Jet Setters

For Christmas this year, my amazingly generous parents gifted us a trip to Anna Maria Island, Florida for the second time! But this time, we even had the benefit of a few days overlapping with The Cousins, which made a wonderful trip even more incredible... Lucian couldn't stop asking when his cousins would arrive. 

The flight to Florida was exciting and fun for the kids, and they sure got their fill of screen time. Anything to pass the hours quietly among a planeful of strangers. Edith didn't sleep a wink the whole day of traveling, until we were within five minutes of the beach; this includes time spent at the airport, three hours in the air, and an hour in a car. She must have known something exciting was happening.

 

We were greeted by Grandma and Grandpa as we arrived at the hotel, and everyone was literally bouncing with excitement! We went straight out to the beach after unloading our luggage, and that's pretty much where we parked ourselves for the first half of the week. The weather was gorgeous, and several days it even got warm enough to swim comfortably in the ocean! Max tried boogie boarding and loved it. Lucian was content to stand near the edge and let the waves crash on him while he safely held the hand of an adult. Audrey dipped her toes a few times. Edith ran screaming every time the water came near her. But there was plenty of sand and shade for the less adventurous ones, and we even had a kite to fly when the weather was breezy.

 

 

 We picked up our Sunset Dance routine right where we left it off last year, and Audrey now refers to sunsets as "Sunset Dances"... they are one and the same to her. One night we decided to be adventurous and order pizza to eat out at the beach at sunset! It was a really fun idea, and I actually didn't end up ingesting too much sand. The kids couldn't care less about a little extra grit on their pizza, they were eating at the beach!

We took a few excursions throughout the week, especially as it cooled off later on. As a family, we took a walk through a beautiful park area on the bay side of the island, and the vegetation was just different enough that we could almost imagine ourselves as the Swiss Family Robinson stranded on a desert island.

Boardwalk through the swamp

We also took walks down the beach for ice cream, walks across the street for ice cream, and even drives across town for ice cream. However, the main reason for a drive across town was for a visit to the most amazing donut shop in the world! Another highlight was the museum in Bradenton, a nearby town. There were live manatees and dinosaur bones, a planetarium and a children's discovery room. A great way to spend a rainy day.

 

Donuts made fresh in front of us! 

As with last year, mini golf was a mainstay of the week. My dad brokered a deal with the mini golf owner, buying a pile of passes so that we could basically show up and golf whenever we felt like it! I'm pretty sure we were recognizable by the end of the week. Max worked hard on his concentration and putting skills, Lucian was all about the speed, and Audrey enjoyed getting help from whichever adult was nearest to lend a hand. She even snagged a hole-in-one! Edith was content to carry around a ball and drop it into whichever hole was nearest her.

 

In response to my request to strike an 'I love mini golf' pose

On our last night before the cousins arrived, we took a nice walk on the beach, chasing waves and finding seashells. All the kids started out dry, but those waves are tricky... and eventually everyone was wet at least up to their ankles!

Then the Radeckis rolled in, and all bets were off! Seven kids and their parents crammed into one apartment, it was beautifully chaotic. Mini golf was a hit with everyone, as was our visit to the Jungle Gardens in Sarasota. We got to wander around in a flock of flamingoes and feed them! There was also a playground to burn of a lot of energy, and Max attended a bird show and a reptile show, which he loved.

Pretty much every moment of down time at the apartment was filled by a raucous game of Uno or read-aloud time with Grandma. And of course, there was ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!

 

 

At the end of the week, we said goodbye to everyone and headed to the airport to await our flight home. I'm still not quite mentally healed from our four hour delay!!  Seriously, I may never fly again. But the kids did an amazing job, and were very patient. We arrived home much, much later than we had anticipated, but thankfully my dear friends Sara and John got us home safe and sound from the airport.

It was another amazing week on Anna Maria Island! Mom and Dad, thanks again for the wonderful memories!

Audrey obviously wasn't ready to leave

Viva La Mexico

In January, Paul and I had the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Mexico with fourteen of our closest friends, all in the vicinity of our tenth anniversaries. Fourteen of our closest friends, you ask? I know, it's hard to believe that we have been blessed with so many great friends. For years now we have shared all of the joys and the difficulties of marriage and family life, and we decided it was about time to celebrate! The idea of a trip together had long been tossed around as a fun possibility, but I never dreamed it would actually come together, much less that all of us would be able to make it! Childcare, time off from work, all the crazy logistics... everything seemed to fall together to make the trip possible. It already seems like a dream, that week on the beach in the sun with my friends. But it was no dream, and I have the photos to prove it! So without further ado, our Pre-Tenth Anniversary Trip to Mexico!

Our flight left before sunrise on a Wednesday in January, and as we packed our gear and our shivering bodies into the car to head to the airport, it was hard to imagine that in mere hours we would be trading our winter jackets for flip-flops. After a quiet and uneventful flight, during which I almost finished an entire book (in one sitting! That hasn't happened since before children!), we disembarked into the Cancun airport. A bus drove us the hour to Playa del Carmen, when we finally got our first glimpse of the resort and the ocean. The ocean! Oh my goodness, I could have stared at the ocean for the whole week straight, it was so beautiful. 

The forecast had been predicting a lot of rain for the week, but thankfully we only got poured on a couple of times early on. Then the temperatures started to rise and we spent the majority of the time basking in perfect beach weather. Most of our days had a similar pattern: wake up, eat breakfast, go to the beach all day, take a quick break to grab lunch, stay at the beach until dinner, change for dinner, hang out at the bar in the evening. Paul played a lot of beach volleyball and beach soccer; I preferred to float in the waves and relax with a book. It was almost overwhelming to have so much free time and no little people to entertain... I almost didn't know what to do with myself! There were two pregnant ladies on the trip (would it be a group of Catholic couples without a couple pregnancies?), and we constantly had to be explaining to the bartenders why on Earth we were ordering virgin mojitos at an all-inclusive resort?! When they found out that the combined total of children between the eight couples was twenty-eight, with two on the way, they (and everyone else who overheard) were completely floored. 

On Saturday, we changed things up with a Mayan Adventure Tour. I was not at all excited about the prospect of riding an ATV, especially with a long van ride to and from the location. My morning sickness hit me pretty hard mid-week, and I was worried. Thankfully, the adrenaline must have kicked in because I felt great the whole day! The ATV was, to be honest, completely terrifying. Paul will laugh at me for saying that, but I'm not ashamed of my wimpiness. But the rest of the tour was amazing! Ziplining into an above-ground cenote, snorkeling in an underground cave, flying above the jungle on a zipline... so many things I never dreamed I would do. 

Before we knew it, we were packing our things and flying home to frigid Minnesota and our waiting children. The trip was incredible, but I was definitely ready to see all of my munchkins. We had sent the boys to Rapid City to stay with Grandma, Grandpa, and Liam. The girls stayed with my parents in Burnsville. But they were all waiting for us when we arrived home! Thanks to our amazing parents for making this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity a reality! We couldn't have done it without you! (Who else would take in our crazy children for a week?!) 

Cheers to our first ten years, honey! May there be many decades more!

Ready for takeoff!

Yoga on the beach

Jump in the ocean at night fully clothed? Why not?

Beach volleyball

Beach Bums

On the balcony of our room

Snorkeling in the underground cenote 

Ready for the ATVs!

Paul was in his element. I hung on for dear life. 

Zipline success

I'm flying!

Sunrise on our last morning

Growing our Family, Growing in Love

Well, folks, we decided that since we make such darn cute kids, we might as well bring another one to join the party! Baby number FIVE is due September 1! We found out we were expecting shortly after Christmas, and to be perfectly honest, it was not something we exactly had on our radar. The lifestyle we have chosen is one that is continually open to having another baby, but that does not mean we are always expecting it. In this case, it took us completely by surprise! The same cannot be said of the rest of our family and friends... but I'll get to that in a minute.

My first thoughts when we got the positive result weren't of the amazing gift that this baby is, or of the great joy that has come to our family. No, selfishly, my first thought was, "Ugh. Pregnancy's HARD. Ick." Three months of sickness, clothes that are always either too big or too small, progesterone treatments, heartburn, fatigue... the list started running through my head. "How am I going to survive pregnancy and still parent my other children?"

But my initial reaction flew out the window the moment we announced the pregnancy to the kids. For starters, they had already been discussing the name of "the next baby" for months prior to this news. Top choices? Luke for a boy or Leia for a girl, of course. So they were not surprised when we told them that yes, there was a new baby in Mommy's tummy. But they were ecstatic! They jumped up from the dinner table and started running circles around it, hooray-ing and cheering, only stopping to kiss my tummy and their newest sibling inside. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. Saint John Paul II once said, "The greatest gift you can give your child is another sibling", and never did I understand the truth of that more than on that day.

Then we told the news to our family and close friends, and the joy just continued to grow! But there was a trend that kept coming up, especially from Paul's family... no one was surprised in the least. Everyone spoke of clues I had dropped while visiting at Christmas, before I even knew! Granted, I had an inkling by that point... and it must have shown. But to top it all off, when I announced it to my grandparents, my grandma informed me that my grandpa, of all people, had called it days before we had any idea!

Finally, we took the news to social media to announce it to the masses. For the first time, I was slightly nervous about what the reaction would be... "Baby news? Again?? This is getting old." I mean, how exciting can it be for my friends and acquaintances the fifth time around? And what if they even start thinking we're a little crazy? But I was blown away by the love and support from every corner of my diverse list of friends! Not that anything should be based on the number of likes a photograph receives on Facebook, but to see that the picture I posted garnered more positive responses than any of my previous announcements... or any post, for that matter... blew my fears away. I am surrounded by wonderful people on every side.

We are blessed and thankful beyond belief for the opportunity to raise up another little soul. We count on each and every one of you to pray for us and share our joy, and we can't wait to meet our little one at the beginning of September!