did make it to a Tigers game but that deserves its own post. :) So here we are in Dayton and it's so good to be here. I started crying when I got out of the car and hugged Tracy because I was just so happy to see her again. I miss it here...I miss these friends. But I'm really thankful for the days we have together. The kids got out of the car and immediately started playing together...picking up right where we left off a year ago. I love that!!!! It's going to be a most fabulous week but the moments are already slipping through our fingers and I know it's going to be over too soon. Such is the life of a military family. No more time to blog right now...there's 8 kids in this house ages 6 and under. :) (Margaret you would LOVE it!)

Fun with the Fam

Things to do in Grand Rapids:

Go to the Grand Rapids Childrens Museum

Have a bon fire and make s'mores

Play backyard baseball

Go to church

Visit the children's garden at Frederick Meijer Gardens

Go to Chuck E. Cheese

Ride on Grandpa's mower

Go on the Carousel at the mall

Go to story hour at the library

Play with cousins

Watch Uncle James play softball and win!!!

And just plain have fun!

On to Frankenmuth tomorrow. :)

Wouldn't you know it...

Today was only the second time during my entire trip so far that I went running. And wouldn't you just know it, it started raining on me about 20 minutes into the run. I was most worried about my new little ipod that Bob gave me for my birthday. I have one of those nifty arm straps so I twisted to the inside of my arm (that would be my armpit) and hoped that my sweat wouldn't do more damage than the rain. Luckily I'm not much of a sweater. This is why I go to the gym...it's so much easier. Oh well.

Okay one other thing...I always think it's so funny when we have sloppy joes with Bob's family because they call it bar-ba-que. Does anyone else out there call sloppy joes BBQ??? When I think of BBQ I think of pulled pork with BBQ sauce or something like that. Am I the wierd one here?

I'll get some more pictures up soon. Having fun in GR and we still have 2 more days here.

Having a BLAST!

This week went by even faster than last week. We've had so much fun here in Kalamazoo. The other night Barb commented that the days were going by so quickly she couldn't believe it. She wondered if all my days went that quickly...YEP, they do. I've also noticed that we tire everyone out. I guess I'm used to the fast pace of the kiddos but if you're not used to it they can really wear you out. :)

We've been on the go at the playground, story time at Barnes and Noble, visiting with old friends, the museum, swimming, planting green peppers in Barb's garden, playing with Tilly the dog, having our own cooking show called "Baking with Barbie", and so much more. The kids have really enjoyed our time here and of course I've had a great time with my buddy too! We even got to go to Bos Equipment and see all the big equipment that Mr. Dan (Barb's Husband) is fixing. COOL! Our last meal today was special, we went to the Jimmy Johns that Bob used to work at when we were in college. The kids thought that was cool and I just love Jimmy Johns. It's our favorite sub shop and there isn't one in ABQ so we have to get some when we're back in Michigan and Ohio. The kids know all about Jimmy Johns because Bob loves it so much. They did the Jimmy Johns pose in the shop especially for daddy!

Well, thanks to all our friends here for being such great hosts. We loved seeing you again!

On to Grand Rapids! :)

Kalama-zoo-zoo-zoo

It's good to be back in "The Zoo". This is where Bob and I met at Western Michigan University and started our married life together. Abigial was born here too. There are lots of great memories in this town. And lots of great friends. We had a wonderful time at our old church Covenant URC yesterday. It was so nice to see everyone. They all couldn't believe how old Abigail is and I couldn't believe how much all the kids had grown who were little when we left 6 years ago. We were blessed and encouraged by the communion of the saints here. It's always good to get back to your roots.

Today we went to a wooden playground with some friends and their kids. Everyone had fun and got really dirty. We had a picnic lunch and then came home for baths and naps. It's a good day when you played so hard you HAVE to take a bath. We'll just chill tonight and do some more visiting tomorrow. :)

Good Bye Council Bluffs, Hello Kalamazoo

Kiddos with Great Grandma Hartman

Our week at Aunt Sue and Uncle John's house went by really quickly! We had a wonderful time with my Grandma Hartman, Harry, Aunt Debbie, Aunt Sue, Uncle John and my parents. Saturday morning we got back in the van for another LONG ride. It took 9 hours to get to Kalamazoo but we made it...with no puking!!!! Thank you Dramamine!!!!! I actually got to talk to Tracy and Bob for quite a while and that really helped pass the time. The kids did well and we made pulled in around 6:30 pm. We were very happy to get out of the car and now we will only have short trips around Michigan for a while. YIPPIE.

A day at Henry Doorly Zoo

The day at the zoo was fun! The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha is great. It has an indoor jungle and aquarium and then all the usual zoo animals too. (Thanks Trina) Joshua liked the Tigers the best, Abigail and Chloe liked the monkeys, Josiah liked the fishies in the aquarium and I like the penguins! All the kids enjoyed the train ride we took followed by ice cream and the petting zoo. The goats weren't fazed by all Josiah's 1-year old antics. He wasn't exactly gentle with them but I guess they are used to the littles. They mostly ignored him. It was fun but we were all tired after the trip. Good thing we had the lake to go home to. :)

Council Bluffs in pictures

So this is what we've been doing. Having lots of fun!!!! Just in case you're wondering about the train...my Uncle is an engineer and we got to see him driving his train. Totally cool. Tomorrow we're off to the zoo and then we're off to our next stop. Time flies when you're on the beach. :)