Chicago

Bryan had an anesthesia conference this weekend in Chicago, so we all tagged along and made a short vacation of it.

While Bryan presented at the conference, we hit the Shedd Aquarium. The sharks and sting rays were a big hit! (notice how Andrew and Kimball are holding hands until they realize they're caught on camera! HeHeHe!)

Shedd Aquarium Sharks from Summer Anderson on Vimeo.

My FAVORITE photo of the trip: Andrew's first glimpse of a shark at the Aquarium. I love his expression! We bumped into the Shupes at the Aquarium.

Logan, Kimball, Lakely, Andrew, and Gavin

The BeanMillenium Park Fountains

The kids loved splashing in the fountains. And yes, Hannah did fall and bonk her head pretty good at the end, but she's okay!

Millenium Park Fountain from Summer Anderson on Vimeo.

Hi Paiton!
The view from the top of the Sears Tower

Andrew and Bryan thought it was pretty funny to tease Logan with this toy. I know - mean!

ScaryToy from Summer Anderson on Vimeo.

Hannah and Daddy at the Hershey Store

Bryan was so excited to see the American Girls Store!Really, he was just excited to make fun of me as I oohhed and aahhed over all the dolls. (The Hershey's hat is a nice touch too, don't ya think?)Kirsten -my favorite! I received this doll for Christmas when I was around 10 years old. She's packed safely away in my parents' basement waiting for Hannah to be old enough to love her.

After such an action-packed day, the kids had had it by the time we made it to TGI Fridays for a late dinner. Our meals had barely arrived when Hannah and Logan both had meltdowns! There was a birthday at the table next to us, and when the servers finished singing to him, Logan burst into tears and sobbed, "People were shouting!" We left shortly after that. Hannah was asleep on my shoulder before we made it into to the hotel, and the other three crashed as soon at we got in the room. What a day!

Logan, Andrew, and Paiton, camping out on the hotel floor.

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

I had been physically SICK about this day for about a week, just dreading how awful traveling alone with three young children on an airplane would be! I imagined that by then end of the flight, every fellow passenger would seriously hate me! That is, if I didn't loose one of the kids in the airport before we even made it to the plane! (I purposely dressed them in the brightest colors they had, just in case I had to look for them in a crowd.)We made it through check-in and security relatively quickly, and got to the terminal in plenty of time. Andrew and Logan loved watching our plane prepare for our flight and asked lots of questions (most of which I didn't know the answers to). They couldn't wait to get on the plane!

This was the boys' second airplane trip, but the last one was over two years ago, so they didn't remember it very well. They were very good and stayed busy most of the time watching The Clone Wars DVD, and coloring with their ColorWonder markers. Hannah took about a 30-minute nap at the very beginning, and then was pretty good until the last hour when she got a little restless and squirmy. Luckily, I had plenty of snacks to keep her from having a total meltdown.

Overall, it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined it! I don't think we made a single enemy on the plane. We are so happy to be here in Utah with all our family! Now I don't have to worry about the flight home for three more weeks...

Washington, D.C.

This is what I expected to see when we went to Washington D.C. on the way to OBX - After all, we did arrive in time for the last weekend of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

Unfortunately, the Cherry Blossoms had an early bloom this year, and we missed them by about a week. Darn! I was so disappointed! But we had a great time anyway!

We arrived late Friday night at our hotel, The Capitol Hilton (yay Priceline!). What a great location, only two blocks from the White House!

Logan wated to check out the bed first thing!

We were so excited to see everything, that we went out for a little walk that night.

I think we stayed out a little past Logan's bedtime!

In the morning, we went out to see the sights.

We tried to teach Andrew about all the monuments and the people they stand for, but I think he got all monumented-out!Andrew and Logan were good sports and posed for lots of pictures for us.

Logan was very upset that we wouldn't let him swim in the Reflection Pool.

We were able to see the National Cherry Blossom Festval Parade. Underdog!!!

We all got a kick out of the 3-D IMAX show at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

What a great city!

Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown Settlement was really cool! In addition to the indoor museum and film, there is an outdoor experience which includes a re-creation of the James Fort, a Powhatan Indian Village, and replicas of the three ships that the English settlers arrived in. Each area has costumed guides to teach you about life during that time and hands-on experiences for everyone to try.

Logan, Andrew, and Summer trying on armor at James Fort.

Andrew learning how to tie a Powhatan fishing net.

The ships were my favorite!

The whole fam below deck!

This is a really fun place to take the kids! If you get a chance, check it out.

Jamestown is also really close to Yorktown and Williamsburg, which we didn't have time to visit, but you could make a whole vacation out of just these sites!

Two wrongs don't make a right, but two Wrights make an airplane!

Okay, so I stole that saying fom a T-shirt I saw in OBX; I thought it was so funny!

While in OBX, we visited the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk, where their famous test flights took place. It was even Wilbur Wright's birthday on the day we visited, so we got in free! Bonus!

I can see why this place would be perfect for testing gliders an airplanes, there is a nice high hill to launch from (Big Kill Devil Hill), a great stretch of field below the hill, and it's pretty windy up there!The thing that struck me the most during the visit was how grateful I am for those like the Wright Brothers who have that unbreakable pioneer spirit, who never give up on their vision, no matter what the odds.

Beach Blues

Outer Banks, NC

We enjoyed a wonderful week in Outer Banks, North Carolina! Our beautiful home away from home on the beach! We shared the house with three other families - the Huffmans, Bettingers, and Shupes - 23 people all together! It was a BIG house! Heading out for a walk on the beach on Sunday.
Summer and Hannah enjoying a beautiful day!

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy... this picture was taken about two minutes after we suggested to Andrew that we not swim in the ocean on Sunday. The soaking wet Andrew responded, "But I wasn't swimming...I was looking for sea shells!" Right.
Logan LOVES sand!!!

The Andersons, Huffmans, Bettingers, and Shupes all together for FHE. Cindy did a really fun lesson comparing Sundays and Sundaes. Good things to do on Sunday were yummy toppings (chocolate, caramel, sprinkles, etc), while not-so-good Sunday activities were not-so-yummy toppings (sand, grass, laundry detergent, etc). It was a huge hit! Treats were, you guessed it, SUNDAES!
The kids really bonded during the week! There were suprisingly few fights, condsidering that there were 15 kids (ages newborn-10 yrs) in the house! Since being home, Andrew keeps asking if he can have a playdate...with all the kids from the trip!!!

The water was FREEZING... but we all took the plunge anyway! You kinda get numb to it after awhile!

Our first day on the beach, poor Logan fell over in the water and couldn't get up, thanks to the waves crashing over him and pulling him down. It scared him so much that he wouldn't even get near the water after that without his Daddy!

Bryan and Logan watching the waves.