Mother's Day Visit

My Mom came up to visit for Mother's Day and we had a wonderful time! We took a day to visit her college, Rosary College (now called Dominican University), in River Forest Illinois. She showed us her dorm building, the cafeteria, and some of the grounds. I have to say it is a lovely university with old architecture and a classic feel. After visiting River Forest we drove to the Museum of Science and Industry. Below are a few pictures of our adventure...


Mom's dorm building. I love all the ivy and architecture. Mom's old room was the second window on the right of the second floor, I think...


Posing in front of the front doors


The name stone


The other side of the courtyard.


We started our visit to the museum in the farm part...


Now the picture the girls cooperated for.


Rhianna showing Grandma how to do it.

Grandma had a better time than Rhianna. I think she's done this before.

There was a display explaining how our homes plumbing works.

It was actually pretty interesting.


Our favorite display - the Colleen Moore Fairy Castle

If you don't know about it check it out here

www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/fairycastle

You can see better pictures there too. It's really hard

to take pictures because the room is pitch black and

the lighting is really low. You probably aren't suppose

to take pictures in the first place...

The Foyer

The Music Room


Another view of the Music Room

The Dining Room


The Kitchen


This was part of the new Storm's exhibit.

You get to pull back the balls and let them go.

Takes forever to stop...


Rhianna playing with fire... she actually was!

This display let you see the difference between

a room full of furniture or empty burning and how

fast it all happened.


A cool picture of a flame being assisted with oxygen

and water spray with lasers illuminating the water.

Cool huh?


Isabela's favorite display!


You get to use pucks and use elements to make things.


She could spend all day there!


This is a jacket I will figure out how to make!
I love the style!


It's actually made to be fire resistant.

I don't care about that I just like the

way it looks!


Grandma in the wind tunnel


She's probably gonna kill me for this one

but she had a good time and I think this

shows it best.

Andrew's Visit

So Andrew had the opportunity to drive up from KS to visit before he headed to final training and overseas. He came up February 4th just before the big snow storm hit KS. He stayed until Monday before heading to Omaha to visit his Dad and then back to Grandma's house in Olathe. Nick decided to go with him to say "hi" to everyone and that meant that Andrew had to bring him back at the end of the week. They brought Claire, Andrew's girlfriend, back with them on Friday, February 12th, for a quick visit over Valentines weekend. Andrew and Claire left Sunday for the long drive back to KS. He then had to leave for a training base in Oklahoma (I think it was that one) for special final training before heading overseas. He leave within the next month and we all will miss him terribly! I am so glad he had the chance to visit! It was wonderful seeing him and meeting Claire again. Below are some pictures from both visits...


The kids all in Nick's temporary bedroom (the guest room) playing games and having a great time!

Yes, I was busy distracting them...


Nick giving me the usual response when trying to take his picture.

Nick usually has several games going at once on the dual computer screens, laptop and TV. Kids and their technology!

Isabela taking pictures on her phone and Rhianna hanging in the background.

OK so since I had all 4 kids in the same place at the same time I wanted to get a picture - something nice. Ha Ha !! As usual I took more than 40 pictures and I think I only got one decent one. Reminds me of the pictures I took at the lighthouse the last time Andrew visited Illinois...






As you can see I didn't get one of the 4 of them and the atmosphere disintegrated dramatically! Went from bad to worse... I guess I'll have to use the goofy ones for the Holiday cards and pictures on the wall.

Did get a halfway decent one with Claire and the kids. She's such a sweetheart and bravely ate the breakfast I made before they left. She ate the fried egg even though she doesn't normally eat eggs. Brave child - Nick told her! I love my children!

Then the boys got goofy!

And tried to drag the girls in...

Took a couple of shots of just Andrew and Claire. These turned out well I think! Especially with their siblings being ornery behind me!



Well that's all she wrote for the Valentines holiday. I hope you had a great one and were able to celebrate the love in your household! We sure did and the minute Andrew and Claire left we all missed them terribly. Sarah, Andrew's dog we adopted, was the most heartbroken. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he heads overseas for his Army tour. We'll keep you posted on his progress and hopefully news of his home coming soon!