Vaccinated!....And Our First Indoor Dining

 

Two shots each plus two weeks and it was time to party!   Well...actually our first dine in date in 14 months was to the new Starbucks Reserve in downtown Naperville.   We enjoyed venturing out and having a leisurely and anxiety free evening.    William happened to be on his second Boy Scout campout, so we had the entire evening free, and after drinks and appetizers at Starbucks, went across the street to Allegory for dinner.   

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, I hinted that I'd like Oreo cookies and I scheduled us to spend the day at the Morton Arboretum to ride our bikes.   Kid Chef delivered with a cake decorated in Oreos!  And then we had the rest of the bag of Oreos to enjoy throughout the next few days.  It was all wonderful!

After our bike ride, we loaded our bikes back on the car rack and walked through the Arboretum for some photos.  There was a craft show happening and John bought me a pretty pair of earrings.   It was a wonderful day with my favorite people.

And the baby robins in the back yard hatched!  Mama Robin got her first Mother's Day.  We really enjoyed checking on them occasionally.  Mama Robin wouldn't let us get too close too often.  

Our First Visitors!!!!!!

Spring has sprung!   We ordered up some beautiful weather, crawled out of our cocoons in order to get the backyard ready, and got our vaccinations!   With the completion of those vaccinations, we were ready for company.   First up, were John's parents who drove in from Kansas City.   We used their visit - the first time we'd seen them in around 18 months - as an opportunity for an early birthday celebration for William.

In addition to backyard fun, we walked to/through our local forest preserve.  I hoped we would see our resident owl and bald eagles.   We didn't see either inside the forest preserve, but we did see four bald eagles circling overhead on our walk back home!  And we have seen the owl fly through our yard several times since, though not for bird loving Grandpa Ed to get to see that weekend.

I asked a neighborhood baker to make William a Baby Yoda (Grogu) cake, but she was in a wedding that weekend.  Instead, she made the fondant Grogu and I used it to top a cake that I baked and decorated.    We had a great weekend!

 

First Boy Scout Campout

One of the activities that William was most looking forward to when he crossed over to Boy Scouts in March 2020 was camping.  His first campout - just days after joining his new Troop - was cancelled due to concerns about this "new" issue with COVID-19.    Thirteen months later they finally got to go!  Due to COVID protocols, the boys had to solo tent versus share and they used disposable plates and utensils, and masks were required.   But otherwise.....a mostly normal campout?  We don't really know because we weren't there in "before times" and we weren't there that weekend either.   Because....wait for it....Boy Scouts don't require parents for camping!  Whoo hoo!  What we had been waiting a long year-plus for as well!

John and I enjoyed Friday evening through Sunday afternoon doing our own fun adventures - takeout from some great restaurants, picking up some treasures at an outdoor artisan market, a walk at the Arboretum....some fun couple time!    And then Sunday afternoon, we (John...) tackled the project of cutting down our willow tree to get ahead of some rotting branches.   The hope is that it will resprout from the base and grow tall again.   We have no doubt it will resprout, because it's done that around the base for years.  The issue will be if we can train it vertical instead of just getting a bush.

When our Boy Scout got home, he wanted to build himself a little shelter from some of the smaller limbs and practice his knot skills.  Sure...why not?!

Dog Sitting

Rosie got to come over for a week-long sleepover while her family was on vacation. As always, she was right at home.  I put her dog bed in a good spot to see us, and William reminded me I put it in his favorite spot to watch TV....by just sitting in it!  She didn't seem to mind switching to the rug beneath my feet.   Over the course of the week she found multiple comfy spots in my office, in front of the TV and out in the yard.  

Spring Break Roadtrip

We really broke out of the mold this year....we took our first ever Spring Break trip!   It was a last minute decision, but we were able to find a neat VRBO house near Blue Mountain Beach in the Florida panhandle and joined SO MANY of our Midwestern neighbors (and literally what seemed like half the neighbors in our subdivision) in the South Walton area.   And super exciting for us, Ryan was able to come join us since we had an extra bedroom and he was already vaccinated! 

Sometimes my office was this coach with William "working" on the other end.   But most of the time my office was the large dining table!  Since we drove, I was able to pack my monitors and other office supplies for a seamless continuation of tax season!

The neighborhood had a beautiful pool that was literally out the back door of our house (ours is the second from the bottom house here), but the pool water was too cold and the hot tub/pool deck too crowded for those of us desiring social distancing, so we never used it.

We did, however, ride our bikes to the beach a few times.  Since it was so close, it was easy for us to go for just a short while (me) or a longer part of the day (Ryan and William).   The water was warm if you got in....and stayed in!

In addition to our local beach access at Blue Mountain, we drove to Topsail State Park one afternoon.  We didn't intend to go swimming, but the beach was beautiful and would have been a great day for that.   We did some wading instead and then did a hike through the trails.

It was so great to get away and have warmth and sunshine!  I loved our beach house because of all the natural light.   It was a lovely place to work during the day and spend family time cooking and playing games in the evenings!   Luckily Ryan was on PTO most of the week and he and William had their bikes and a full slate of adventures!