The breaks

Spring Break, my sister's break, my tad bit of a break from photog cuz she was here.. yeah, naming the blog post "the breaks!"  I'll do a little recap of our last 2 weeks.  I usually don't do "and then on Monday we did this and on Tuesday we did that" because quite frankly it's boring to read. =/  So I'll try to spice it up altho I all I want to do is curl up in a ball and take a nap!  I've had a decent deal of energy in this first trimester but I think the last 2 weeks took it out of me.  Which was totally fine.. cuz we had a blast. =) 

Alrighty.. not last week but the week before Darin was on Spring Break. Darin was given CUBS tickets and poor thing tried to get a friend to go but everyone was busy.. so the ladies and I went with him.  He said that he actually preferred us going with him but I was a tad bit afraid of taking an almost 4 year old and almost 2 year old to the bleacher section of Wrigley field. 

But we did.  

And had a blast. =) 

First of all, OF COURSE Adie didn't sleep the entire 2 hours it takes to get to Chicago but DID fall asleep while we were parking in Wrigleyville. And then proceeded to sleep thru us walking blocks and blocks to the field and thru innings 1-4.  Darin kept checking her pulse to make sure that she really was just sleeping and wasn't in a coma. 

It was a cool day but super sunny and pretty. =)  Adie colored quite a bit...

And Joya ate the peanut butter out of the middle of her cheese crackers.  Did that about 10 times.  =) 

Only had one unruly spectator... we had never sat in the bleachers and were warned that it's pretty vulgar.  Everyone was awesome cept for the dude sitting in front of us with a Bulls jersey that hated the Cubs and stated that he was only there to get very wasted.  Well, he succeeded.  After the 6th beer and the 23rd time he dropped the F-bomb Darin asked told him that 

"there are choice words that our 3 year old doesn't know and he'd rather her not hear them today."  

He got up and left.  My protective hubby or it was the 7th inning and they quit selling beer. =/

Adie took this lovely picture of happy daddy and his nostril hairs. =)

And our family picture at Wrigley. =)

My sister was here for the last 2 weeks and we had a great time.  Her twins are only 3 weeks younger than my Adie and her youngest is 6 weeks younger than my Joya.  Combined with Greg and Natalie's 3 kids we had 8 kids 5 and under wherever we went.  

The end of the first week I made the comment that I was so surprised that none of our kids had made it to the ER yet!  Usually we have at least one mishap when all the cousins get together. 

And then Darin came to my bro's house holding his hand up with blood dripping down it.  Yeah.. shut his pinky finger in the truck door. =/

Probably shoulda had stitches...

Your welcome for showing you that gruesome picture.  Almost vomited myself. 

We made a trip to Shipshe for the carousel on the 3rd floor, the train store and Jo-Jo's pretzels...

My nephew Drew... (eldest twin)

and other twin Gavin.. (they don't even look like brothers, do they?) 

My other nephew Jett...

And all the cousins (minus James and Kyla) watching the amish girls make pretzels. =)

We had a few nice days so we played outside (this is my dad's house)...

And swung on Papa Denny's swing... couldn't James and Joya be twins!?!?!?!

Loved this picture of Adie and Gav holding hands.  We didn't tell them to do this!

Uncle Darin pushing them...

And Papa Denny giving tractor (aka lawn mower) rides. 

Kyla had her first birthday so the kids had fun at her party...

Aunt Dee-Dee with Ky...

So yeah.. just a few things we did with all the cousins. We also did a museum in Toledo, Oh...

They all LOVED the miniature hospital play area...

Joya "checking" people into the ER...

Denise's boys driving the fire truck putting fires out...

And my bro and Kyla in the dinosaur area. 

Also did a "bounce house" at a nearby town and I didn't take pictures because all 5 of us adults yelled at a different kid at different times in our 2 hours there.  Someone had to watch the other people's kids that were there! The kids we yelled at weren't ours. Lovely.

Denise, Nat and I ventured out to the Vera Bradley friends and family night!  Had a ball.. 

Here's a little sneak peak of what the sale looks like to all you out-of-towners...

Stacks and stacks of patterned bliss.

Total (heavenly) chaos. =)

And we finished the 2 week visit with a girls weekend away to Chicago for Natalie's birthday.  We had a BALL!  

And we had a celebrity sighting.  (If you can call a "celebrity" a 3rd runner up on a smutt show 3 seasons ago)  Frank from Ali's Bachelorette season was at our restaurant (Grande Lux Cafe) on Friday night!  Natalie saw him go up the escalator and we thought he was going upstairs to get seated in the dinning room.  Nope!  He came back down to where we were waiting with carry out.  I pushed the girls out of the way and snapped this side profile of Frank...

And totally embarrassed the heck-fire out of my friends.  Poor Brooke you can see above.. and Erin here below...

It was pretty hilarious. =)  

We ate at great places...

Here I am, Darcy Cullen the vampire, with my two Jamaican friends Nikki and Erin.  

We went to IKEA and shopped all of Saturday.  Slept in on Sunday and moosied home. It was WONDERFUL!

All and all a great visit from my sister.. and this should explain the cuteness and craziness and fun in one picture...

Hard to believe we'll add another one to that mix in November!  Nine grandbabies and counting.. mom has a great big smile on her face in heaven right now!