We found ourselves in the month of June and it was time for our annual summer Midwest Tour. This year since Stephen was not deployed, we dragged him along with us. Even better, Stephen drove all the way from Mississippi to Minnesota with Amelia and Luke; Addison and I met them in Minnesota courtesy of Northwest Airlines. Our trip started in Minneapolis visiting my sister and her family. Here are the kids, Max (4), Amelia (5) and Luke (3) splashing around at the beach at Lake Harriet. The water was, hmm how do I put this nicely, frigid; but the kids did not seem to mind too much. We had a fabulous time in Minnesota and enjoyed the cooler weather except one day when it was FREEZING! The high one day was only 46 degrees and it was raining! Brrr, our wimpy little Mississippi behinds were freezing.
Here we are at the Como Zoo. It is a great zoo because it is small but has all the essentials: giraffes-check, gorillas-check, tigers-check, sea lions-check, but we could still do the whole zoo in less than two hours which is perfect for Traci and I, as we are not what you would call zoo fans. I used to think I was an animal lover, as I get older I am learning, not so much but hey, we do it for our kids, right?
Traci and Addison Kate.
Max holding baby cousin Addison. As before mentioned, it was freezing and I had so smartly packed all sundresses and shorts for the family. I had one long sleeve outfit for Addison back from the Amelia baby days and this was it. It's looking quite 1980's though with the Adidas pink/grey. All Addison needed was a jazzercise CD of "Let's Get Physical." Oh well, better to be warm than fashionable.
From Minnesota, we drove to Madison, Wisconsin to visit my sister Amy and her family. Here are all the cousins in their jammies. Luke, Amelia, Evan (9), Addison and Annie (5). We had a fun visit with lots of dancing and playing outside and we even got to watch Evan's baseball game. Go Marlins!
Here we are feeding the ducks, illegally I might add. Can you tell which sister is the animal lover in the family?? When Amy came to visit us we fed the seagulls (yuck, yuck, gag) and now we got to feed the ducks when we visited her. At least the baby ducks were a lot cuter, I could at least watch the kids feed the ducks without having an anxiety attack.
Okay, this is our friend Tommy doing a flip, I don't know how this picture got in here but I don't know how to get it out either. It is supposed to be of my sister's family and my family at Ella's deli having giant ice cream sundaes. Hmm, I'll have to work on that.
From Madison, Wisconsin we drove to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to visit my parents. Here is Grandpa Jon cuddling Addison Kate. Addison definitely got a lot of hugs, kisses and cuddles on this trip, what a lucky baby.
Grandma Nancy with Amelia and Addison and the musical dolls she and Grandpa brought back from their trip to France. Addison really loves her doll and just stares at it while the music plays, at least when she is not trying to eat her. Addison is at the age when she tries to taste and eat everything she can get her chubby little hands on.
Luke showing off his brand new shield from France. Grandpa picked it out for Luke and knew it was a perfect gift because Luke is always playing sword fights . . . and gun fights and light saber fights, you get the idea. The joys of having a three year old boy.
Grandpa Jon and Luke battling it out with wooden spoons.
While in Wisconsin, Addison learned to roll over! Here she is so excited to show us her new skill.
Grandma Nancy played tennis with Amelia and Luke on our visit.
Mini-golf time with Grandpa Jon and Grandma Nancy although Luke spent most of his time shooting us with his golf club. Grandpa even got a hole in one!
After our visit in Wisconsin, it was time to drive to Indiana. We were able to have breakfast with my other "mother-in-law," Donna Yankey. The kids were super excited to see her and her dog, Maddie, of course. It was great to be able to introduce Addison to her and catch up.
Donna and Addison Kate.
While in Indiana we got to hang out with our best buddies, the Ruzas. The kids are so sweet together and have so much fun running around. This year they even had an official sleep over at the Ruzas house. They were so excited to get their sleeping bags and watch a movie and eat popcorn. Addison stayed with us at Grandma Joan's, she can join in on the fun in a couple of years. The coolest thing is that this was Luke's first sleep over at a buddie's house and it is the same house that Stephen had his first sleepover in 20 some years ago when the previous owners lived there.
Luke on Uncle Craig's Harley, such a cool dude.
Aunt Mary Kay and Addison.
Grandma Joan snuggling Addison.
Pretty girl.
Stephen, Addison and her Great-Grandma. I love this picture, they are both smiling right at each other.
The Dubczak side of the family.
Great-Grandma Pouka with Luke and Amelia.
We had a great trip, a lot of miles, a lot of smiles. We had such a fun time seeing all of our family. To our friends and family we were not able to see, we miss you so much and hope we have a longer trip next time to fit everyone in. We were only in each city about two to three days so it was a busy, busy trip.
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