A Trip to Sheboygan, WI (With a Detour to LegoLand)

For the last two years, we have been having annual family reunions with our Elsesser relation (Sara's maternal grandma's family). This year, one of Sara's mom's first cousins, Roger, was celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife, Sandy.  Sara's Grandma was one of 12 kids in the Elsesser family, and was one of the youngest (I think maybe 3rd or 4th youngest? I'm not totally sure).  So Sara's mom has LOTS of first cousins throughout a large range of ages.  So Roger and Sandy were married 50 years ago on May 18, 1963. Their kids decided to throw them a surprise 50th wedding anniversary party in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. So the rest of the Elsessers decided to forego the stand-alone reunion this year and just get together for the anniversary party.  Unfortunately, Roger suffered a pretty severe stroke just a few weeks before the party, so it ended up not being a surprise, but the party was still held. Roger was even able to get a day-pass from the hospital to come to the party for a couple of hours!  He looked good and was in great spirits!

But let me back up here a minute... We decided to leave on Wednesday morning and make a stop in Schaumburg, Illinois to take Carson to the LegoLand Discovery Center. Nana and Papa decided to join us. We all had fun watching Carson, totally in his glory, at LegoLand. It's pretty over-priced, in my opinion, but luckily I found some coupons for $5 off each ticket, which cut the price down to $17/person for admission. We did get some free Duplos in one of the exhibits and Carson scored a (free) quart sized bag stuffed full of Legos and Duplos (whatever he wanted to fill it with) for showing one of the guys his creation, which was pretty cool.  But seeing Carson's excitement, smiles, and pure joy made it all worth the price of admission.

Bristol actually had a lot of fun herself. She loved walking around, feeling things, looking at things, and building with the Duplos. She knows they go together and tries to stack them, but mostly just bangs them together to make noise. :)

Carson got to pick out a Lego set as a souvenir. He's really into Batman right now, so he picked a cool Batmobile set. He was very excited about that and could not wait to build it once we got home. He also got to build some Lego figures as a souvenir, too, which he thought was pretty fun. Because of the Batman Legos, he declared LegoLand better than Disney... But later on said Disney was more fun, he just wishes they had Batman Legos there. :)

On Thursday, we headed up to Sheboygan.  We first made a stop at the Kohler Design Studio to get some ideas for an upcoming bathroom remodel.  They had some really cool stuff to see.  Everyone enjoyed it, even the kids, surprisingly!

Then we headed over to the Blue Harbor Resort where we met up with Great Poppy, Marion, Aunt Sharon, Uncle Reno, Aunt Jeri, Uncle Mike, Mackenzey, Kristin, and Kyle. What a beautiful place! They have an indoor waterpark which was a lot of fun, too! We spent lots of time in there and ate at some really good restaurants, too. On Friday, lots of other Elsesser family cousins joined us at the Blue Harbor for the weekend, which was very cool.

Saturday was the 50th anniversary party for Roger and Sandy, which was so fun.  It was great to see everyone, meet even more cousins I've never met before, and just have a good time.  Carson and Mackenzey were the first ones on the dance floor and did not stop the entire time we were there!  It was so cute and hilarious!

It was a quick, busy trip, but was a lot of fun! Carson and Mackenzey had an absolute blast together, between the waterpark and dancing at the anniversary party! Bristol was a great little traveler and was so happy and easy-going the entire time. And it was nice to spend time with family and see (and meet) lots of extended family! We can't wait until the reunion next year!

April Showers

Playing a little catch up here.  Back to April.. Lets see if I can remember what we had going on..

April started with a bang... Literally... To the back of Carson's head.  We were over at a friend's house for a play date one afternoon and Carson ended up falling off of one of the kitchen table chairs and hitting the back of his head on the chair next to him as he fell.  This split his head open and required a trip to the Emergency Room for two staples.  Carson was such a brave little guy through it all!  He had to wear a head wrap bandage for a week until he had his staples removed by Dr. Akrawi. His wound healed up very well and he'll just have a minor scar, thankfully.

I've mentioned before that we started up a Small Group with some families at church.  We started by just meeting once a month for a bible study focused on parenting.  Well, we all get along and enjoy each others company so well that we decided to add a family day each month. We started this in April when we went bowling at Holly Lanes and then all went over to Matt and Heather's house for dinner, drinks, and hanging out.  It was so much fun!

Kevin and I had a couple of days/nights out together (with no kids) in April.  We went to East Lansing to see our friends Denny and Kristi tie the knot in a beautiful ceremony at the MSU Alumni Chapel followed by a reception at the Lexington Hotel.  It was fun to see some friends from college that we hadn't seen in awhile. 

We also had our monthly Small Group study at Panera one Tuesday evening and we met up with some college friends in East Lansing for dinner at Beggar's Banquet at the end of the month, which was a lot of fun!  Three nights out with no kids in one month is a record for us, I think!  :) 

We made a trip out to Grandville (near Grand Rapids) for our niece's 5th birthday party.  She had an arts and crafts party that was a lot of fun!  It was so nice to get together with the Holleboom family and see Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Van, too.  Unfortunately, I didn't take one single picture while we were there! 

The kids and I had lots of fun play dates with friends in April.  We went to Sloan Museum with our neighbors, Kerri and Jace one afternoon during Spring Break and we spent lots of time playing outside with Jace on other days, too.  We all went over to the neighbor's house for dinner and hanging out one night, as well. 

We also went to the park after preschool with some of Carson's friends a couple of different times during the month.  Bristol got to try out a swing for the first time and LOVED it!

We also went to story time at the library, went biking and walking quite a few times in the evenings, and played outside as much as possible.  We finalized all of Carson's Kindergarten enrollment information, as well.  He will be attending West Shore Elementary in the Lake Fenton school district next year.  He was a little disappointed that he would not be attending St. Paul, claiming that he is "only 5 years old and has so much more to learn about Jesus!"  But once we explained that he'll still have Sunday School and we can start going to church on Wednesday evenings if he'd like to (in the fall), he adjusted to the idea much more happily.  It's still hard to believe he'll be heading off to Kindergarten in the fall already! 

These kids need to stop growing.  Seriously.  Back in April, Bristol became quite steady at walking along things (the furniture, walls, etc.).  She started taking a couple of steps on her own here and there at the very beginning of the month, but she's taking the walking thing slowly.  It's been kind of foreign to Kevin and me, since Carson did the couple steps thing for literally a few days before he was running around on his own... and yes, he was actually running.  But Bristol is content taking it slow.  We're ok with that, though!  :)  By the end of the month, she was taking about 6-8 steps on her own, but she still much preferred holding a hand or walking along the walls and furniture.  

Summer 2013 Bucket List

1.  Celebrate Bristol's 1st birthday

2.  Go strawberry picking.  

3.  Tend the veggie garden, orchard, and berry patches.  

4.  Hit the beach - whenever, where ever.  :) 

5.  Go to story time at the library. 

6.  Get our pool up and running (aka clean) and ready for summer.  Swim in it as much as possible.  Maybe build a deck around one side of it?

7.  Go blueberry picking. 

8.  Take a road trip up north at least once.  

9.  Spend at least part of a day on one of the Big Lakes (Huron or Michigan). 

10.  Go camping at least twice, if not more.  

11.  Visit a friend or family member that we have not seen in awhile. 

12.  Meet up with west-side family in the Lansing area at least once. 

13.  Visit a new (to us) zoo (Saginaw Children's?,  Toledo?, Fort Wayne?, Binder Park?, Boulder Ridge?)

14.  Visit a local park/playground that we have never been to before.

15.  Have fun watching Kevin and the Faith Lutheran softball team play every Monday night. 

16.  Attend at least one Silver Lake Ski Club ski show - maybe most/all of them if Kevin ends up joining the team.  

17.  See professional fireworks. 

18.  Do outdoor messy painting and finger painting.  

19.  Cut down a couple of trees in our backyard. 

20.  Visit a place in Michigan that we have never been (possibilities include Port Austin, East Tawas, South Haven, St. Joseph, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Charlevoix, Rifle River).  

21.  Tube the Platte River.

22.  Play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk outside. 

23.  FaceTime with friends and family that live out of state. 

24.  Hike and bike as often as possible.  

25.  Roast marshmallows over an open fire. 

26.  Visit Applewood Manor.  

27.  Attend at least one local festival (Hometown Days, Summer Happening, Back to the Bricks, Applefest, etc.)

28.  Take a trip to either Cedar Point or Michigan's Adventure. 

29.  Continue growing photography business, pursuing branding, and developing website. 

30.  Attend a car show.  

Spring 2013 - Bucket List Review

I know spring doesn't technically end for a few weeks still, but Memorial Day represents the unofficial end of spring and beginning of summer.  Since that was last weekend, I figured I'd post our run-down of how we did.  We accomplished almost everything.  Summer list is coming soon!


1. Make a decision as to which school Carson will attend for Kindergarten and take care of all necessary paperwork.  CHECK!  Carson is all set to attend West Shore Elementary in Lake Fenton at this point.  

2. Celebrate Easter with family and convey the true meaning to our kids. (We don’t do the Easter bunny at all, really.)  Check!

3. Celebrate birthdays with family and friends.  Check!  We celebrated birthdays with Anthony, Nana, Anna, Joel, Rebecca, Abram (sort of), and a couple of preschool friends.

4. Go bowling together as a family.  CHECK!  We ended up going with our small group and their families for our monthly small group families get together in April. 

5. Softball season starts at the beginning of May (through our church). Kevin will be playing, but the kids and I hope to make it to all (or most) of the games, too.  CHECK!  So far, so good! 

6. Visit a science center or museum together as a family.  CHECK!  We went to Impression 5 and to Sloan Museum. 

7. Take family bike rides as weather allows.   CHECK!  Kevin and Carson usually ride while I walk with Bristol in the stroller.  We'll try out the bike trailer soon. 

8. Plan and plant a small vegetable garden. Encourage Carson to help.  CHECK!  Almost didn't happen, but I got it planned on our road trip to Wisconsin.  

9. Take a road trip.  CHECK!  We took a road trip to Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

10. Visit LegoLand Discovery Center in Schaumburg, IL.  CHECK!

11. Finish the kitchen floor and trim work.   Not quite..  Kevin made a tiny bit of progress, but hasn't finished it yet.  

12. Visit a local park that we have never been to before.  CHECK!  We've been to two new (to us) parks. 

13. Spring cleaning – continue to clean out at least one cupboard, cabinet, or drawer per week (4 are done so far); continue to clean baseboards in one room per week (dining and living rooms are done so far); continue washing walls in one room per week (dining and living rooms done so far); clean large appliances inside and out; organize freezers; wash windows inside and out; wash curtains and blinds; and other tasks.  Mostly... I haven't finished all of it, but have accomplished most of it.  

14. Shop at the farmers’ market once they start up in May.  CHECK!  We've only been able to make it once, but it will be weekly most of the time from here on out.  

15. Fly a kite.  This still did not happen.  Soon, hopefully!  

16. Pursue photo business logo development and branding. Prepare to implement new website.  CHECK.. Still not done, but making progress. 

17. Feed the ducks at a local park.  CHECK!

18. Make a bird feeder with the kids.  CHECK!  

19. Have a family game night once a month.  We didn't do it once each month, but we did do it a couple of times.  

20. Plan Bristol’s 1st birthday party.  CHECK!  Invitations are being mailed out today and on Monday (only could mail some today b/c I ran out of stamps - oops!)

21. Play in the rain and/or mud puddles.  CHECK!  A favorite spring-time thing to do for Carson!  :) 

22. Visit the library for story time and/or other kids’ activities.  CHECK!

23. Build on Carson’s artistic abilities by encouraging even more art and craft projects. Take him shopping to the craft store for new ideas.  CHECK!  We've done lots of arts and crafts this spring.  

24. Have fun with sidewalk chalk outdoors. Play hopscotch.  CHECK!

25. Go on family hikes as often as weather and schedule permits.  CHECK.. Though we've only had time for one so far.  The weather wasn't too cooperative this spring for hiking.

26. Visit the baby chicks and ducklings at Tractor Supply Co.  CHECK, times three!  

27. Make garden stepping stones with the kids.  I have the stones to make, but haven't done them yet.  Maybe we'll get to them this weekend.  

28. Go to Tulip Time in Holland.  CHECK!  It was a fast trip, but we did go and had a great time! :)

29. Go to a butterfly exhibit (MSU Childrens Gardens or Fred Meijer Gardens or Dow).  We didn't get to do this.  

30. FaceTime with friends and family from out of state.  CHECK, although we didn't get to do it with as many of our friends and family as we had hoped.