We are getting ready for our vacation

Early Monday morning, we are heading out on our family trip to Illinois. I am so looking forward to going out there, getting away from home, and just being together enjoying one another. We will be staying with my sister, her husband, and their 5 kids! They just moved into a new home this spring, and they said we will have a double bed to sleep in. :) I am super excited to see my sister. We haven't seen them since Christmas! I am looking forward to seeing my nieces and nephews, too, and for the kids to have so much time to play together. I am excited to see my brother-in-law, too. :)

I am not really looking forward to the long drive~ at least 8 1/2 hours (that's with out much stopping). However, we have a toddler, and a pre-schooler~ AND THE MOST IMPORTANT...I am pregnant. Just kidding, I am not the most important, but we will need time for stopping. I would like to think that we could leave early~ about 6:00 AM. Keep the kiddos in their jammies, at least Caleb and Maddie. Then, we could stop at a Perkins for breakfast about 8/8:30, and change them into clothes. That way we can get through some of the morning rush hour through the Twin Cities. My niece is coming with us on our trip. Her and my other niece are really good friends, as well as cousins. So, it will be fun to spend extra time with her, too! Plus, when we are out there, we will have sitters (between my two teen nieces and Nathaniel) for when my sister, our husbands, and I go out on a double date! WooHoo!!

We are planning on a few things to do for sure, but we don't have a particular schedule to follow while we are there. I am OK with that, because we can just do what we want. My sister is only 45 minutes from Chicago, so our options are endless. I know one night we are going to their church to hear my niece talk about her Mission Trip. That will be a lot of fun! I am excited to see what she did, hear about her experiences and how they worked for God.



We are leaving one of our family members behind....
Lena, our dog. Grandma is taking her for the week (THANK YOU!!), so she will be well taken care of. We will miss her, and I am sure she will miss us, but she will be happy there, too.
Speaking of Grandma, she is here this weekend. It is nice to visit with her and spend time with her. She took really cute pictures of our kids. Nathaniel is with his Dad, so unfortunately I don't have any of him to show you~ next time. He is coming with on our trip, so there will be pictures to show you when we return.

Caleb and Madelyn love playing in the dirt. So messy, and so fun! We really need to get a sand box set up for them. This is just some dirt from one of our projects, so they are having fun with it for now.
Look at that cute face!
Keep diggin'! I love the expression on his face.
OHHHH, what's that? (Can you pucker like that?)
So happy with his shovel. Maybe he will work in construction.

Pictures to show

I wrote about when we started our kitchen flooring remodel a few months ago. We took out the nasty, outdated self-stick tiles in our kitchen, and replaced it with beautiful real wood flooring. I am so thankful that Terry is so handy, and knows how to put in hardwood floors. He used to do it for a job years ago, so it is one of his many trades (that he is really good at, I must add). I wanted to show you the demolition of the tiles, with the help of Maddie, Caleb and Grandma.

Look at that tongue, he is really concentrating when the tongue is out.
Paying so much attention to details.

Maddie wasn't really into the removing of tiles, but she helped stack them.
He had a blast, and was excited to show Dad his work.


She was getting tired.
When we moved into this house, it was mainly used as a cabin. I don't think the flooring was ever replaced. The house was built in 1977, so the flooring was well passed due for change. The kids (mainly Caleb) treated the tiles as puzzle pieces and liked to remove loose ones. I told Terry this spring it was due time to get new flooring. I am so thankful to have our hardwood floors. It is a fantastic change.
Maddie loved helping Dad. She was handing him nails.
She had to be right in the action, sitting right next to Dad.
Sometimes she wanted to prevent the work~ by sitting/walking on the work.
She also liked to help bring Dad the boards, and Caleb loved helping with the boards, too.
But, it wasn't all work, there was a few moments of play, or rides.
This is what the floors look like at near-completion. Don't they look beautiful? Terry does such great work! I am so proud of my man! Not only does he do great work, it saves us a bunch of money! He is a man of many trades, and I think he does all of them extremely well! There is something to be said for own quality work completed, too.