Nomad Midwest Trip, Days 13 & 14: Waunakee, WI

Sunday morning, we set out from our hotel in the direction of Waunakee, Wisconsin. Two important stops on the way: The Home Alone house, and the Jelly Belly Center.

You're not supposed to park on the streets in this small, quiet neighborhood 45 minutes north of Chicago, but after the police car left the street, we did a U-turn and parked anyway...right behind another car with people snapping pictures of the house. So I asked again to trade photography.

I showed the kids what pose to do for our pictures, but some of them still were a little unsure.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

{Two, Three, One, Four, me, Five}

Shortly across the border into Wisconsin is the town Pleasant Prairie, home of the Jelly Belly Center.

Let me be clear: this is NOT the factory. We were a little disappointed, thinking we were going to the Jelly Belly factory because this facility is what came up when I searched on the internet. Rather, the factory is in North Chicago and probably doesn't do tours because this center is the only option I found for tours. However, if you go in knowing that it is not the factory and only has screens with short videos showing the bean-making process, then you won't be disappointed and it's still enjoyable.

{Two, Three, Five, One, Four}

We had to wait approximately 30 minutes for our turn to go on the tour, but we entertained ourselves by playing D&D. Owing to lack of d20's (20-sided dice), we played Rock, Paper, Scissors to resolve anything that otherwise would have been a roll check.

Then we got to get our paper hats (Five hated wearing his by the end of the tour) and hung out in this waiting room upstairs where you could see a timeline of Jelly Belly history, their old machinery, Jelly Belly art, and sample the three stages of jelly beans.

{Two, Four, Three, Five, One}

Jelly bean art

The tour itself is a train tour. You ride around the warehouse and stop occasionally at screens that show Jelly Belly production.

{Three, Two, One, Four, Five, me}

And then the tour guide hands you a bag of Jelly Belly's taped to a box of Bamboozled Beans and ushers you through the warehouse door into the Jelly Belly shop where everything is imprinted and scented with Jelly Belly. Clothes, flip flops, plates, mugs, scratch and sniff chargers (I can't smell, so don't ask me how that works!), frisbees, notebooks, harmonicas! We did get two notebooks, three harmonicas, two cycling water bottles (we always need more of those!), a pen, and a frisbee. I think that's all. One suggested the frisbee for Dad since Dad had suggested we tour Jelly Belly if we were in its area, not even knowing where that was.

Walking out, an older couple saw me taking a picture of the kids by the Jelly Belly car and they offered to snap one with me in it. I love travelers and how we help each other!

{One, Five, Four, Two, Three, me}

We arrived in at my uncle's house and the kids jumped right into playing with their cousins (okay, MY cousins, but again, I'm not explaining family intricacies yet).

Sam piggy-backed Five around the house. He kept telling her, "Giddyup!"

Monday was Labor Day, which we'd all have been happy to spend out hiking or paddling on a lake, but it was rainy all day. So Aaron (my uncle) asked the kids if they like puzzles. Yes. He pulled out a couple books of wood puzzle designs and proceeded to cut out designs my kids picked. An elephant, a tiger, a horse and foul eating grass. I should probably take pictures of them to post.

Aaron at work in the basement, cutting out the very intricate horse design.

Aaron is practicing being a better Grandpa than he was Dad/husband, so during meals he told me to just sit and eat because he hears mothers don't often get to eat warm meals. He provided all cutting and drink and second serving assistance to my small humans. Pretty sure the wood puzzle creations fell into that Grandpa practice.

The rest of the day was spent coloring, crafting with Perler beads, building blanket forts, and watching Alone: Redemption. 

And doing a treasure hunt that Two made. She drew two maps, split us into teams and wrote our names on the maps. It was well-planned in thought, but not so in execution. Both teams were finding the same treasure and Two participated instead of sitting back and letting us all find it. So we ran upstairs from the living room, and looked around the bunk room for MAYBE 30 seconds before she pulled out the ziplock bag of Tootsie Rolls. You know that Christmas episode of The Office where Andy and Pam set up a game in the warehouse for Darryl's daughter? "And the game's over, seconds later." Hahaha!

Five showing me his watermelon. "Megan, take a picture!"

I love it when they're sleepy and in denial about how sleepy they are.

After dinner, Aaron took us to a park even though it was still misting. We decided it'd be good to run the kids tired. His chosen park has a zipline.

{Two}

Three keeps breaking out of her shell and being brave to try new things! I'm constantly surprised by her. She used to be afraid of everything. I called her my timid mouse.

So fun!

Four needed help, so she rode with Aaron.

Blurry due to movement and low light, but I still love that grin!

I guess I didn't get pictures of One and Five riding. Oh, well. They did and had fun. Five rode on my lap. We finished the night with ice cream back at the house, said our goodbyes to everyone that would be at school and work in the morning when we planned to leave.

Nomad Midwest Trip, Day 12: Chicago

Chicago. I've never really felt drawn to it. But since we were in the area, we might as well check it out for a day, right? My plan was to take the train into the city, but it didn't dawn on me to check the train schedule until we were ready to leave the hotel room at 10 am. We had just missed a train by 3 minutes and the next one wouldn't be around for another 3.5 hours. So drive in, it is!

We parked and made our way to Millennium Park to do the tourist thing and see Cloud Gate. None of us were impressed.

This was a cool sculpture, though.

We played in Maggie Daley park for hours and I hardly took any pictures. Just some at snack break.

Perhaps I didn't take many pictures because I got distracted by a pigeon, which made me remember that Home Alone took place in Chicago and I should find that house on the map so we could see it. Yes, a pigeon inspired that.

In the Enchanted Forest. Or the Peace Garden. Can't remember which. These sculptures occasionally spouted water. 

Strange berry-like thing. Almost looks raspberry-ish.

We moved on to Navy Pier where we wanted to see Crystal Gardens, but found that it was closed for a private event. Excuse my language after I just paid $30 for parking...Katie wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel, but I'm so glad she understands the value of money when I told her it's $18 per ticket and that would be $108. Her eyes widened and she knew we could spend that much money better elsewhere.

So we just enjoyed the pier.

{Three, Four, Five, Two, One}

{One, Four, Five, Two, Three}

On the way out, I noticed a group of people taking turns taking pictures for each other. I asked if they'd take a picture of me with my kids and I'd take a picture of them together. "Que? Habla Espanol?" Good thing I've got charade skills from China! We established understanding, took pictures for each other, then proceeded to have a conversation...them in Spanish, me in English, gestures used on both sides. The kids were in awe. They asked if the kids were all mine. "Si." "Oh! Cinco!" "Que linda!" Something about Azul as they were looking at Tommy. Yes, I'm used to Latinos awing over my blue-eyed, blonde-haired children. I translated to the kids. The tourists told me they're from Colombia and asked if I live in Chicago. "No, Colorado." "Que?" "Coolloorraddoo." "Que?" *Spanish pronunciation* "Colorado." "Ahhhh! Si!" I laughed a little on the inside. To me, the pronunciations are close enough to be understandable. We parted ways and the kids asked how I knew how to say Colorado in Spanish and how I knew what they were saying. I explained that you learn a few words here and there and it helps to have little conversations.

{Three, Five, me, Four, Two, One}

Beautiful wall with stars and "Navy Pier" imprinted.

Oh, hey! There's NBC!

We got out of the city as fast as we could since we were a little on the late side to get over to dinner with the Clarks. Traffic had set in and there was a road block and detour coming out of the pier that hadn't been there when we came in.

Overall opinion of the city I've never had interest in: we could go back and spend some quality time there. I was surprised by how little traffic there was going in, but then it was also 11 on a Saturday. I was surprised by how easy it was to navigate. I was surprised by how comfortable I felt being a single parent with 5 kids walking through the city and running around the park. And it was clean!

After dinner and playing as long as they could, the goodbyes still managed to be pretty cheery. The girls wanted a picture with just them.

{Bonnie, Three, Two, Emily, Four}

By the way, Bonnie is only 7 months older than Three (and a head taller), and Emily is only a year older than Two and a few months younger than One (and a head taller).

{Three, Bonnie, One, Two, Five, Emily, Four}

I wanted a picture with my friend, too.

{Five, me, and Chris}

Til next time, friends!

Nomading Midwest Trip, Days 10 &11: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Welcome to Indiana!

So...checking into our hotel in Portage, Indiana was fun. I booked through credit card reward points and even though the booking was made, the credit card that the company used to make the purchase got declined. So I was on the phone for an hour passed around from person to person, put on hold time after time. When they finally got it taken care of I demanded 5000 points be refunded because they cost us sightseeing time on our trip. It took a week, but they did it. I took a very short nap in the hotel room, then realized I forgot to get lunch for us, so we hurried to get in our swimwear and run off to pick up lunch on the way to the Porter Beach at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan.

The kids were so excited when they saw the water color! "It looks just like in Moana! I didn't know that was real!"

{Five and Three}

We were there for the sole purpose of reuniting with homeschool friends of ours from Kansas. They ditched town just a few months after we did last year.

It was a windy day, so the waves were so big that if the kids waded in waist-deep, the water would crash over their shoulders. We limited them to waist-deep that first day.

If you look very closely at the horizon on the right you'll see Chicago.

{Three}

{Four}

Five loved just standing there and letting the water crash over his feet!

Lake Michigan!

Everybody needs a beach in their life!

{One}

{Three}

I love how the angle of the camera completely changes the tone of the picture in these three pictures of Five.

High angle

Eye level

Sand level

This one is my favorite!

{Emily, Two, Bonnie, One}

Three came home with a great rock collection. I still need to dig them all out of the diaper bag.

Day 2 was a lazy start. Instead of spending all day at the lake, we slept in late, got ready slow, then decided to play at Emily and Bonnie's house before going to the lake. But when we did go, we were there for another several hours. No wind, no waves, no Chicago in the distance.

Lake Michigan washes in rocks, not shells. They are beautiful colors, speckles, stripes, shapes, sizes, and all perfectly smooth.

I love the rippled sand beneath the water.

{Four and Bonnie}

I love these rocks!!

Because the water was calmer this second day, I went out for a swim while Chris (Bonnie and Emily's mom and my friend) watched the kids. I swam out to a buoy, over to the next buoy, and back, probably at least half a mile. As I approached shore, I noticed that the people next to us had a small, brown-haired girl building a sand castle with them. Pretty sure they didn't have any kids when they came. As I got closer, I recognized that girl was my Four and Five had joined her.

This is George, who brought sand castle supplies for himself. He's a forty-year-old uncle and felt just as at home with the kids gravitating to him as they felt.

{Four, Five, George, Three}

Soon all the kids joined. Not just mine, but Bonnie and Emily and others that we don't know. It was a party and we all had fun!

Then a kid asked to ride on George's surfboard. So everyone lined up.

{One}

Bonnie

{Three}

{Two}

{Three}

{Five}

Four wanted to go, but then backed out.

The sandcastle builders, with Five refusing to be in the picture.

{Three, Emily, One, George, Two, Bonnie, me, Four}

After that beach day, I drove 20 miles to a town in Michigan so that Two could talk with two of her best friends about Michigan. We had ice cream at Oink's Dutch Treat in New Buffalo, just one mile across the border.

{Five, One, Three, Two, Four}

Four had the perfect goatee.

And we ended in another late, exhausted night.