Our Trip to Madison, Wisconsin

Samantha: 70 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 35 Months, Week 2

The rest of the week went by quickly with work, and doing laundry on Tuesday so we could pack on Wednesday night to leave early Thursday morning for our next trip to Madison, Wisconsin for the kids and me, and on to Chicago for Ben. It was kind of a last minute decision, but after thinking about Ben going to Chicago for his yearly Midwest conference, it got me thinking about tagging along and stopping off in Madison to visit our college friends, Brad and Melissa. I figured that would be much more fun that staying around town and taking care of everything by myself. I emailed Melissa a few weeks back, and she was super excited about having us all stay at their home. We had to leave on Thursday morning so that Ben could be in Chicago by Thursday night and get ready for his day of presentations and panels on Friday downtown. I knew it was a little crazy to be traveling two weekends in a row like this, but I was really excited to see my friend and her family.

We left for Madison a little after 9 a.m., and we had a 7 1/2 hour drive to get there, and then Ben still had a little more than two hours left to go to get to Chicago. The kids sat in the back seat of the minivan and played and talked with each other, giving Ben and I more of a chance to talk with one another, which was kind of nice. We had movies with us, of course, to help pass the time, and we found a Culver's to stop at for lunch. Since we were going to Madison, we drove all the way west through the U.P. and then down through Wisconsin, which was a new way for us. I found it to seem a lot longer though because we were driving much more in the middle of nowhere most of the time and the speed limit was lower, making it feel like a slower drive. However, overall, the trip went pretty well. Aedan napped in the afternoon, and Samantha just sat in her seat not really sleeping, even though I really wish she had since she woke up early out of excitement for the trip, and it's hard for her sleep schedule to go back to central time.

Anyways, we arrived just before dinnertime, and the kids were very excited to get out of the car and into the house to see Melissa and the kids. Ben helped bring all our stuff in and hung out with us for a little while before heading on his way to Chicago. Then, the kids played and I tried to help with dinner and clean up as much as I could, especially since Melissa had a 3 1/2 month old boy named Matthew, as well as a 2 year old named Madeline, so she had her hands full as well. Then, it was time to get the kids set up in the bedroom together and settled down for bed. They had two extra bedrooms on their lower level, and in one room there was a trundle bed for Samantha and Aedan to sleep on. Samantha slept on the taller bed, and Aedan slept on the pull out bed with a railing attached to the side so he wouldn't fall out of bed like in Upland and wake up crying. Then, I had a bed to myself in the room right next door. The kids do pretty well sleeping in the same room together and really go to sleep pretty well; it's the morning that is trickier. For example, Samantha probably got up around 6:15 on Friday morning to go to the bathroom and woke Aedan up when she got up and left the room. So then he started whispering in his bed. I went in their room and told him to be quiet, but he didn't stop, so I set up the pack and play in my room and then went back into their room to get him and move him into the pack and play in hopes that Samantha would go back to sleep. But of course, she didn't even try. She was already woken up enough that she couldn't go back to sleep. Aedan eventually fell back asleep for a little while, but they were both tired that morning. It's sometimes difficult traveling with Samantha because she never lets herself sleep enough, she goes to bed later than normal, and wakes up earlier than if she was in her own bed and in her own room, making her crabby and harder to deal with.

Here are some pictures Ben took outside the window of his Air B&B in Chicago. Pretty good downtown view!

Friday was going to be a nice day, so Melissa and I decided to take the kids to a local free zoo they have in Madison. However, we decided it would be best to wait until later in the afternoon once it warmed up a little outside. So we just spent the morning hanging out, letting our kids play, and taking turns getting showered. We had an early lunch time and got the kids down for naps early so that way we could head to the zoo and spend a couple of hours there. I put Aedan to bed on the bed he slept in the night before, but I had Samantha sleep in my bed so that way I didn't have to worry about them sleeping together during nap time. Samantha actually fell asleep with me in the room, which I was really glad of because I knew she was tired and it would make for a better afternoon and evening for all. Madeline and Samantha both slept for about an hour and fifteen minutes, but Aedan just kept sleeping away. The zoo closed at 5:00, so we at least wanted to get there by 3:00 so we could spend enough time there. I ended up having to wake Aedan up, which always makes him slightly crabby, but he got a good enough nap in.

The weather was just beautiful, and we hadn't been to a zoo in a long time, so we were all looking forward to it. We rented a little wagon to pull around for Madeline and Aedan to ride in, while Samantha walked and Melissa pushed Matthew in the stroller. For being a free zoo in the middle of a neighborhood, they had a lot more animals than I expected them to, and we had a really good time. It was hard to keep Samantha from running ahead. Here are some pictures from our day.

The kids thought the lion was pretty interesting because it was making a lot of noise as it laid on the rock in the sun.

Aedan was really excited to see the giraffes. I didn't know he liked them so much!

The zoo also had a small train ride and carousel that you could get tokens for the kids to ride. Everyone was very excited to ride them, so we were sure to ride them before they closed for the day. Aedan wanted to sit in the back, and Samantha decided to sit in the front with Madeline.

Then, it was on to the carousel. Aedan was a little spacey and somewhat grouchy from being woken up early from his nap, so he had already tripped over the curb on the way in to the zoo and then right before riding the carousel he wasn't watching where he was going and ran into a metal pole, giving himself quite the bruise on his forehead and causing a large amount of crying from the little guy. However, after some cuddles, he was okay and still wanted to ride the carousel.

The kids and I went into a building called the Discovery Center while Melissa changed a diaper and took Madeline to the bathroom. Samantha and Aedan found this really cool area with sand that basically let you explore topography. The higher you piled the sand or the lower you dug into the sand, the color projection changed based on the depth of the sand. It was really cool, and the kids played with this for a long time. Samantha liked making the biggest mountain she possibly could, whereas Aedan liked to dig holes and make the blue show up like water.

Going anywhere with four kids is always a little crazy, but I think Melissa and I managed it fairly well. It was fun for our kids to get to know one another, and Samantha is always good with little kids. Here they are posing with a polar bear statue.

Once we were all done seeing the animals in the zoo, and it was getting closer to dinnertime and the kids were talking about being hungry, we decided it was time to head back to the house. The kids then just played with each other for the rest of the evening, we had dinner together, and then Samantha and Aedan just needed to take a bath and get to bed. I had a hard time with Aedan at dinner that night because he pushed his plate back, knocked his cup over, and started to whine and cry about not wanting to eat, that he didn't like the soup they had made, even though he refused to try it. I ended up having to give him three time outs during dinner that night in an attempt to get him to eat his dinner respectfully. It was a frustrating experience for me, especially in dealing with it all by myself and wanting to spend time talking to my friends as well.

I considered splitting Samantha and Aedan up for the night so that they wouldn't wake each other up in the morning, but I honestly just wanted to have my own space while sleeping that night, and I thought that they could handle it. However, the next night was even worse than the first. Aedan woke up whispering at 5:30 in the morning. I went in pretty quickly, got him, and brought him back into my room in the pack and play. I told Samantha to go back to sleep because it was a long time before it was time to get up. Aedan and I went back to sleep, but when I went in to the other room when it was an okay time tog get up, Samantha said she didn't go back to sleep, that she just laid there, playing with nothing, as she put it. I was frustrated again because I just didn't understand what I was supposed to do. I tried to make the night better. I had the monitor on right next to my bed and didn't hear her making any noise, so she must have been laying there super quiet that whole time. You could tell she was tired, she didn't really have any explanation as to why she didn't go back to sleep, and I was frustrated we were starting another day off like this, and that she would be tired again from not getting enough sleep. I was having fun with Melissa, and it was so good to have time to talk again, but I was just hoping that the kids would be more flexible and that they would sleep better in the same room as each other than they were. I think I had too high of expectations for the weekend, propping it up in my mind as this great bonding experience with one-on-one time with just Samantha and Aedan, without having to worry about work and stuff at home. However, I was much too focused on the negative, and I needed to stop getting so worked up over sleeping. I just needed to let go and let her (them) suffer the consequences. I can't force them to sleep, and I was getting way too upset over it all.

On Saturday morning we had plans to go to an Easter Egg hunt at a local church. It started a little after 10:00, and the age groups were split up into different areas so that way it was more fair. Each kid was told they could find ten Easter eggs for their basket/bag, and at first Aedan wasn't sure about going out and finding eggs, standing pretty hesitant at first. However, once I went out with him to show him what to do, he went to town and did a good job counting his eggs as he went.

Then, we all walked around to the other side of the church for Samantha's Easter egg hunt. She waited patiently and then went out to get her eggs. However, there seemed to be a lot more kids in this group, and Samantha was certainly not as aggressive as some of the kids were, so she didn't have ten eggs by the time the field was pretty cleared by other kids. Regardless, she had a good time, and I'm glad that she took it in stride and enjoyed her time anyways.

We spent the rest of the morning at this Easter event, as they had people making balloons and several inflatables and bounce houses set up. There were quite a lot of people there, so we had to wait in line to do everything, and Aedan was not the most patient in line, but the kids were having a good time. The other great thing was that Ben showed up near the end of the event. He finished all his conference work on Friday, spent the night at his Air B&B, had breakfast with a friend on Saturday morning, and then drove back up to Madison to spend the rest of Saturday with us and the Mosers. I was definitely glad to have Ben back. Parenting is much easier with the two of us. :)

The rest of Saturday we enjoyed in and around the Moser's house. We had lunch, put all the kids down for naps, and enjoyed some adult conversation while the kids slept. Aedan took a nice long nap, as we didn't have to wake him up for any reason. Samantha took a good nap as well, and everyone was in a much better mood when they woke up. I'm glad that she will still nap for us when she is tired and hasn't gotten enough sleep. We would rather her just sleep better at night when we travel, but at least she will make up for the lack of sleep during the day, without putting up much of a fight.

Once Aedan was finally awake after his nap, we got the kids together and took them across the street to the playground to play. It was a beautiful day outside, a great day to play outside. I was definitely enjoying the warmer weather for the weekend as I am longing for the warmer, sunny spring days. The kids had fun playing on the playground, sliding and swinging. Aedan, however, is still acting afraid of going down slides. He acts like he is interested, and he will sit at the top of the slide like he is going to go, but then he will just cry and say it's too scary. I try to coax him down by telling him he can hold my hands or that I will catch him, but he just seems so afraid. I have no idea what has traumatized him so much with going down slides. However, Aedan also saw another little boy going down the slide on his tummy, feet first, and Aedan thought that was a good idea, so he tried it as well and decided that he liked sliding that way. Aedan has gone down slides like this on his tummy before, but it was almost like it was a brand new idea to him. Once he went down on his tummy and discovered it wasn't that scary, he went down the slide over and over again, having a grand old time. I couldn't get him to try it again sitting on his bottom, but I was glad he was at least trying it, even if it was in an unconventional way. Here are pictures of my silly guy posing on a rock with his sticks. :)

While Brad grilled turkey burgers and hot dogs, the kids went out on their patio to run around, play, and dance. Here's a little video that Ben took of the kids together that evening.

They made us a wonderful breakfast of apple pancake and sausage on Sunday morning before we left, and everyone just had fun hanging out, talking, and playing as we enjoyed our last morning with our good friends. I certainly did not want leave, but we still had a long drive ahead of us and we needed to get back home to pick up Jace and get ready for another week of school/work. It was a little crazy/busy of a weekend, but I'm so glad that we did it. I feel like it's been really hard for me to meet friends, especially now that I'm working, so it was nice being with a close friend who knows me so well and who I can be myself around. I had such a great weekend, I only wish that we didn't live over seven hours away from each other.

Our trip home on Sunday also went pretty well, even though Samantha was super sad to have to leave. She really loved playing with Madeline and being around Matthew. (She just loves babies, and she is going to be a wonderful big sister for the second time this coming September.) We will definitely have to make sure we get together with the Mosers on a more frequent basis. I love that our friendship has remained over all these years, and now that our kids have met and played together.

While we were out of town, Ben got his regalia shipped. It's amazing how much these things cost, but with all the work he put into graduate school at IU, it was definitely worth it to pay the extra cost for official regalia. Now Ben is officially ready for graduation! It's a pretty good look on him, don't you think?

(Blog about April 4-10, 2017)

The End of Spring Break and A Trip to Upland

Samantha: 70 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 35 Months, Week 1

Our Spring Break continued this week, so I took advantage of my extra time at home on Tuesday to clean the house. The kids were doing okay playing together, but I felt guilty just cleaning and leaving them to their own devices. I wished that I could provide something fun for them to do every day, but there are just not enough things to do around Sault Ste. Marie, especially when the weather is still working on warming up. After a morning at home, I did end up taking them to McDonald's for lunch and some time to play, but they were not acting as interested as usual, especially Aedan. He was just tired and ready for a nap.

The weather was actually warming up, and it was a nice, sunny day on Tuesday, so after eating an earlier dinner, we decided to drive downtown and walk around a little bit. We thought about seeing the locks, but they closed the gates at 6:00, and we didn't get there until after that. However, the kids still had fun walking around on the sidewalks, playing with sticks, and noticing how most of the snow had melted away. That created a lot of mud, but at least it was not snow!

I think it was partially the extra free time that I had during spring break, and the lack of plans with anyone, but I was feeling extra lonely on Tuesday. Moving to a new place is always hard, and now that I have been working full time, it's even harder to get to know people and hang out with other moms and kids. This time of the semester is always hard too because Ben is much busier and stressed out about work. Plus, it was strange that we had different spring breaks, meaning not as much time to spend together. We were all looking forward to getting out of town on Thursday, going down to Upland to see family, and experiencing some real spring weather with green grass, budding trees, and the ability to be outside without winter coats and hats.

This sounds kind of silly, but I was also having a harder time without Roscoe being around since it had been a week since I put him down. I found myself thinking about him a lot more, wondering if Ben fed him his dinner, and looking for him in his spot where his kennel used to be. It's strange being without a dog. We have had one for so long. In fact, it's been difficult for me to not look around for possible dogs or puppies that would work well for our family. Ben and I would love to start out with a puppy so that it can grow up around our kids, and they can get used to it and actually play with it and interact with it. Now is not the best time with everything going on and Ben and I both working full time, but I definitely miss having a dog around the house.

Since I finished all the cleaning on Tuesday, the kids and I had a morning out planned for Wednesday. Aedan got his hair cut that morning, and then we went to the library to check out some books and movies to take on our trip, and there actually ended up being story time that day as well. The kids had a fun time playing at the library, doing puzzles, listening to the stories, and doing the craft. I actually had to make them stop playing so we could leave. I was glad that they were having a fun time, and that we got out of the house for awhile.

After leaving the library, I decided to stop and get them a special treat at a local bakery/restaurant. They had done a really good job for me that morning, and it's not every day that I get special time with just Samantha and Aedan, so I figured I'd take advantage of it. They both picked iced cookies that looked like Easter eggs. Samantha picked purple and Aedan picked orange, or norange as he calls it. They thought their cookies were delicious, and they definitely enjoyed stopping for that snack on the way home.

Later that afternoon after nap time I finally decided to make the announcement of our pregnancy. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought about different ways of doing it, ultimately just using our own chalkboard. We have one boy and one girl, so the tie breaker is coming around September 17, 2017. :) I had Samantha and Aedan do the first picture nice and then the second picture with their hands up as if they were fighting over who was going to win. At this point I was about 15 1/2 weeks pregnant. I feel like time has just flown by during this pregnancy. With working full time and already taking care of two kids, it's harder to even remember that I am pregnant sometimes, and it's definitely harder to remember how many weeks along I am. I thought this was a cute way to announce our pregnancy and make it feel even more real, especially after dealing with close to two years of infertility. We were certainly surprised and overjoyed when we discovered I was pregnant, but sometimes I feel like I haven't let the "reality" of being pregnant sink in quite yet. I'm getting close to halfway now, I'm into the second trimester, so I feel like I can now let myself become more excited and start dreaming and planning for the little baby that will join our family come September.

Thursday morning I worked on getting everything packed up for our trip to Upland while Ben taught his morning classes. We ended up leaving later than we would have liked that afternoon, but it was the best we could do. The kids were really tired, but we waited until we crossed the Mackinac Bridge before telling them they could nap. The kids took naps in the car, which was nice. We then let the kids play, they watched a movie, we stopped for dinner at McDonald's, drove a little bit farther, and then had the kids close their eyes for bed time as well. However, when it came to falling asleep, Aedan did a pretty good job in the back, but Samantha just kept wiggling and readjusting her position, not falling asleep until we were almost in Upland, which was after 10:00.  Luckily, Ben's parents had all the beds set up and ready to go for us, so we let the kids see Ema and Papa and play for a little while after we arrived, and while we got our things unpacked and brought into the house.

Ema put Aedan to bed on his new air mattress in the play room since he no longer needs to sleep in a pack and play, and Papa put Samantha to bed in Ben's old room. Also, Aedan ended up getting a fever that day before we left. When we were at home that morning, he kept complaining about feeling cold and wanted to wear a sweater and a long sleeve shirt. It wasn't a really high fever, but enough that it made him feel pretty crummy.

Ben's parents worked on Friday, so we were on our own for the day. We played in the house in the morning, then we went outside and took a walk/wagon ride over to campus. The kids always enjoy going over to campus. Here are some pictures of our morning.

Samantha is always a little sad and listless when we are at the house before Ema, Papa, Jeni, or Alaina have arrived, so I made sure to spend some extra time with just her that morning, just talking and sitting together.

After getting some energy out outside, we went back to the house to relax and watch a show. Ben and I were exhausted from how busy Thursday was and not sleeping well or long enough. The kids were tired from being out late the night before, so we were glad that everyone took good naps.

Samantha and Aedan were super excited when Ema and Papa got home from work. They love getting personal attention from their grandparents, and visiting Upland is one of their favorite activities. Aedan loved this orange balloon and didn't let it out of his sight for much of the weekend. And in this picture Samantha is showing off her reading skills to Ema and Papa by reading "The Book with No Pictures" to them instead of the other way around. She even reads the book with inflection and silly voices, just like Papa. I love how much she has picked up reading throughout this year in kindergarten. :)

Once Jeni and Alaina finally arrived on Friday night, all was right with the world, and Samantha had her best friend to play with again. They always have such a fun time together.

Aedan definitely had a rougher night on Friday than anyone because he woke up crying three times during the night. We had Samantha in the room with us, so Ben and I took turns rushing over to the monitor to turn it off before Aedan's crying woke Samantha up. One time he cried because he rolled over and fell out of his bed since he wasn't used to sleeping on an air mattress without sides that would keep him in bed, and the other two times were because of losing his blankie or teddy and was not able to find them. I imagine him waking up also had some to do with the fact that he was sleeping on something different, and he still wasn't feeling the greatest after kicking his fever.

On Saturday morning we spent time playing and hanging out around the house. We did bath time in the morning so that we didn't have to take the time to do it after dinner, and then once the weather warmed up a little outside, we played outside for awhile before lunch. It was nice being in Upland and seeing green grass and trees budding and birds chirping. On the other hand, it was kind of depressing to think about getting back home and there still being snow on the ground. Here are some pictures from our time together that Saturday.

After everyone took a much needed nap that afternoon, Jeni, the girls, and I walked over to campus to enjoy some time together. In fact, Aedan was still napping and didn't feel like coming on a walk, so it was kind of nice having it be just a girl time. The weather had turned sunny and warm, and it was a beautiful day to go for a walk. The girls played hide and seek on campus, ran around and played make believe, and danced to the music under the bell tower.

The kids always enjoy our time in Upland with family. They just have the freedom to hang out and play, and they get lots of attention from lots of different family members.

On Sunday morning we got all our stuff packed up and ready to make the long trip back home. The kids are always super sad to leave Upland, especially Samantha. She loves having fun with Alaina. They are definitely best friends and miss each other a lot when they have to part ways. It would be so nice to be able to see them more often.

Our trip back home went pretty well. We stopped in Lansing at Chipotle for lunch, and then, once back in the car it was time for nap time for the kiddos. Luckily, everyone was tired enough that they fell asleep and took good naps. Here are Samantha and Aedan sleeping on our first trip to Upland in our new minivan. It definitely was nice having more space to accommodate an extra person and extra stuff. We have plenty of space for even more!

I was looking forward to see how much of the snow would be gone when we returned home, so I made sure to take a picture of our front yard and across the street. You can see that most of the snow was gone, except for where there were larger piles or where the sun doesn't shine as much. It was definitely a good sign, but I have to admit that I was enjoying the budding trees and flowers that I'm used to seeing at this point in the spring.

(Blog about March 28-April 3, 2017)

Putting Roscoe Down, A Trip to Marquette, and Buying a Minivan

Samantha: 70 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 34 Months, Week 4

Aedan normally has no problem being dropped off in the morning at Miss Lisa's, but for some reason he had trouble on Tuesday morning. He kept hugging Ben and holding on to him. Then, he started to tear up when he left. Aedan's friend, their oldest son, was still asleep, so I'm sure that didn't help any because he didn't have his playmate. However, I'm sure Ben thought it was cute that Aedan was acting in this way. We are glad that our kids are not clingy, but are independent, but every once in awhile it's nice to know that they need us.

On Tuesday of this week, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life. I took my little buddy Roscoe, our first baby, to the vet to be put down. It was much harder and more difficult than I thought it would be. I cried a lot leading up to that afternoon, and a whole lot more that night as I really missed his presence next to me on the couch. I knew it was the right decision, and if you follow my blog at all, you know that this is something I have been contemplating for quite some time now. It wasn't that I was doubting my decision, I just didn't like the fact that I was deciding to end another living thing's life. So after school that day, Ben stayed home with the kids while I took Roscoe to the vet. But first, here are some pictures of Roscoe, a little walk down memory lane of our years with Roscoe. Nine and a half years ago, Ben and I rescued him from a group called Wee Rescue in Austin, Texas when he was about five years old. He has been a part of our family for most of our married life, and it is so strange that he is no longer with us. I have to remember the good times we have had with him, but also remember how much he went downhill in the last year or so. Overall, Roscoe was a good dog, and I'm glad that we rescued him and got the chance to take care of him, giving him a better life. I will miss him.

This was the first time we met Roscoe.

Roscoe in the bluebonnets, since he was our Texas baby.

We took Roscoe a lot of places with us, especially on walks outside.

We enrolled Roscoe in doggie obedience class at Petsmart. This was his graduation day.

Samantha's first pet.

He loved looking out patio doors and feeling the breeze blowing in on his face.

I love the comparison of these two pictures, a couple years apart.

We loved to go on family walks together around our apartment complex.

All three on the couch together after Roscoe got home from a haircut.

As Roscoe got older, he loved to find comfy places to sleep, one being on Samantha's bed.

We would always say Samantha was his favorite because he loved to go and lay in her room or just lay near her while she played with toys or read books.

All three on the couch together again.

Holding my little old man. Once we moved to Sault Ste. Marie, he could no longer go up and down the stairs, so we would just carry him from one place to another.

This is Roscoe sleeping in his kennel when I got home from school the day I put him down. He liked curling up in this bed, and he would often need to be woken up and picked up out of his kennel.

Carrying Roscoe around the house for the last time. I had already cried quite a bit at this point.

Even though the kids were not that sad about Roscoe being put down, we wanted them to say good-bye and get one last picture together. They never knew him when he was young, energetic, and fun. Most of their memories of him are when he's been old and grouchy.

These are my attempts at taking some good pictures of him while waiting at the vet's office. He has always been difficult to take pictures of, but especially now when he can't even see and doesn't know where he is or where he's going.

I like this picture of Roscoe. His hair is getting long and unruly, but you can still see a glimpse of the same dog we brought into our home 9 1/2 years ago.

When they brought us back to the room, the assistant starting talking to me and I just started crying. I couldn't help myself. She asked me if I wanted more time, and I said yes, which is when I took the above pictures of him on the table. I petted him, talked to him, held him, and tried to calm him down a little bit. I had given him some ham to eat in the car on the way over to the office. I couldn't believe that this would be it. The vet and the assistant came back in again, and they started getting things ready, asking me if things were not going well for him. As soon as they started trying to touch him and mess with him, he started snapping and doing his screeching noise. The assistant held him up against her body so the vet could try to find a good spot to put the needle. I asked her what I could do to help, so she said I could come up by his head and help hold his head still. He was so resistant though that I couldn't hold him myself, which I wish I could have. The vet couldn't use his back foot, so moved on to his front foot. He cleaned it a little, stuck the needle in while Roscoe was trying to wiggle away and making his screeching noises. Roscoe immediately began to calm down and I didn't realize this was the euthanasia. I thought they might sedate him first. The assistant continued to hold him while the vet used the stethoscope to check for a heartbeat. He said, "He's gone. He was ready." Then the assistant laid him down on the table and covered him up with this blanket. They left the room quickly, saying I could take as much time as I needed. I know this might be kind of strange or depressing, but I took some pictures of him afterwards, too. Feel free to scroll past. I stayed in the room with him for close to half an hour. It was so weird to see him just laying on the table. Normally, we have to watch him carefully because he will just walk off exam tables since he doesn't know that he is up so high and can get hurt. It was weird being able to touch his face without having to pull my hand away in case he snapped at me. I knew he was no longer alive, but his eyes remained open. I cried so hard over this little dog of mine.

After awhile I even picked him up and held him for awhile, one last time. It was so weird holding his limp body in my arms.

I knew I had to get going, so I laid him back down on the table and took a few last pictures. It's amazing how much his coloring has changed over the years we've had him. His hair used to be a darker brown and his ears even had black tips on them. Now his hair is a light tan and even gray in some parts. Roscoe had a long, good life, but it was still so hard to turn around and walk away, leaving him on the table and walking out of the vet with no dog in my arms.

It was pretty hard for me to not be overly emotional the rest of the night. Everything reminded me of Roscoe and his lack of presence in our house, from the place where his food and water bowls usually are, to the empty couch next to me once the kids were in bed, to the missing kennel in the room next to ours. It will take awhile for me to get used to not having a dog as a part of our lives. Luckily, I had these two cute kids to distract me from my sadness. They decided to dress up in their ice show outfits, and we had a fun evening together.

On Wednesday evening we went to an ice skating rewards banquet. We didn't really think seriously about going until we heard that Samantha and Aedan would be getting an award. They had a spaghetti dinner first, and then it was time for awards. It was hard for Aedan to be patient, but that's pretty typical for kids his age. They both won a medal for second place in passing the most levels in their class, Aedan for the Snow Plow Sam class and Samantha for the Learn to Skate class. Samantha got called up first, and she was really proud and excited. However, this is the first medal Aedan has ever won, so the look on his little face was priceless as he ran up to the front to get his medal. You can see him holding his medal and looking at Sissy in this picture. He couldn't stop looking at it and talking about it for the rest of the night. He was so proud.

And here are the kids posing with their medals before heading home. It was a fun experience doing skating lessons this year.

On Friday morning, it was supposed to be a half day of school for the start of Spring Break. However, we got some freezing rain overnight so they actually cancelled school for the day. I didn't mind turning my alarm clock and going back to sleep, enjoying the chance to have a more relaxed morning.

Since we suddenly had the morning open to hang out, I decided it would be fun to take the kids to Jump U.P., which is usually what Ben and Aedan do on Fridays. Samantha was allowed to go to Tot Time, so we took advantage of the earlier morning time to go and play. The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing together. They don't normally get to do fun stuff like this together, and it was great to see them jumping, climbing, and running around. They even made a little turtle craft. Here are a couple videos of them sliding and jumping. It was a good morning outing.

After going back home, eating lunch, and finishing getting packed up, we left for our overnight trip once Ben got home from his 1:00 class. The kids napped in the car and we arrived at our hotel a little after 4:00 p.m. After getting checked in, we let the kids play in the room for a little while. Then, we went out for dinner before coming back to the hotel to swim. The pool had a mushroom fountain and was pretty large. They even had some pool toys to play with while swimming. We were in the pool for over an hour, and even got Aedan to get interested in swimming in the main pool and not wanting to just float around in the "hot water" as he calls it. Aedan and Samantha slept on the bunk beds together in their own room that night and went to sleep without any trouble. He seems to be fine with beds like that now, unlike how he felt at Christmastime when he tried one for the first time. Ben had a lot of grading to do, so after the kids were in bed, he stayed up quite late watching basketball and grading while I fell asleep on the hotel bed. It still was a relaxing and fun family night.

Here are the kids sitting at the little table in their room drinking their hot chocolate.

Ben has been doing a lot of looking online for minivans and which ones are available where. There was one van at a location close to where we were going for our trip, and they worked it out to bring the minivan up to a partner dealership so we could see it and test drive it. They wanted some pictures of our Santa Fe to establish the trade-in value, so here is the last picture I have our old car, bought in Texas.

Then, we were on to our morning at the UP Children's Museum. We had not been to a children's museum in a long time, and we had never been to this one, so it was really fun for the kids. They had lots of interactive exhibits, like a pretend ambulance, plane, salon, grocery store, movie theater, and lots of other interactive exhibits. It wasn't a huge museum, but just big enough to do in 2-3 hours. Here are some pictures from our morning. :)

After being at the museum for a couple hours, I could tell Aedan was getting hungry because he was getting crankier. We decided to head out for some lunch, and then we would go back to the museum for a little more play time. Ben found a quick service Mexican restaurant for lunch, and we all really enjoyed our food. We definitely miss having a restaurant like that in Sault Ste. Marie. Then, we had plans to meet up at the dealership to see the minivan in the afternoon, so we went back to the museum to finish up some areas we didn't get to before heading there.

Even though the kids were pretty tired that afternoon, they did a great job being patient at the dealership. We got to test drive the minivan, and the kids thought it was pretty cool to ride in the back. We were happy with it, it looked nice, and it was a good deal, so we decided to go for it. We traded in the Santa Fe for $3000 and put $3000 down. It is a 2015 Honda Odyssey with a little over 22,000 miles at the price point we were looking for. It's black with grey interior and in really good condition. It will be nice to have so much more space. The trunk space is large and deep, plus we have a fully functioning third row. Each row has ample leg room where even an adult could sit comfortably, and all the seats move and come out easily, so it is easy to change configurations to meet your needs. Plus, every back seat has car seat latches. It will be good to have a minivan for our growing family. It was a little bit unexpected that we got a minivan while on our overnight trip to Marquette, but it was nice that we wouldn't have to make another special trip to look at minivans another time. It took longer at the dealership than it should have because there was only one person doing the finances aspect of the deal, but the kids did remarkably well as we waited for close to four hours to get every taken care of. It was strange driving back home in a different car, and we didn't get home until after bed time, but it was a good, fun, productive family trip. We will definitely have to go back to Marquette again sometime.

On Sunday we planned to have a more relaxed morning since we got back so late on Saturday night. However, church ended up being cancelled due to an ice storm that came through overnight. It was strange not going to church, but it was nice to have a day at home to hang out and get some stuff done around the house.

Monday there was no school since it was Spring Break for Samantha and me. Ben still had his normal schedule, but we kept Aedan home from Miss Lisa's so that we could spend more time together. Monday was kind of a boring day, but it was good to have time at home. It's amazing how busy life feels since I started working full time. I was hoping that I could start to get my head above water by having this week off from work. So on Monday morning we just went grocery shopping, dropped Roscoe's leftover food at the animal shelter, and picked up my contacts. It was kind of a rainy, icky day outside, but we were hopeful that the rain would help make some of the snow go away.

I hadn't taken any pictures of our new van, so I took advantage of my extra time to do that on Monday morning after returning from our errands. We are now officially a minivan family!

(Blog about March 21-27, 2017)