The morning after Ben's last basketball game we took off for Illinois! It was wonderful to get away. For life to slow down and to relax was so, so good for our family.
It was also fantastic to see Ben's parents again! We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving (the only bummer was Sue not feeling good...but she rallied and put on a good show!).
Caterpillar is headquartered in Peoria, IL so we went up the road to check out their visitors center.
It was fascinating! Sue and Noah are standing in front of a dump truck. That's the real size of the truck. It's....HUGE. The tires are 14 feet tall. Doesn't Noah look like a shrimp next to them?
The Illinois river flows by outside the visitor's center and since the sun was shining we enjoyed a picnic lunch by the river. I think food tastes better when it's consumed outside.
Back at Grandma and Grandpa's house the boys kept busy flitting from one screen to another. But we also played croquet, baseball and helped clean up leaves making way for new spring growth. Noah enjoyed running cabbage through the food processor as he helped Sue make bierrocks.
The playhouse got a thorough cleaning by Levi! He worked really hard with a bucket of water and some rags to clean up his "pizza kitchen".
And then Noah joined him and they ran a very busy and successful pizza restaurant! They'd even make any kind of pop you wanted!
It was so fun to watch and listen to them play together so nicely. It's a rarity for them to get along so well for such a long time.
The next day, the weather cooled off and we made our way to Bass Pro in Peoria. They have a fun bowling alley in the store.
It was great! Plus we were the only people bowling - bonus!
A shark spit our balls out for the ball return.
The paint and lighting gave it a realistic look of being underwater. We even ordered mozzarella sticks, the boys had never had them before and thought they'd discovered one of the best foods ever!
On a whim, we took Noah to watch Ben's old high school team play in the Illinois state tournament. Between the crowd and players, I think that was some of the best people watching I've done in a long, long time.
We also enjoyed time catching up with Ben's grandparents who moved to Illinois in August. And we spent a few hours at the Mennonite Church of Normal playing basketball, soccer and volleyball. It helps to know the pastor. ;-)
And then suddenly, it was time for us to head for home. The nine hour car ride isn't a favorite for any of us, but each time we do it we're thankful that our boys are getting older. We no longer have to endure the stress of crying babies.
When we got home, we were blessed with beautiful weather and Ben had a hankering for Funfetti cake. He really likes that cake and it cracks me up.
The day after we got home, my mom had reconstruction surgery. So I was in Wichita with my dad and sister most of the day. Surgery went well and mom has done a fantastic job recovering. She's amazing and I'm so proud of how she has walked the cancer journey.
Saturday we planted trees around the farm,
drilled bromegrass seeds
and planted onions, spinach, lettuce and garlic in the garden!
And then on Sunday, the weather was just right for Levi to get his new kite out! We gave him the kite for his birthday and he was excited to finally get to fly it.
It's a dinosaur, can you tell?
He caught on very quickly and then spent a lot of time out by himself flying and flying his kite.
I can't wait to see the bromegrass come up!
That was our spring break - lots of good stuff! It was tough to get back into the regular routine of school and work on Monday but we slowly got back in the swing of things.
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