Austin Friends in Michigan!

One of the perks of going to visit Bryce's parents is that we get to see some friends who used to leave in Austin! The Reeves family lives in Midland, MI now so we are always glad to get to visit with them too.  We came over one night for dinner. The girls had soccer practice so Bryce and Bill took all the older kids to soccer while Laura and I stayed back with the babies.  After practice, we had dinner and just hung out for awhile.  I snapped a few photos.

Lindsay and Ryan - she LOVES babies and was so excited to hold him (and did a great job)

The older kids eating pizza

Lindsay, Ryan, and Andrew

Our attempt at a photo of all the kids (minus Alex who was already asleep)... Andrew was not too thrilled about it either.

We tried to get a photo of the babies together but it was bed time...

And last, Laura and I with the newest Reeves and Stacer additions!

We had a great time visiting with them. Thanks for the lovely evening!!

Made it to Michigan

We finally made it to Michigan where the weather was closer to an Austin winter than summer! We were very happy to see Mema and Papa (and even Oma for a few days).  Although it was cold, we still managed to enjoy the outdoors.  We went to a pancake breakfast and art fair one morning. Then the kids got some new baseball gloves.  They LOVED going outside to play catch.

He caught it!

Evan and Caitlin playing baseball

We also enjoyed the indoors. Caitlin got some nice purple nail polish from Mema.

Cute pic of Ryan just because

And even though it was cold, we still went out on the boat. We just took jackets and blankets to keep us warm!  We could never have left Michigan without a few boat rides or the kids might have revolted.

Daddy and Caitlin keeping warm

Evan driving the boat - he did a pretty good job except when he'd get distracted and forget to look where he was going!

Caitlin drove the boat too

Say cheese!

Mommy and Evan

And even little Ryan went out of the boat... he mostly slept with Mema but I think that means he enjoyed his first boat ride!

Chicago Adventures

On Thursday, the kids and I drove up to Chicago to spend some time with our friends the Dolvigs. Bryce was flying into Chicago the next morning very early to finally join our family vacation.  After we picked him up from the airport, we decided to explore downtown Chicago. Rather than drive 2 cars into the city, we opted to try riding the 'L'.

Excited kids waiting for the train

Our first stop was Millenium Park. We saw ducks in a fountain and found an interesting Pig display....

Then we headed to the Bean!

We had fun taking pictures like this (where you use the reflections to take the pictures).

Group shot of all of us in the Bean reflection!

Picture of Ryan, Bryce, and I since he rarely gets to be in pictures...

Snack time at the Bean (you can see the actual structure there in the background... looks like a kidney bean hence the name).

After snack, we were going to go walk along the lake but it was further away than we thought and kind of complicated to get to. Instead, we stumbled upon this little playground in the middle of a bunch of high rise buildings and decided to let the kids play for awhile!

They enjoyed splashing through the small water puddle behind them (getting kind of soaked in the process).

After that, we walked all the way from there to the John Hancock Building. We had read about a small cafe you could have lunch at and thought we could have lunch there, see the views, and avoid the big cost of the observatory. Unfortunately, the cafe turned out to be a really nice restaurant that we just didn't think would be good for the kids (plus it was pricey). Instead, we decided to use the restrooms and go somewhere else.  But when we went in the restrooms, we had the most gorgeous view of the city... for free!

Picture of the kids in the John Hancock restroom on the 96th floor! Good view huh?

After that, we did go have lunch and then headed back on the 'L'.

Our crazy kids

Fianlly on Saturday, we were ready to head to Michigan. We loved getting to see the Dolvigs and getting to celebrate Andrew's 23rd birthday :)

Nikki and Ryan talking to each other

Camden wanted to hold Ryan and Evan wanted to be in the picture....

Our attempt at a picture with all the kids before we left town. Should have done it the day before but this was the best we got. The kids really had a fun time playing together.

Thanks Dolvigs for a wonderful visit!

Fun in Indy

One day, we met some friends at the 100 Acre Park by the Art Museum. We had never been here and the weather was gorgeous so it was a fun adventure. The park has huge art installations placed throughout that the kids are encouraged to play on.  We had a lot of fun walking around and exploring but we especially liked one that was a huge skeleton! The kids loved jumping from bone to bone.

Kids on the skeleton

Evan and Julian (and Sarah)

They also had a bunch of these yellow sculptures throughout which the kids thought were slides.

And then perhaps one of the coolest was this huge swing set!

Another day we headed downtown to the City Market. We enjoyed walking around and having lunch with Oma.

We also went up to the top of the City County Building. I had no idea you could just go up for a tour. It's like a small museum up there with some great views of the entire city in every direction.

Trying out the panorama feature on my Iphone

Kids in the Colts section

And I know the pictures don't show it, but Ryan was with us on all these adventures... he was just either in the carrier or his car seat napping away! But when he is awake, he is all smiles and cooing. And he's holding his head up so much better during tummy time... actually enjoys it at times!

In a galaxy far far away...

My mom had promised Evan that we would take him to the Star Wars exhibit at the State Museum so Monday that's what we did.  Evan was beyond excited.

Kids are about the size of an Ewok.

Evan and Darth Vader!

Caitlin and Princess Leia

A real storm trooper costume from the movies

And the actual Darth vader costume from one of the early movies

The exhibit is all about science meets imagination. They had lots of items from the movies but then the exhibit would show how those things use science to become a reality. For example - they had a whole section on how today we have artificial limbs and can grow skin like they did for Luke's hand.  

They had hands on activities so in some ways it was geared towards older kids but they still enjoyed it.

Here Caitlin and Casey are making a floating vehicle using magnets ( to be like the land speeders on Tatooine).

Here are models used for the movies

Here Caitlin was learning about center of mass

Evan and Oma also learning about center of mass

R2D2 and C3PO! The exhibit had some interesting robot activities as well where you could build and program a robot.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. We even got to go on a ride in the Millenium Falcon and see beyond our galaxy!