December--California

This trip was sort of a "last minute" thing--when Matt texted and asked if I could come out while Cheryl was in the hospital, I got right on the internet and found a flight.  I was on the plane about 36 hours later. The flight was probably about the worst flight I have ever had--lots of turbulence, 65 mph winds in Ontario that kept us from landing there, returning to Las Vegas.  But it all turned out ok in the end--there was another woman who was on her way to Redlands, so the two of us got a rental car and drove from Las Vegas to Redlands, arriving at Matt's house at 4 a.m. on Saturday. (I was originally supposed to land at 9 pm Friday.) And I made a new friend in the process. :)

Saturday was a busy day, after having pretty much no sleep. (After drinking lots of coffee on the drive to help keep the driver awake, I really couldn't sleep when I finally got to bed at 4 am.) We first visited Cheryl in the hospital, then picked up my suitcase at the Ontario airport, lunch at Chick-fil-A for Evan and In-n-Out for the rest of us, and then a performance of the Middle School play in the afternoon. Matt and several other teachers played the Oompaloompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That was fun to see!  And after pizza at home we all went to the Redlands Christmas Parade with the Schenkels.

One of my tasks was to take Evan to his dental appointments. He had to have a couple of fillings, so he had an appointment each Tuesday. I was super proud of him---he did just great, and was really brave.

A brave smile before.....

...and thumbs up after!!

That Tuesday was also the day that Cheryl came home from the hospital. The kids were so happy to have her at home, and she was happy to be there, too.  But she was just not feeling well at all.  Between the nausea and a really bad headache, she was pretty miserable. And she couldn't keep her meds down, so in the evening they decided to go back to the hospital.  This turned out to be many hours of waiting and then finally getting some IV meds to make her feel better--which meant spending the whole night in the ER. 

A group of Matt and Cheryl's friends did something so special for them for the holidays.  They called it "12 Days of Christmas" and every day for 12 days (well, actually 13) there was some type of a surprise delivered secretly to their house.  Usually Matt would get a text telling him to check by the back gate or the front gate, and they would go out and find a nice surprise. I had been included in all the planning for this, so I knew what was going on and actually helped out with a bit of "spy" work.  It was fun to hear them trying to guess who was doing this, and also to secretly post pictures on the FB message stream for all their friends to see. 

The first of of these surprises arrived just 5 or 10 minutes after Matt and Cheryl had left to go back to the hospital that Tuesday evening.  I was left with two very sad little people--Mommy had just come home, and now she was going back to the hospital.  So when Matt texted me and told me to go out to find something at the back gate, it was just the perfect distraction for the kids. 

Day 1

This surprise had a movie theme--a couple of 

DVD's for the kids and lots of movie snacks

and a movie gift card. 

Day 2--Disney theme

Disney cups for the kids, games and puzzles

and tickets for Disney on Ice!!

 Day 3--lots of gift cards

Day 4--lots and lots of baked goodies,

water bottles for the kids, and all different 

kinds of beverages

Day 4 goodies included home-baked cut-out Christmas

cookies and all the stuff needed to decorate them!

Day 5--some presents to open

Day 5--all kinds of Christmas stuff

Santa hats for all, Christmas pillowcases for the kids,

a really soft comfy throw, ornaments and more.

Day 5 also included a Gingerbread House kit

A masterpiece!

I didn't get a picture of the Day 6 surprise, because it arrived just before we left to go look at Christmas lights. But the theme was Coffee and Chocolate!!

Day 7--Sandwich theme

Ice cream sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches,

sandwich cookies, and a cute game for 

the kids--Slamwich!

Day 8--Craft theme

All kinds of crafty things for the kids to do, 

Craft beer for Matt, and a gift card for a place

where you can make pottery things.

Evan's comment when he saw this basket at 

the back gate--"MORE BEER!!!"

I left for home on Day 9, so I missed out on days 9-13, but Cheryl's Mom arrived two days later so she got to enjoy the last few days.  And when they had the big "Reveal" the group included us, along with Rachel, Abby and Cheryl's siblings in a Facetime session. That's when I had to come clean and confess that I had been in on it all along. Matt will probably never trust his mother again! :)

And a few more pictures from my visit. The first three are from when we went out to look at Christmas lights one evening. 

 All ready to go

Amos did not get to go along, but notice

the festive bow on his head. 

 There was one neighborhood where we got out of

the car and walked around. Some people had 

"Photo Ops" set up.

Enjoying some hot chocolate

One day a package arrived from Aunt Rachel, including 

Josie's birthday present as well as some other fun 

surprises and Pizza Rance t-shirts for everyone.

My buddy, Amos, who has me so 

well-trained. He starts by just looking at me, and then 

starts nudging me until I get up and follow him to the

garage where he leads me to the box of treats. 

Let's go fly a kite!!

After Evan's second dental appointment, 

we waited for the numbness to wear off and 

then went to McDonald's for lunch.

Last school drop-off, before heading to the airport.

November, including early Christmas!

We had a very fall here in Wisconsin this year, and our warm weather lasted into November. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we went to Retzer Nature Center for a walk/hike.  I was quite warm in my long-sleeved t-shirt, but Bob seemed quite comfortable in his sweatshirt. :)

The walking stick is only a prop for the picture.

November 11 was Grandparent's Day at Jeremiah's school, Unity Christian in Fulton, IL.  They combine it with a Veteran's Day celebration, and they started the morning with a very nice program honoring grandparents and veterans. After a recess break we were able to spend some time in Jeremiah's class.  That was fun, and we can understand why he loves school and loves his teacher!!  School was dismissed at noon and we all went to have lunch at Pizza Ranch.  It was definitely the place to be!! 

The only picture I got was at Pizza Ranch.

And a couple pictures of  Hope from that visit. 

On the 16th we had one of our "Field Trips" with Roger and Sheryl.  We went to the historic Prairie Avenue area in Chicago.  We toured the Glessner House (think mansion) and the Clark House, and then toured 2nd Presbyterian Church.  We had a very good docent at the church, and we learned a lot about the beautiful stained glass windows in the church.  Unfortunately my phone ran out of storage space after the picture of the exterior of the church. 

Glessner House, taken from the back courtyard area

2nd Presbyterian Church

The Midwest kids all came to Brookfield for Thanksgiving this year, and we also celebrated Christmas that day. The Wissinks and Okuleys arrived on Wednesday, in time to have dinner at Portillo's.  I had baked my pie earlier that day, but I had not made the pie crust cookies.  Jeremiah was happy to help with those that evening. 

We had a very small window of time to get all our celebrations in, because Ben was only here for Thanksgiving Day. After church, while dinner was cooking, we did our gift-opening.  We Facetimed with Matt and Cheryl's family while we opened gifts. They had some gifts from all of us to open as well, so we watched each other open gifts.  I didn't do a great job of taking pictures, I'm afraid. :( 

After presents were opened, we had dinner. Then it was nap time for Hope (and a few others) and Jeremiah had a chance to check out some of his new toys.

Later in the afternoon we went over to Brassers and had dessert and lots of visiting  with Lew, JoAnne, Jane and Steve.  We also had Jane take a picture of all of us wearing our "Wiers Warriors" shirts to show our support for Cheryl in her fight against lymphoma. (When we posted our picture on Facebook later that evening, we saw that the Vanderkamp family in Michigan had the same idea!)

The littlest Wiers Warrior really had fun

with Aunt JoAnne's pounding board! 

Friday morning we had butterhorns and did stockings.  And then it was Cedarburg for the ladies, with lunch at Cream and Crepe and of course a stop at Amy's Candies. The guys (and Hope) had access to all the leftovers while we were having lunch in Cedarburg.  So for dinner we did our traditional appetizers, since we hadn't really had our usual Christmas Eve. Jeremiah and Hope had a little movie party that evening. 

Saturday we introduced the Wissinks and Okuleys to a new favorite spot of ours--Rocket Baby Bakery.  Just writing about this now makes me want to go there as soon as possible for one of their scones. 

Saturday afternoon was movie date time for the Wissinks and Okuleys while Grandma and Grandpa babysat.  And then Abby and Neil made their yummy home-made pizzas for dinner, with a little help from Jeremiah.

If it's Sunday morning, there will be pancakes at the Wiers house.  And Hope seems to be in favor of that tradition!

After everyone had their fill of pancakes, they all packed up and left for home. The house on Evergreen Court was very quiet after that. :( 

I was glad that I had something fun to look forward to the next week.  Phyl and I were long overdue for a get-together, and we met at Chicago Botanic Garden on the 29th. We started out with a lengthy chat over coffee and a pastry.  Then we did some walking around in the indoor exhibits. 

The poinsettias were gorgeous!

There was a miniature train exhibit that we were going to skip, but we were encouraged by some other people to check it out. So we did, and were we ever glad!  It was amazing!!

It was a huge lay-out with miniatures of 

many Chicago landmarks...

...like Wrigley Field (notice the W)...

...and the Chicago skyline.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the Garden Cafe there, and then ended up in the gift shop, where we found someone to take our picture.

It was a wonderful day with a wonderful friend!!  We agreed that we must not let so much time go by between our meetings.

October, Part 2--Hope's birthday plus more

We went to Clinton the week-end of October 22 and 23 to celebrate Hope's second birthday.  On Saturday morning we went to Build-a-Bear so that she could make a stuffed animal of her choice.  Adam and Rachel had done the same thing for Jeremiah when he turned 2, and he really got into the whole process of  "building a bear" (or puppy, in his case.)  Hope did not really get into it as much, although she had a very definite idea of which animal she wanted--the monkey.  She really did enjoy exploring the whole place.  Wow, that girl can really move!!

This was one of the few pictures I got that

was not blurry--she was on the move!

Giving Monkey a bath....

...and doing her hair.

Tired girl ready to take her monkey home

Back home with monkey.

Monkey HAD to have a tutu!!

Jeremiah got to make an animal, too. 

(I don't remember the name of his "creature.")

That evening some of their friends came over to celebrate Hope's birthday. She was definitely the star of the show!

She knows what to do with a present!

She got a little help from her brother, too.

"Reading" one of her cards

Bring on the cake!!

The candle and the singing made her

a bit subdued.

Lose the shirt--it's time to eat cake!

Fingers work better than forks. :)

Bedtime story with her new birthday book

We also got in on Jeremiah's last flag football game of the season.  According to his parents, flag football was not the greatest experience for Jeremiah.  They thought it would be more of a learning experience than it turned out to be. Seems like they sort of expected the kids to already know how to play. But, Jeremiah had fun anyway, and he did a great job of cheering for his team. :)  And he looked pretty sharp in his uniform!!

When we left for home that Sunday, we were planning that our next visit would be Nov. 11 for Grandparents' Day at Unity Christian School. Well, that didn't turn out to be the case.  Just a few days later Rachel was very sick with a combination of a UTI and nausea from her pregnancy (that they hadn't really announced yet). It's not easy keeping up with Hope when you are at full strength, and it's pretty much impossible when you can hardly drag yourself out of bed!  So....Grandma to the rescue.  I drove over on that next Thursday and stayed until Saturday.  

Waiting for Grandma to make her lunch

Jeremiah and a couple of his Lego creations

On that Friday evening Jeremiah and Hope got to do some early Trick-or-Treating with some friends, so I got to see them in their costumes.

Such a cute puppy!

She obviously took this very seriously.

Darth Vader and his puppy

Pumpkin carving--Hope wasn't sure

that she liked the squishy stuff. 

That's it for October!