Welcome to our World

  Michelle and Natalie really wanted to go camping in Colorado this summer and Michelle planned a wonderful trip that led us to Great Sand Dunes National Park (the sand was so hot!), Mesa Verde NP complete with a Cliff Palace tour, gorgeous Ouray (we didn’t want to leave), Island Lake in Grand Mesa National Forest with beautiful wild flowers, and Rocky Mountain National Park before heading home. We did this after dropping Danny off at the airport to head to Vegas with his basketball team and Hubby and Kate stayed home. They didn’t mind doing things like seeing Deadpool & Wolverine in the theater together.     (Kate said she had already been on a camping adventure with E and Hubby said he couldn’t take any more time off work since this was so close to our California & Chicago trips.) I am grateful for Michelle’s planning. This would not have happened without her hard work!

When your son is playing basketball in Chicago and your husband has never been there and you haven’t seen the city since you were a child, you go too and turn it into an anniversary trip! Bucket List Items in the order we completed them : River Walk & Lake Michigan ✔️  Chicago Style Pizza ✔️  Architecture River Tour ✔️  Navy Pier ✔️  Chicago Dog ✔️  Union Station ✔️  Danny’s basketball game in Naperville ✔️  Willis Tower & Sky Deck ✔️  Danny’s game at Judson University ✔️  The Art Institute of Chicago ✔️  Grant Park ✔️  Wrigley Field & Cubs game ✔️  Danny’s last basketball game ✔️  Garden of the Phoenix at Jackson Park ✔️  Cloud Gate ✔️  We truly enjoyed this city!  Such a neat place and I’m so grateful we got to go. A big thank you to the girls and my mom for their support while we were out of town.  And Hubby deserves an award for all his public transit and navigating skills.

If you’re already using up all your airline points to get to California and some of the family is heading to Disneyland, you fly out from SNA and join in on the fun!  As a bonus, we got to see Joe & Sandy again and finally meet their son!  It has been way too long! All the things that might bother someone about Disneyland melt away when you have a family as great as Hubby’s with you.  Lines felt shorter, rides felt more fun, and we were as happy as I could be to hang out with them a couple days longer. They are the best! And if you know a super nice Magic Key holder, they might meet you at Disney California Adventure and give you things that are no longer available for purchase. They totally made our day! We also got to experience Disney magic twice at DCA. First, an Avengers Campus cast member did this fun photo shoot for us and then when we wanted to watch the nighttime show we got front row “seats” on the boardwalk. I would head back to Disneyland with this group a...

We absolutely love our family reunions. The time went by way too fast.  This year SD planned a wonderful trip in Carlsbad.  She found us a great hotel, yummy places to eat, and planned super fun activities.  Highlights included beach time, an Urban Adventure, the USS Midway, a Padres game, and a cute water park.  Of course the best part was being with loved ones we haven’t seen since the last Fist City and we are already looking forward to the next time we can be together again.