Road Trip 2009…8 States, 12 Days, 3 Kids and 2 Tired Adults

July 14, 2009 – Left Westminster, Colorado at 6pm.

We decided to take a picture at every state line we crossed. This was our first one.

Arrived in Oakland, Iowa – 2 am(We didn’t get a picture of the state sign this time into Iowa). Exhausted and tired. We spent one night at Grandma Coleman’s house in Iowa.

July 15, 2009 – Left Oakland, Iowa at 10:00 am to drive to Chicago, Illinois. We decided Noah should take a turn driving. :)

Arrived at Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Woody’s house in Illinois @ 4 pm.

July 16, 2009 – Tourist Day in Downtown Chicago

Can you find us inside the bean? We’re all in a circle.

We visited The Sears tower on the day that it’s name was changed to Willis Tower…how appropriate!

July 17, 2009 – Made the trek to Fremont, Michigan. Had to go through Indiana… …To get these…

We continued on our journey to Michigan…

…Where we made another stop at the Dutch Village in Holland, MI

We left the Dutch Village to continue onto my Grandparent’s Lake house. We finally arrived at our destination around 4 pm. We stayed in Fremont, MI for 5 days where we played and played and played. Noah and the girls also got to meet and hang out with several of my family members. This is a very special place to my family and I. My Dad and I have both been going there since we were kids.

July 22, 2009 – We drove to Ludington, MI and took a ferry across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin.

When we got off the boat, we were now in Wisconsin. We were only in Wisconsin to drive through it, so I don’t have many stories from there. However, from a distance, we did see Lambeau field where the Green Bay Packers play. I am happy to report that David nor Noah did not whiz on the stadium like David had wanted to do! Nor did we stop for any cheese…which is a bummer!

After driving through Wisconsin, we finally reached our next destination, Minneapolis, MN…David’s hometown. We arrived at the Krussow’s (David’s sister and her family) house just in time for dinner. Our whole focus of this portion of our trip was to hang with the fam and to meet the newest member, Clara Grace Krussow.

July 23, 2009 – Minneapolis, MN – Mall of America and a Slider eating contest.

On the day we were there, Ashley Tisdale just so happened to be performing. The girls were ecstatic!

And of course, no trip to Minnesota would be complete without going to the Vikings store.

After the mall, David and Pete decide to have a slider eating contest. They each ate 13.5. Nobody won because they ran out of sliders. So, the contest is to be continued at a later date!

After the contest, they decided to make a White Castle Christmas tree and pose with their creation. Then at the right moment, they set their masterpiece on fire.

July 24, 2009 – Packed up, said goodbye to the Krussow’s, went to Minnehaha Falls (nothing got stolen this time around), showed the girls David’s old house and headed back towards Colorado.

After the falls, we had one last stop in Iowa. On the way back to Grandma Coleman’s, we met up with Cousin Luke and Aunt Ila to have some ice cream.

July 25, 2009 – Left Grandma Coleman’s, saw Grandma Gross and headed home.

So there you have it. Our trip in a nutshell. We had a great time seeing all the sites, meeting and visiting with our family and spending time with our own family. Until next year…

And…He’s Off!

The day after Noah turned 8 months, he decided it was time to put it all together. We were at my brother and sister-in-laws house (Jeremy and Erin) and all of a sudden, Noah started crawling like he had been doing it all along! Yay! We’re so proud!

(Please excuse my little kid voice in the background!)

8 Months Old

Noah,

At the risk of sounding redundant, time sure has flown by and you have gotten so big! Each day you grow more and more into a little boy. And what a fantastic little boy you are! You are learning so much each day and impressing Daddy and I with your new skills. How did you get so smart?

When you wake up in the mornings, this is how you greet me…

…and I just love it. Look at how cute you are! It’s so nice to wake up with you so ready to see me! It starts my day off just right!

You are SO CLOSE to crawling. You get up on all fours and rock. Sometimes you do a little bit of an army crawl, but you’re not quite crawling yet. You’re almost there and Daddy and I are so proud of you!

You can officially feed yourself with your bottle. Sometimes it makes me sad to think that you no longer need me to help you with this. Speaking of eating, you are quite picky. You DO NOT like anything chunky. You gag if there are bits of veggie chunks in your food. You hate anything you can put in your mouth yourself. For example, cheerios. You despise them. Mashed bananas. You hate them. Eggs. Not gonna do it. I’m hoping someday you’ll begin to like real food, but for now, you’ll just have to keep eating the pureed kind.

Some of your favorite things to do are to go on walks, swing, play ball with Daddy, swim and you love to listen to a good book. Since you’ve discovered splashing in the pool, you love to get Momma all wet when I give you a bath. You think it’s pretty funny. You’re still a pretty great clapper and we often find you just checkin’ out your hands. You like to check ours out too. Peek-a-boo is another favorite game of yours. You giggle and giggle when we come out from hiding. You also love it when we sing to you. Daddy has a special song that he made up just for you and you love it!

Each day with you is such a joy. I couldn’t imagine my life without you. Thank you for being such a sweet, loving and chill little boy. I can’t wait to see what you’ll do next!

Love you always,

Momma

The Not-So-Many-Faces of Noah

Noah and Brie are 1 day apart.  Tami and I like to try to get pictures of the two of them during holidays.  I took advantage of the 4th and the fact the both of the kiddos were wearing red, white and blue.  The following are the results of that little photo shoot.  Notice that Brie’s face changes and Noah’s….not so much. 

I’ll look at the camera, but I’m not gonna smile. 

  I’m still looking, but still not going to smile.

Still not interested.  You people are boring.

What the heck is she so excited about?

Still bored.

Seriously? Still taking pictures?

I don’t care if you show me what’s under your dress…still not smiling.

Flirting doesn’t help either…all of you are still boring.

So there we have it.  The kid seriously only has 1 facial expression.  But, it’s still fun to try to make him smile.  One day, these kids are gonna get sick of taking pictures together!  But we’ll still be the mean Mom’s that do it!

4th of July Weekend

What an awesome weekend!  Though it was FREEZING, we still enjoyed a very nice Independence Day weekend.  Friday night started off by going to Chatauqua Park in Boulder.  It’s a historical landmark that began with some Texas teachers that wanted a summer retreat.  Very cool!  Anyway, we joined Katie and Trey’s parents for a progressive dinner at all the old houses there.  I had been to this park before, but never to all the little cottages.  If you ever get the chance, you need to rent of this places!  They are so cute and right next to the flatirons in Boulder.  

This picture cracks me up because Noah sat there saluting for quite a while.  I guess he’s just so smart, and he must’ve known that it was the 4th, so he was saluting our soldiers!

Up close and personal with the Boulder Flatirons

On Saturday, we were hoping to go to the pool.  However, the weather was MISERABLE!  I’m used to spending the day at the lake, but instead I was bundled up in sweatshirts and blankets just trying to keep warm.  We did enjoy the day though with our wonderful friends.  We had a great B-B-Q and watched some fireworks.  Noah did pretty well with the fireworks.  He only got scared because I scared him when I thought one of the fireworks was coming right for us.  Other than that, they didn’t phase him. 

Our first 4th of July together

We actually got most of the kids together to take a break from their sparklers to take a picture for us!

Watching fireworks with Momma

Trying to stay warm in Tami’s snuggie.  We were sitting by the fire making smores and I was still FREEZING!  It seriously was like a winter night in Texas.

On Sunday, we enjoyed some time at the pool.  Noah has this awesome new float that he likes to lay back and chill in.  We had a moment this day.  For once, Noah made the cheesiest smile yet! 

Mr. Cheese

What a fun weekend we had!  I loved spending an extra day with David and hanging out with our wonderful friends!

A Day at the Zoo

Last weekend, the fam and I headed to Colorado Springs and spent some time with our friends Jeremy and Sara Shafer and their kids.  We hung out on Friday night and then went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  It’s the most beautiful zoo I’ve ever been to!  It’s built right into the mountain so you have to go up and down a lot, but it’s well worth it!  This was Noah’s first trip to the zoo.  I realized after the trip to the zoo that my expectation of Noah getting excited to see the animals was way too high!  He could’ve cared less that there were all these awesome animals around him.  He just kept the same ol’ boring look on his face the entire time!  Oh well, maybe we’ll have to wait to go back until he gets older.  Sara and Anna had a great time though!

“Dad, it doesn’t make a difference if I’m on your shoulders or in the stroller, I’m still gonna have this bored look on my face.”

Team Coleman

Sara and Anna, “Feeeeeed the birds.” (As sung in Mary Poppins)

The boredom finally took over.

And finally, we did actually seem some animals.  Check them out here if you’d like.

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Hepatitis C and Me

You’re probably thinking, “What the heck does this have to do with Jenny?” Believe me, I wish I had no part in this.  But, I do.  There has been a freak incident that happened when I had surgery for the kidney stones while I was 8.5 months pregnant with Noah.  This incident is something that I feel only happens in the movies.  It’s not supposed to happen in real life.  Read here first to get the story.

Now that you know the story, here is my request.  Tomorrow, (actually today, because it’s 4 am and I can’t sleep) I have to go get tested for Hepatitis C.  I won’t find out the results for 2 weeks.  Please pray that I do not test positive for this chronic disease.  Additionally, please pray that if I do test positive for Hepatitis C, pray that Noah will test negative.  Because I was pregnant at the time of my surgery, he could be at risk.  It is one thing for this crazy nurse to have put my health at risk, but I do not have any words that can describe what it will do to me if Noah’s health is at risk, too.  Also, if I am positive, it is highly likely that David could be positive as well.  Furthermore, please pray for the patients that have confirmed cases of Hepatitis C and for those that might learn that they have it. 

Potentially, the actions of that nurse could destroy the health of our family.  Though I am sad about what this could do to us, ultimately, my heart is sad for this woman.  She knowingly  had this disease and did not care whose health she destroyed in her quest to get high.  I read an article that said her myspace page said she had a fascination with needles.  What kind of a sick person does this?  It makes me realize that Satan is alive and well and is lurking around trying to destroy lives.  My sister-in-law Laura, reminded me that Romans 8:28 says this:

And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

I believe God has a purpose in all of this.  Maybe these thousands of people that now have to get tested for Hepatitis C will come to know the Lord?  Maybe this sick woman will come to know the Lord?  Maybe this happened so that people in the medical field will be more cautious before hiring someone?  Whatever the reason, I believe God allowed this to happen.  No, this isn’t the holocaust or a war.  But to me, in my selfish little world, it’s a big deal.  And God still wants to protect me even though I’m just a blip on this earth. 

I’m going to be ok….no matter what the results are.   At this moment, I’m just mostly scared for Noah. I have no words for what I would do if Noah was harmed in all of this. I feel like trouble or freak accidents seem to find me.  I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that I’m caught in the middle of this weird, freak incident.  But, it is what it is.  And I’ll live.  I just might live with a incurable disease.  And if it comes down to that, I’ll deal with it. 

Thanks for the prayers!