We have never lived near family since we have had kids, so the reason I started this blog is so they could keep up with our lives and watch the kids grow. With that in mind, I want to welcome my cousin Melissa to my blog. Melissa, I am going to put more pictures on this post than you will probably ever want to see.

On to the business at hand...We had a great family mini vacation this past week. We started at Six Flags. The kids all loved it. Rachel has always loved the "high and fast" rides as she called them when she was really little. Rachel, Hailey, P.K. and even Aaron got in on the high and fast rides. Hannah was able to ride one roller coaster. The train around the park and the carousel are more my speed.

This is just inside the gate to the park in front of the carousel.

Hannah and Hailey on the carousel.

The Mardi Gras King and Queen.

Aaron and the Batmobile.

This place is full of foam balls that can be shot out of cannons. Guess which "kid" had the most fun here.

Aaron is behind the blue rail under P.K. When he saw me he starting yelling, "Let's shoot mommy."

P.K. had a little too much fun shooting at mommy.

Hannah thought throwing balls at mommy was fun. I guess I should have put the camera away and taken cover.

Hannah won a stuffed Scooby Doo playing a game. As soon as she saw the statue of Scooby, she started calling for us to take a picture.

The girls got to meet Dorothy the Dinosaur...


and Wags the Dog from the Wiggles. Aaron didn't want to get too near any of the characters. Hannah on the other hand wanted her picture taken with every character we saw.

Rachel's face is hilarious in this shot.

I love Hannah's expression in this one. She is not afraid. I think she was just being silly for her daddy while he was taking the picture. She has no fear.

Mommy, Hannah and Aaron on the train

The next stop was a tour at Jelly Belly. The kids and I had taken the tour several times when we lived nearby. At the end of the tour everyone gets a free package of samples. In the gift store there is a booth with more samples including flavors such as booger, vomit, pencil shavings, earthworm and rotten eggs. Rachel tried the pencil shavings flavor and Hailey tried baby wipes. On one of our previous trips Aaron tried earthworm. I thought he was going to vomit. I'm not sure how much one would get paid for the job of taste tester, but it can't be enough.

These pictures are made entirely of jelly beans.

The gross samples.

Our last stop was at Gurnee Mills Outlet Mall. The kids and I also spent quite a bit of time here when we lived in the area. There is a store with a reptile zoo in the back. We didn't go through the zoo this time, but we did get our picture taken with an Albino Burmese Python.

Aaron was having no part of touching the snake. Here are the girls.

P.K. and I had a turn. The snake was very active. I couldn't believe how strong it was. They had a bottle of sanitizer sitting nearby and I used it!! P.K. said I probably get more germs from Hannah. Oh, well.

The Drive-In

When we lived in California, one of our favorite family activities was to go to the drive-in. We didn't have one nearby in Illinois. I was thrilled to find we have one not to far from our current home. Since it opened for the season a few weeks ago, I've been waiting for a kid friendly flick. It is also one of the things on my list of things to do with Hailey while she is visiting. Last night we went to see Kung Fu Panda.

Summer Reading

This summer I am committed to having my kids read every day. This morning I was getting morning chores done and was planning to take the kids to the park afterwards because I am also committed to getting them outside for at least sixty minutes of physical activity on non rainy days. But all the kids started reading on their own. I decided while they were entertaining themselves with books (the teacher in me was totally thrilled) I would read some too.

My heart melted when I saw Aaron reading to Hannah. He read her three books.

Then I caught Rachel and Hailey hanging out in Hailey's temporary room.

The Light is Yellow

My niece, Hailey, is visiting us for three weeks. My good friend, Becky, and her daughter are visiting for the weekend. Today we took them to tour a local dairy. I knew if Becky ever came to visit that she would love to visit the dairy because visitors are almost guaranteed to see a calf being born.

One of the things we saw was the cows being milked on a carousel. They are trained to get on and off without assistance. I really could have pulled up a chair and watched the cows get on and off that thing all day. Yes, I am easily entertained. Once a cow boards the carousel it is properly cleaned before being milked. The cows wear an electronic device on a collar that tracks how often they are milked and how much they produce.

We had grilled cheese and quesadillas with cheese made on the premises for lunch. They have really good grilled cheese sandwiches. I think they are the best. Here's Aaron enjoying his.

There is a building called the birthing barn. Outside is a stoplight that lets people know when a cow is close to giving birth. Red means nothing is happening. Yellow means the hooves have appeared. Green means the baby is being born. Today was a slow day. The technician who monitors the cows who are giving birth said it could possibly be because of weather changes that were occurring today. Becky and I thought sitting in the birthing barn awaiting the chance to witness one of God's miracles was awesome. The kids thought it was o.k. the first 15 minutes we made them sit and watch. We finally gave up and took them for ice cream. We thought maybe the light would be on yellow before they finished, but no such luck.

We let them play a while longer and then decided to load up and head for home. After we were all buckled in the car, we drove by to check the light. No luck. It was still red. I was so disappointed because I so wanted Becky to see a cow being born. We turned on to the road heading away from the dairy and at the same time Becky and I looked back and saw that the light was yellow. Big U-turn!! We made it in plenty of time to witness a somewhat difficult birth. At first only one hoof appeared and the vet (or the person who oversees the birth...not sure of the title) had to go in and get the second one out. They let the cow labor a bit longer and then put little straps around the calf's ankles to help pull it out. It took three people to help that momma deliver that baby. Two adults were pulling the straps with everything they had in them and a third was trying to help from the inside. At this point Becky's daughter said she wanted to just pet the cow to make her feel better. To which Aaron replied, "I would rather drive the tour bus." He made it perfectly clear that he wanted no part of putting his hand inside the cow. Cracked me up!! Finally we were told it was a girl and momma and baby were fine. My camera battery died so I missed pictures of the delivery, but here are a couple more pics of the the girls in action.

Rachel with Ms. Cowline

Rachel tried her hand at milking.

Hannah also tried her hand at milking.