Our family has another new baby cousin! We're thrilled to welcome Gwendolyn Rose!
Gwen is a cutie and we simply can't wait to meet her when we travel this summer! We're so happy she's here and we're so happy for Brad and Rose!
Good news- three out of four of us are fully vaccinated! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Ben and I were officially vaccinated a couple weeks ago. And I'm thrilled to say Daniel has also gotten both of his shots, too!
Daniel's second dose was on the last day of school, which I felt somewhat bad about simply because ugh who wants to start summer that way but I was also glad because I had a feeling he might exhibit some of the not so fun side effects of the vaccine and this way he wouldn't miss school for it. (It turned out he missed school a week before the shot as it was because he came down with a major cold...which was tested for COVID because you have to nowadays and that was negative as I'd suspected, but hey, we did our part and checked.) Anyway, so dose two wasn't too fun for Daniel (or me for that matter, Ben got away with no side effects lucky guy)- Daniel was in bed all day the day after the shot, but now we're past all that and it's just such good news to be vaccinated. We are now just waiting for Annabel's turn.
This post is number 1201 and I think it's fitting for the news of vaccination...life goes on, we begin again, it all works out, onward we go! We will of course remain very careful and vigilant, I am in no hurry to ditch my mask even for shopping and all, and of course we have Annabel to worry about and support as she must still mask up for sure until the under 12's are given the green light to get vaccinated. It's a weird limbo to be in, when more than half your house is vaccinated and you're waiting. We still have to plan our lives around the fact she's not vaccinated. Not to mention these dang variants and just all the uncertainty and of course emotional hang ups lingering from the past year- there's still so much baggage and so many unknowns. The light is there though, we can see it, but we're not quite there...we will get there though! We'll gladly keep doing our part and we'll be smart and careful. I'm still so glad to be at this point!
Annabel finally got to do a flight in the small planes at the local airport!!
They do these free rides on one Saturday a month during the summer and you have to be 8 years old. Annabel has been waiting for years to do this! I'm thinking when she was 8 it never worked out and of course last summer was COVID and quarantining so that didn't work out, so we made sure it happened this time around. And guess what- she LOVED her plane ride!!
We snagged the earliest time slot so more planes would be available and Ben could use his contacts there (this is the same place where he works on plane restoration) to get Annabel on the very plane they both worked on years ago and it worked! It was so fun for her. We all went to watch. She had her GoPro to take videos and pictures. It was a lovely nearly 30 minute ride for her, perfect flying weather. I'm so glad she got to try this out and of course she can't wait to go again! Enjoy the pictures from that adventure!
These are pictures from Annabel's GoPro. She enjoyed having her camera with her! She flew by our old neighborhood and our new one (though she didn't know it- I just could tell from the videos). The pilot also pointed out Chicago on the horizon for her, which was so cool. It's tiny from here, but it's out there! The first two pictures are from before take off and then I've shared a few in-flight pictures. Don't forget the videos below, too!
Our old neighborhood! I can see our old house, too!
Chicago on the horizon! You can just make it out at the end of the highway there if you click the picture and make it bigger.
Coming up to our new neck of the woods...
I can just make out where our house might be...
Videos! I love her plane's shadow in this first one. All videos are just fun little snippets of her trip, all trimmed by me for the sake of sharing on the blog. Enjoy!
I enjoyed a sweet Mother's Day, in more ways than one. Annabel made a sweet project for me at school, Ben treated me to some new Harry Potter "book" Lego sets, and Annabel made me a German Chocolate cake that was SO good!! (German Chocolate cake was a fave when I was younger.) I got to sleep in, hang out with my people, build Legos, read, eat a favorite dinner and dessert, and watch a favorite movie, Moana. It was a good day all around!!
We have a new car! This was not something we planned. Not a bit.
Our beloved minivan that we'd had since Annabel was months old (I remember taking her with us to buy that car and bouncing her on my knee to keep her happy while the salesman dragged the whole thing waaaaay too long- I was all, we have a BABY dude! let us go!- link is from Nov 2011 if you're curious) finally had a problem that couldn't be fixed any time soon- we even had to get it towed, if you recall. They could order the part, sure, we were top of the list since it was dead in their lot, but there was absolutely not a date in sight for when that part might even be available. Pandemic side effect, boo. Sooo, it was either wait it out, try for that part somewhere else, and keep fixing this car every year (it's had other issues, too- they were starting to add up), or mayyybe it was just time to get a new car. We opted for the new car, after a week of agonizing while at the same time hoping the needed part would magically appear (it didn't).
Off we went, while the kids were in school, to test drive some new minivans and decide just what features, just what model, to get. We knew we wanted the same van, we knew we wanted some of the same things, and we certainly didn't need some of the top top model offerings, and we also knew about what colors we would be happy with. The darker interior was pretty non-negotiable. We do love our Honda Odyssey, so that was a for sure, too- no question about that, so it was easy shopping really.
And let me tell you, driving these newer models. Something else. They're all keyless! (This is just new to me, I realize many already have this feature in their cars, but not me!) And there's no gear shift either! (I'm hearing this is pretty new...and kinda weird to most people.) It was all pretty wild, to me. We drove two different ones, an older model and a newer model, both brand new, just different years, the older one being not quite our perfect desired outside color (it was silver, as opposed to the darker gray/taupe color I wanted, though the inside was darker which we liked) but a farrrr better price, the newer just being newer and also the top top model with a few fancier-than-needed features that we wouldn't miss. Ben drove first both times and then I drove it back. As I sat in the driver's seat to get ready to drive the first time, I had this wild thought that THIS would be how our kids learn to drive! Crazy! I mean, no gear shift. No. Gear. Shift. Did you catch that? I'm still getting used to it. It's all buttons. I have to consciously think about how to start and drive my car. Every. Single. Time.
We ultimately went with the older model because really it was the same as the newer in so many respects, we did kind of like the silver anyway, the interior was dark like we wanted, and we were getting a really good deal. It was a no brainer really. It was all pretty exciting.
Except I do still miss my old van. I laughed off the whole "but I raised my babies in this car and we went on road trips in this car" (you can roll your eyes at me), but in all honesty I actually really do miss that car. I'm not a fan of change. It took me a while to actually want to drive the new car, too. I really just wanted my old one back. But, this car- it really is a nice one. And hey, that last one took us through nearly 10 years, this next one should take us through college...how's that for wild?!!
Check out the new member of our family!!
First we say goodbye...
Then we say welcome to the family!! Shiny and spanking new! And new car smell, ohhhhh.
Old car, New car.
New car, Old car.
Our new car's dash...see, no gear shift!!
Voila- the new car is home!!!
Annabel's Girl Scout Troop did an ice skating outing and Annabel had a blast!!
They had extra tickets so we bought some and took extra people. It was such a fun night! And it made that day exhausting as we'd already been to Go Ape for Annabel's party. But that just added to the fun, too!
We took Annabel's friend Aggie, who is a very skilled skater, having started lessons at a very young age at this very rink that we went to. Annabel was so thrilled that Aggie could teach her some tricks and now she wants to take lessons, too, of course. She just had so much fun out there! We also brought Daniel, who wanted to skate, too. And then, even Ben ultimately decided to skate, as well!
So fun to watch them all. No, I did not skate. I do not trust myself. It's pretty enough for me to watch- truly, I really love to watch skaters. It was a fun hour and a half of skating for them. Annabel wants to go back to another open skate sometime, so we will make that happen.
Enjoy the videos, too!!
