Our Time in Chicago

As I returned home from Chicago last week, I now look ahead to the three weeks of summer still stretched out before us.
Still....s    t    r    e    t    c    h   e   d  out before US.

Returning to life here Tualatin required about a week of recalibration.
The kids were moody. They were used to daily magical adventures and ice cream; pair that with a steady steam of adoring family members, and you have some cranky, spoiled kids.
So we settled in. Got back to real life.
 Readjusted.

Reading with Aunt Penny

In Chicago, their days were spent swimming, riding on trains, playing at parks and even fishing with my Aunt Penny. Back to normal life is always an adjustment; the days aren't nearly as exciting when the focus isn't totally on having fun.

A perfect catch!

Being the oldest and the only girl, Evie got to have some special sleepovers with Aunt Penny and GG. She also got my mom's undivided attention most of the day. So, of course, leaving all this was very difficult for her. She sobbed on the way to the airport. My heart felt sad for her; but, I also knew that she needed to get back to not being the center of the universe.

One of the ways I suggested she process the last two weeks and remember all the good times is by making a Chicago memory book.

GG and Caleb love the train at Blackberry Farm!

We printed out some of the pictures and she wrote captions under each event.

Ready to board! 

Feeding Giraffes

 

We drove up to Racine, Wisconsin one day to meet extended family who live in Milwaukee. My aunt met us with her two granddaughters.
Racine is a charming little community, located right on Lake Michigan. Oddly, there is a little zoo nestled into a lakeside residential community. Some residents literally look out of their living room windows and see the giraffes and zebras roaming around.
A highlight of the zoo were the giraffes. Levi was absolutely thrilled to see them. He says giraffes are his favorite animal. To make this experience even more magical, he/we got the feed the giraffes leaves.

Another highlight was the parakeet aviary . Colorful parakeets zipped by our heads. Caleb thought it was thrilling that they might poop on us. 

Pools and waterparks were definitely a highlight for Evie. The Chicago suburbs have many many public pools that are very nice. They spent a lot of their week going down water slides and splashing around. Swimming with my mom was something Evie talked about all year.

Another highlight for Evie was taking care of my aunt's little dog Tinkerbell. My aunt had to go out of town for a few days while we were there, so my mom took in her little dog. Evie just adored her.

The perfect little size for cuddling

A highlight for James is a trip to a unique restaurant near my Grandma's house in Glen Ellyn. It's called 'Toots' and its located right next to the train station that runs to city. What makes Toots special is a model train runs through the tables and delivers the food. It makes a little "toot toot" when an order is up. James was in train heaven.

Toot toot! Train whistles!😜

Caleb's highlight had to have been the balconies off my parent's sun room in their house. Growing up in this house, these balconies weren't anything terribly special to me. But, for my children, they were incredibly fascinating.
Caleb quickly transformed them into a stage. With the echo of the glass room, he had himself a real platform for preforming. There were many nights sitting below watching him sing and dance his VBS songs. The applause and adoration from his family was his fuel. He loved every second of being a showmen.

My highlight (apart from our adventure in Amsterdam..) was showing my kids my parent's property, exploring the land, seeing it again how I saw it as a child. It was a completely magical place for me growing up. There are streams, a frog pond, forests, cornfields and trees to explore.

 Now, 30 years later, things naturally look very different. The pond is consumed by cattails and river weeds. The cornfields were a construction zone when we were there.

 The forests are so overgrown I don't think I could step foot into them. But, the magic of it still lives on in my heart, of summer days wandering around, entertaining myself with the stories in my mind. My days were filled with catching tadpoles, climbing trees and making mazes through the cornfields.
I grieve the fact that my kids are not growing up like this, with land in which to roam and magic to uncover. At least they get this when they visit the house I grew up in, and I hope that they remember it.


When our two weeks were up, we tried to collect all of our items scattered and hidden around my parent's house.

Getting back to normal life after being gone for two weeks, it took a few to day acclimate. We jumped right back in to our summer activities of playgrounds, pool dates, and seeing friends.
Evie started soccer practice. The boys and I picked blackberries from the trail path near our house and made a pie for my Father in Law's birthday!

We are back to life here in Tualatin; now we just need school to start.

Amsterdam Adventure

I need to confess right at the start as I begin to write this that since coming back from our two week trip from Chicago, I'm kind of OVER summer break.

Its hot.
The kids are cranky.
I feel like I'm losing motivation for "super summer mom mode".
I feel like we've done it all now and we need the structure and flow of a school calendar.
What's an exhausted mom to do with THREE whole weeks of wide open spaces still ahead?!
Ok, I'll stop complaining because really, the summer has been pretty great. We just got back from Chicago a few days ago, and life is back to "normal," full steam ahead!

We came home to a large LEAK in our basement, resulting in John and my father in law demolishing an entire wall.
This has led to the diagnosis that our entire house is going to need to be repiped. Just as I was getting excited to settle even more into the comfort of our home as I anticipate fall and school, everything is being uprooted. Well, such is life, and keeping my focus on the good is key...so, I'm going to do that and recap our amazing adventure we just had!!!

Here's all about our great Escape!...😀

The six of us landed in Chicago Saturday, July 28. After taking over my parent's house, John and I had planned to escape on Wednesday evening.
For the past few months, John has been giddy with excitement about a surprise adventure he'd planned for us while our kids were in the care of my family.
He didn't tell me a thing except that I could only pack one backpack and we needed passports.

 So, Wednesday evening we bid farewell to our happy kids and we set off to the airport.
John revealed our destination at the gate.
Amsterdam.
I was thrilled (actually, truth be told I would have been thrilled anywhere he revealed to me..) but he assured me Amsterdam would be fantastic.
So we set off.

We are happy.

We flew there, 7.5 hours, landed without sleeping where its 10 am and began to explore the city.
We ate an incredible brunch, explored cobblestone streets and cafes, marveled at church towers until about 1:30 when I feel as if I'm going to pass out.                                                                                              

                          

We nap for about 2 hours in our hotel and then set out for a proper Dutch meal, a sweet potato chick pea burger with sweet potato fries at a vegan restaurant. 😄

John did 'wine and dine' me here though one night... @The Duchess. Quite  a meal. 

I'm still trying to figure out traditional Dutch food, as the culinary selection seemed to be a variety of foods from every country, options for every allergy and choices to satisfy every palate.

Affagatos are a vacation tradition for us. 

The people watching was fantastic. Amsterdam collects a wide variety of people from all over the world. And, it just happened to be Amsterdam's Pride Mardi Gras weekend, so people were gearing up for a crazy rainbow waving, pot smoking, spandex pants dancing festivity... which ended up being the craziest city wide party that John and I have EVER seen. Maybe we just were never as cool as we thought we were, but this party was so massive it made me slightly uncomfortable.

Couldn't even walk in the streets there were so many people

 



We decided to live like the Dutch that day and rent bicycles to peddle around the city and as we broached the crest of the Mardi Gras madness, our task of penetrating the wall of people seemed impossible.

 Bicycle parking at the train station

We descended upon the mass of humanity,  inched and pushed our way through with our bikes to get to where we needed to end up, but I literally felt completely swallowed up.

Some highlights of the trip included visiting Ann Frank's house, where we actually ducked under the original bookcase into the secret annex and walked through her actual home and bedroom. During their two year stay, the family tracked the growth of the children on a wall and their actual pen markings of their records still remain on the wall.

Ann Frank House

It was a humbling, reflective experience and I couldn't' help but relate more to the parents now that I have children of my own.
The panic.
The agony.
The complete and utter desperation of trying to conceal your family from the evil that has overtaken the city was unimaginable to me. My mind had trouble processing it.

I looked out the same windows, heard the same church bell ring that the Frank family did, and I mourned with Otto, the Father, as he returned to this house after the war, Alone. Losing everyone in his family, he had to live the rest of his life in the silence, burdened that his efforts failed and his family extinguished. How does one go on?

Another highlight of the trip was the Van Gogh museum. I have to admit, I felt very sophisticated going to the Van Gogh museum. I didn't know anything about him except that he painted famous paintings; entering such an adult, cultured place was refreshing and energizing for someone who has spent everyday on a gritty playground or over chlorinated pool wiping sticky ice cream hands.

John and I spent three hours exploring the whole museum. We observed every painting, read every plaque, listened to every recorded story on our audio tour. We were immersed in this troubled, brilliant, 19th century painter's life.
I found him fascinating, and a bit relateable. He envisioned masterpieces, revolutionary artwork, but what he faced was a lifelong battle with trying to find meaning, joy and success. He was a mad man, drowning in rage and depression, even cutting off one of his own ears in a fury of pride.
He eventually killed himself at 37 years old, leaving behind his paintings, which then became recognized.
Both Ann Frank and Van Gough wanted to be known, wanted to be seen. The irony was they both became famous and they both touched society in a profound way. But it took their death to accomplish it.

One of my favorite pastimes to do when I travel is sit and observe. It was very hot in Amsterdam, so after a long afternoon of wandering, we found a cafe by the canal, ordered a large glass container of sparkling water, and just sat and watched. We didn't really even talk. We basked in the silence. Our lives are so filled with noise and busyness that the silence was what we needed.
How nice it is when you are so comfortable with someone that silence is a conversation?!
 It's the comfort of just being together, without the pressure of having to fill the void. It's something that is built over time, by doing life side by side.

Sunday arrived and we were scheduled to return to Chicago, but my mom encouraged us to stay longer. Thanks MOM! 😀😀
 Originally we were supposed to fly home with a connection in Oslo, Norway; but, we simply flew there and stayed. I didn't know what to expect in Oslo.

Oslo from the sky

 It was exciting to touchdown that early Sunday morning. Wandering the city, it didn't have the old classic charm like Amsterdam did. It was transformed, or rather, in the process of being transformed, into a modern tourist city. The water front was stunning.
After wandering around for a while, we decided to get sushi for lunch. $10 for a miso soup?! Yes, one thing we learned quickly is that Norway is expensive!
We decided to spend the afternoon on a yacht sailing around the various Islands called the Fjord.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday....

Bobbing around in the Nordic waters we observed the most idyllic lives: Charming summer cabins nestled in the green hillsides; children jumping off the rocky cliffs into the water, waving at us as we sailed passed them. I was captivated by this life. 
And, I felt like it never got dark in Norway! The daylight just kept going and going.....
However, John reminded me that in a few months, those sunny cabins would be shuttered due to snow, and the sunny days would become virtually 24 hours of darkness.
Yes, I guess, there is always a flip side to everything.

Noble Peace Prize museum 

Flying home the following day, we made a quick stop in Iceland to switch planes.
Iceland!
I was captivated that we were so far up on the earth! And, I was totally captivated that people actually live there, as I sat next to an Icelandic woman and her son on my connecting flight to Chicago. Really, it was fascinating to me and made me realize once again that my world is very very small.

 Humanity is more than my little bubble in Tualatin, Oregon or Chicago, IL. Don't get me wrong, I knew that, but when you travel and SEE other humans living in other places, you really feel tiny.
And grateful. Grateful to finally touch down safely in the familiar.
And hug your kids. Who look so. much. bigger. after only 5 days gone!

We had an adventure and so did our kids. They made so many memories in the two weeks they lived and played at Grandma and Grandpa's. I'll get more into what they did next time. But for now, we trudge ahead. Onward summer.............