The Baxa’s

Last Sunday, we had an impromtu beach day with the Nelson’s. We piled in the car and headed out to the Warren Dunes. I love doing outings with my sister. Not only do the kids have the best time ever with their cousins, but it reminds me to slow down, and relax. April is really good at going with the flow. Relaxing. Sitting back and watching the kids have a good time. Me? Not so much. I am a very scheduled person. I like a routine. So, when we do outings with the Nelson’s, I try to be more like my sister, and just enjoy the day. It is always a ton of fun, and relaxing. We spent the day at the beach, the boys and the kids hiked up the huge sand dune, we enjoyed the sun and the water. We packed up around 6 or 7. We stopped for dinner in a cute harbor town, New Buffalo. And we even got ice cream afterwards. We didn’t get home until after 10:30. It was a great day!

Our "camp"

Digging and building

Hauling supplies

Excavating

Serious discussions

Sisters!

We recently enjoyed another great set of concerts at the Commons. We saw Fastball and Survivor. Survivor was the best. They were so eighties, it was comical. The lead singer was doing the jumping jacks clap over his head, and he kept dancing and swinging the mic stand over his head too. I wish we had a nice picture of one of those moves! It was a great time.

One more concert left before summer comes to an end!

Living in the midwest, we don’t make it to the beach very often. Especially one where the waves make it seem like you are at the ocean. The day started out cloudy, with a little drizzle and ended up very sunny, hot, and without a cloud in the sky.

We started with a hike up the sand dune. It was huge.

Then the kids played in the sand and the water. Had some lunch and some snacks.

One more thing to check off the list of “Things we want to do this summer”.  It was a great day.

With the big wedding behind us, we’ve just been up to some regular old summer fun.

We went blueberry picking. 26 pounds of blueberries to be exact. So far we’ve had blueberry pancakes, and April baked fresh blueberry pie. It was hot out the day we picked.

We also spent an afternoon at the local carnival. It was darn hot out that day too. But, the kids had a blast.

Quinn has learned to ride a two wheeler!

We did a little bit of school shopping. These are two of the things that Josh picked. I think he was meant to be growing up in the 1980′s. Jeff asked me if we were shopping at a resale shop, because he thinks he once owned this shirt:

And this is just a random picture of Ella and Madeleine. They were trying to trick the boys into thinking they were someone else. It didn’t really work.

So, that’s what has been going on around here.

The kids are ready for school to start. Especially Quinn. He asked me today if school starts tomorrow or 2 days? I said 18 days. He told me he hates 18 days!

*all the above pictures were taken with our phones (except the last one), please forgive the lack of quality

In our never-ending quest to find new, fun and interesting things to do, we recently took a trip to the Morton Arboretum. They have a beautiful Children’s Garden, with tons of fun stuff for the kids to do.

They had a special exhibit called Steel Roots. Sculptures. They were cool. But kinda freaked me out. They reminded me of those alien things that came out of the ground in the movie War of the Worlds.

We’ll see what’s next.

We saw a couple of bands perform last weekend. That is April and I and our six kids did. Yep, the boys were off at a bachelor party for Mark. So, we were on our own. I would say it went well. The kids all got along, and behaved fairly well. If it weren’t for April having to chase Eli around constantly, she could have actually sat down and relaxed! But, I think everyone had a good time.

We saw The Smithereens and Soul Asylum (which Josh kept pronouncing ass-lum, cracking us up). The Smithereens were signing autographs after they played, so we bought a t-shirt and Josh got it signed by all the band members. It made his night. He wore it for three days straight.

Our two little girls sat most of the night with their heads together, talking quietly, like they were teenagers. They were all buddy-buddy and it was nice. A glimpse of what’s to come for those girls when they get older.

There were two older couples sitting next to us, and the guy was on his way to feeling no pain. But, he was nice, and funny. He kept talking to Josh. Asking him for a glow stick necklace, trying to get the kids to dance with him. When we left, we had two sleeping kids, and one of the women said “Looks like you have your hands full” – and I looked at who I assume is her husband and say “Looks like YOU have  your hands full!”. We laughed.

So, a good time was had by all. April, hope you enjoyed your night, thank you for coming with us.

On my birthday last weekend, we went to visit Cantigny, the estate of the late Robert R. McCormick. He built the Tribune Company, started WGN, and was a Colonel in World War I. I had never even heard of this place, but Jeff said his family used to visit when he was younger. There are tons of fabulous gardens, but the mansion was the best part for me. We did a tour (I’ve never done a house tour before) and it was truly fascinating. To see the house as it was, with antiques, and pictures, and everything. Quinn said he wanted that house. Yeah, me too. We didn’t get to see the First Division Museum, we got rained out. But, I think we will definitely go back. It was a really fun day!

And the first pool day of summer. The water was cold, but the kids had a great time anyways. Looking forward to many more fun pool days!