Good Times at Home

Kris and Eric are some of the funniest people we know, so our visit with them included plenty of time to just catch up and laugh.  After so much activity during the week, Sunday was the perfectly relaxing day.  At church, our guests got to meet some of our church family and hear Dave preach a sermon that included a special illustration about Kris, Eric, Cole and Miles.   Ella helped me make her favorite chicken tortilla soup to serve for lunch.  Then she set up a "Buty Salon" with foot soaks, lotion massages and manicures for the ladies.  After being online friends for a while, Kris and my friend Amy finally got to meet face to face.  We took Lily for a walk all around our neighborhood.  I taught Kris how to make stroopwafels.  We carried a giant bag of Mexican goodness out of the taqueria and ate while watching the Oscars.  It was a good day.

Today has been full of random moments where I just break into smile thinking about funny conversations we had.  And I can't get the "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That" song out of my head now. Thanks, guys.

Auntie Kris Meets the Pacific Ocean

Today we put a nervous Auntie Kris back on an airplane to Chicago.  She and Uncle Eric had a nice time in California, but are ready to see their boys, so we're praying the flight home will be smooth, peaceful and fast, with a wonderful reunion at the end of it.  They take off in 10 minutes (2:00 pm pacific time), so feel free to pray with us!  Kris and Eric spent a few days celebrating their anniversary in Napa and then spent all of Saturday and Sunday with our family.  We thought a trip to the Pacific would be the perfect thing for a first time visitor to CA to see.  

Our day started at the wharf in Monterey where 100 seagulls put on a sky show for us.  It is a guarantee that you will see wildlife when you head in this direction and this day did not disappoint (though, the animal sightings did get way cooler than seagulls!).

We passed about 3 of these signs, which cracked us up.  Poor Kris just couldn't escape terrifying fears around every corner of this trip! :)

The rocky ledge at the end of the wharf was the sea lion hot spot.  Our guests thought this was pretty cool.  So did we.

We had lunch at our favorite place on the coast, Pizza My Heart, where our nephews got another CA souvenir-- the restaurant's logo surfer shirts.

A big part of our day was spent soaking in the gorgeous scenery on the 17 Mile Scenic Drive.  With Monterey's many other attractions, we haven't done the scenic drive since Ella was born.  The weather cooperated and showed us the bluest skies we've ever seen over this stretch of the coast.  It was perfect for someone seeing the Pacific for the first time.  Kris and Ella were even brave enough to dip their toes in the icy water.

Harbor seals and pelicans and starfish, oh my!

The scenic drive's dozen suggested stops end with a walkout to the iconic Lone Cypress of Pebble Beach.  Beautiful!

And since we were driving right by it on the way back home, we decided to quick take a peek at the Monarch Sanctuary.  The butterflies are scheduled to end their migration to California's coast at the end of February, so we weren't expecting much.  But, there were our butterflies clumps still hanging out in the trees! We never grow tired of experiencing this cool thing either.

The list of great day trips in our area is always extensive.  We had a lot of discussion about what would be some must-sees on Kris and Eric's list.  I think they got to experience some of our favorite places and might even consider a trip back some day to keep working on that list.  Maybe we can start planning after that return flight home, huh Kris? :)

She Made It!

Since yesterday afternoon, our home has been bursting with laughter and joy.  Auntie Kris and Uncle Eric are visiting CA for the first time!  Dave's sister Kristen has a legit fear of flying and has avoided airplanes for a decade now.   But for her 10th wedding anniversary, she faced her fears to spend a week in CA with her husband (and us!).  She and Eric have all sorts of fun anniversary trips planned this week (Napa! San Francisco! Touring Silicon Valley today!)  and we're sure enjoying their company in the downtime they get to spend at our home.  The girls couldn't be more thrilled to have this fun pair in their home.  Auntie and Uncle been hugged about 370 times, now possess a whole refrigerator's worth the art work to haul back to Chicago with them and are learning every detail of the girls' daily life.  We have a long list of things to share with Kris and Eric, like Knight's Ferry, Redwood trees, the Pacific Ocean, real Mexican food and our beloved church family.  Unfortunately, we know that the day for them to get back on that plane will come way too fast.  But, like Kris, I am going to choose to not worry about that yet! :)

      

Family Cruise Memories

Exactly 7 years ago Mom and Dad treated the whole VM Family to one of our best vacations ever!  We went on a week long Caribbean Cruise.  I've been thinking a lot about this cruise this week.  From now until the beginning of June, we have continuous family activity on the calendar.  Anticipating the time we'll soon get to spend with Kris, Eric and Dad in CA and then the whole family when we head back to Chicago and Michigan for 2 weeks makes me reminiscent of the good times we've had in the past.  

So, will you indulge me?  Enjoy the following favorite pics from that cruise in 2005 (no kids for us yet, but I was 5 months pregnant with Ella).  

 Bon voyage in Miami!

 Marvelous meals!

 Tons of great quality time with each family member!

 Formal nights!

Fabulous Ports of Call...above and below, Cozumel, Mexico.

The bluest and warmest water we've ever swam in at Grand Cayman Islands.

 Pina Coladas from Margaritiville in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

And...here are some shots of the boat.  Check out our boat's name-- Carnival Triumph!  If you've been following the news this week, you'll recognize that the ship you see in the following pics, the one that was our home for a week, is kinda famous right now.  Last night its 4000 passengers and crew were brought into an emergency port in Alabama after an engine fire knocked out all the ship's plumbing and electricity on Sunday, leaving it completely stranded in the Caribbean Ocean.  The reports have been pretty horrific-- no working toilets or showers, raw sewage running down the cabin walls, rancid air, people sleeping like packed-in sardines in make-shift tents on the deck, fights over a running-low food supply, a 5 hour disembarkation because only one elevator was working.  Google it for more reports.  I totally know that people who paid thousands of dollars for a luxury vacation and then got the farthest thing from it is not the saddest story in the news, but since we have a personal connection to the ship, it's been on my mind a lot.

Did you realize, siblings and parents, that Carnival's news-making ship this week was OUR cruise ship?  

And do you know how much we miss you? :)

Almost Too Good to Be True!

Months ago when we heard Disney on Ice was coming to our area, my good friend Jetta asked me to look into tickets for us and our eight daughters.  When I learned that a block of 10 tickets would cost hundreds of dollars, we quickly abandoned the idea.  THEN we saw a little flyer at the library explaining how the completion of a simple winter reading program would earn us one free ticket for each child.  We easily met the reading requirements and exchanged our charts for 8 valuable Disney on Ice tickets with great disbelief in this amazing deal!  Maybe the librarian did arch her eyebrow at me when I told her just how many tickets I wanted, but no other catch!  We went on the day and time we wanted and had great seats.

So here's our Girl Club, plus Dave, about to pile into Jetta's big 'ol Suburban this morning.  He debated about going along, but decided this would be a special experience to share with the girls and Jetta and I were happy to have him be our chauffeur and escort with 10 kids in an unfamiliar and very crowded place.  The rink full of ice skating princesses had the girls mesmerized.   Dave was glad he went and said watching each kid's very vocal and excited reaction was the best part of his day.

The hour and a half show told 3 popular Disney stories-- The Princess and the Frog, Cinderella and Tangled.  It was all fun to watch, but we agreed that the stunts Rapunzel and Flynn Rider did while danging high in the sky from Rapunzel's long "hair" were the most spectacular.  At the end, every Disney princess made an appearance with their prince for a grand finale involving lots of fancy skating and fireworks!

Once we safely navigated our way out of the stadium, and its myriad of vendors and little girls dressed up as princesses, we made our way out to a fun lunch.  This whole day was a blast and went off without a hitch.  And it all happened because of the generosity of our public library.  We can still hardly believe it!  :)