Sometimes we get a pause from ordinary life and get to step back and enjoy. Last weekend was just that! On Wednesday we thought our weekend plans were going to be thwarted by a stomach bug that hit my husband, but everyone woke up Thursday morning feeling great, so we finished packing our bags and headed up to the south side of Chicago where much of my family lives, praying that no one else would come down with anything! And this trip was a bit different than most. We had very few plans. Our only real objective was to visit a church that we've recently heard about near where my family lives. Other than that we just wanted to enjoy time with my family, and that we did!
1. Friday we hung out at my grandparents' farm. They have the most beautiful old Victorian home out in the country. My papa keeps Poll Herfeord Cattle and he and his son (my uncle) farm a lot of land out there. So we took the kids down to where my Uncle Craig was combining (is that a word?) and we all got a turn riding with him in the combine, watching it do its thing.
Isn't my gramma's place beautiful! It's one of my favorite places to be.
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| She was pretty excited about it :) |
It really is incredible what this thing does..... it can separate all the corn kernels from the cobs and stalks and spits out all the unwanted stuff. Papa was telling me how when he was a boy they went through the fields two rows at a time with a horse and some kind of cart. It's amazing the transformation farming has gone through in the last 60 years!
The kids loved watching it work!
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| 2 of my favorite people! I've always had such a soft spot in my heart for my Gramma! She was a huge influence on me as a girl in learning to appreciate the beauty around me in all of God's creation and the creativity of others. |
2. Friday night we got to eat at one of my fave pizza places growing up. We often visited it for family birthdays and such!
We had dinner with my sister Brooke and my step-dad John. It was great to see both of them and catch up a bit!
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| Landon loves his Aunts! |
Then afterwards we headed to a local Starbucks and chatted for awhile about bee keeping, my step-dad's specialty. We had fun.
3. Saturday morning had more farm time filled with kittens and cows and it was the perfect medicine for this slightly weary family.
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| How stinkin' cute is this?!! |
They chased these poor kittens all around the barn and I thought for sure one of them would fall and puncture themselves on some rusty something, but we managed out without any tetanus shots! Success!
I always love these climbing the fence shots at the farm.
We got to spend a little time with my mom that morning. Can you believe that was about the best shot I got of the three of them. The littles weren't exactly in a sitting down mood.
We enjoyed riding what Papa calls the 'Mule'. I don't know what it actually was... some kind of small tractor/riding little truck. I'm not sure. But we got to ride out to see another pasture of cows and let me tell you... they are so cute. I mean SO. Cute. I couldn't get any decent pictures, but they are such sweet animals.
Later in the day I got to meet up with my college roommate from my freshman year of college at Baptist Bible College. She and her husband and 4 BOYS live outside of Seattle, so I haven't seen her since freshman year and randomly they were in town speaking at a Missions Conference at a church. So we ran up to catch up for a few minutes. We only got to talk briefly, but it was sweet to see her and April :)
4. My great grandpa has sold the farm house he's lived in for the last 60ish years. So my gramma and her siblings have been cleaning it out. They have found so many fun old pictures! Looking back at your history and heritage is such a neat privilege that I know not everyone has. I was thrilled to find a few gems like these....
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| This was my great grandma (My maternal grandmother's mother). |
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| This was my mom and I when I was around 7 months old. I was kind of a chunk here! |
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| Hands down my favorite. These 2 are my great-grandparents (my maternal grandmother's parents). Isn't it precious!! |
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| 5 generations and one of the youngest pics I've ever seen of myself. I was pleased to see that my daughter looked a bit like me as a baby. I've never been able to tell who she looked like! |
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| This is precious too. My grandmother's 17th Birthday party in the 1950's. Her sister is on the far left. |
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| This one was so fun to me. My parents divorced when I was 4 so there really aren't a lot of memories or pics around of everyone together. This had both of them and my mom's parents and her paternal grandmother. Pretty neat.... and my brother Aubrey is the spitting image of my dad :) |
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| This one was so cool too. Me (As a baby), my dad, his mom, and her mom (4 generations). And that dress my grandma is wearing... priceless! |
5. Sunday was a wonderful day. We attended church in Northwest Indiana at a church we've recently become familiar with. If you're looking for a good place to learn and grow in Christ I highly recommend Bethel Church in Crown Point, IN (and they have a campus in Cedar Lake too!)
We heard a wonderful gospel centered message, ate lunch at Portillo's a popular Chicago area restaurant, and headed downtown to visit my step-dad farmer's market in the Pilsen Community at 18th and Halstead where he sells his honey and jellies and jams... and eggs... and all kinds of stuff.
He calls himself the King Bee. I don't know how that name got started but it fits him perfectly. He had 11 of these shirts made with little honey bees all over them. He's kept bees for as long as I can remember and I'm glad he's been able to make such a nice business out of it.
My kids kind of love the city too. Landon tends to come alive as you can see.... well both of them do.
Seriously my favorite place on earth.
After hanging out with my step-dad for a bit we headed to the north side of the city to visit with my brother. After graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology he got a job in the city and has made a nice life for himself there. The kids loved hanging out with Uncle Preston! 
We took a walk AROUND THE CORNER to my little slice of Heaven on Earth.... Target of course.
Chris snapped this shot of me looking around. Clearly I'm excited. 2 whole stories of Target goodness!
Preston got right on down and hung out with the kids. Of course they loved it.
We walked around the back side of his street to a fun little city park where the kids had a ball playing and running all their energy out !
Ok so this whole Friday post is about last weekend, but it was just that good. And this week has just been work, not as exciting :)
Thanks for looking at this glimpse into our weekend and thank you to our family for allowing us to crash in your homes and hanging out with us. We love seeing you!
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