Furlough Bucket List

We went back to the States with quite a few items on our bucket list....some of them got checked off easily and fully and with much satisfaction, but others, well....a lot of things just didn't go as planned :)  But that's ok.  We still had a very full and fulfilling furlough, and came back hopefully a little more renewed and with lots of good memories.

The first thing on our furlough bucket list was just to GET there! :)  We were really ready to come back for furlough and see family and friends and get away a while.  Yes, I actually did get an app for this...

Our next bucket list item was to start when we got off the airplane.  We were going to head out of the Bloomington airport parking lot in a van with kids in carseats, and hop across the street to eat wings.  But....after a middle of the night departure to make our 8am flight, our flight from Port was delayed right away :(  So we finally got settled that we would like to just have tickets to Chicago, please, and don't worry about getting us to the far reaches of the earth to get us to Bloomington that night, thanks.  David's parents came and got us at Chicago with a van with carseats, and we did have a nice supper on the way home :)

A little unsure about the whole carseat thing....

We did get her in, but sometimes it took a little persuading on long trips...which resulted in slight disaster but a quiet car.

Eat at Chipotle once a week.  I knew this was kind of unrealistic, but oh my, it sounded like a really good idea.  This one got kaboshed as soon as our first flight got canceled, because there would be no Chipotle after the wings, and there were no plans to be back in the area of one in the next few days.  Week one was out, so I didn't have to keep up anything, although we did enjoy some really yummy steak/rice/bean/cheese/sour cream/lettuce filled burritos a few times.

Go swimming with the cousins before school starts.  Nope.  I got sick like the day after we got back, so that got cancelled and it was not very warm and sunny after that anyway :(  Maybe next year....

Camp over Labor Day Weekend with the Zimms.  Check!  We missed out last year, so we pretty much planned our furlough dates around camping (not really, but kind of ;) ).  It was a good time with family, relaxing, fishing, playing, and lots and lots of eating.

Orrin went fishing with grandpa one time, and gpa said Orrin talked the whole time which is not surprising...  Started with the disciples fishing and ended at the Cross :)

Don't worry about kids sleeping.  Mostly check.  I determined this furlough that I wasn't going to let our kids' bad furlough sleeping habits dampen our enjoyment.  They will get fixed again...eventually :)  There were a few times though where it was really hard to keep that resolution.....

Like when we were camping and Cass and I slept in the van.  This was her in the middle of the night....GO TO SLEEP!!

Asleep early one morning after a hard night of playing :-P

LOVE footie jammies on babies so I think we started using them in August :)!

"Bed," she said.  "Hahaha, bed," she said.  At 2:30am.  Exact quotes.

Driving the kids around in the wee hours of the night because Cass woke Orrin and he wouldn't sleep either.

Discussing Lego plans at 3am.

But thankfully, there was usually Grandpa and Grandma up in the mornings to take care of the littles when they woke up at the crack of dawn.  And we just kept sleeping blissfully.  Another check.  To sleep in.


Go to the Omaha Zoo with the Luthi family.  Check.  We were able to be at my U Brad and A Danette's for supper one night, and they had some pretty fun toys to play with.

If you won't drive fast, then just give me the wheel!!

Ewww, the elephants stink, mom!

Big safari girl with lions right behind!!

So much fun at the IMAX!

Getting spoiled by grandpa and grandma!

Spend lots of time with grandpas, grandmas, cousins and friends and family.  Check.  We had a lot of good times!!  Don't have pictures to document all of our times with friends, but we did do a lot of visiting!!!

We met my parents in Peoria a few times, it has a lot of fun stuff to do and is a good meeting point.

We got to go to a Haiti Lifeline benefit with Dad and Mom Z and other people from Oakville.  It was a really nice event and we got a ton of amazing food cooked by chefs from Chicago, served at Slagel farms.

Our out of town potluck...getting lots of kids and still a lot of fun!!

Jenna was back in Illinois and we got to see her for a half hour :)  Fun to have girls the same age!

Spending time with Lindz...so needed that!  We even got to do a little star-gazing, which was a highlight!
Spent lots of time with lots of good friends, but I guess I didn't take enough pictures :(

Met our Haiti friend Leah for supper...really great to see her again!

Orrin and Brielle sneaking off to have a romantic walk by the river :)

We went to our friends' William and Melissa's to visit, and they had birthday cake for Orrin!  He was a little shy and only ate a little, but Cass was all about eating hers AND his!

We were in the States to meet Wes and Kinsey's new baby Eva.  Cass LOVES babies!!

Go boating with Stephen.  Check.  It was a somewhat chilly day in September, but we went to Clinton Lake where the water is warmed by a nuclear power plant, and so the water was nice.  We had a lot of fun relaxing, tubing, swimming, and the guys tried out wakeboarding.

A fun day with the brothers.

 Do fun American things with the kids.  Check.  We went to a homecoming parade, the Orpheum Children's Museum in Champaign, library story hour, got a happy meal at McD's, and went to the park a lot.  Life was pretty much great.

Orrin wasn't sure what the library story hour was about at first, but he really had a lot of fun and still talks about it.  It will be on our bucket list for next year for sure!

Everyone was putting their names on the back of their project, and Orrin took the pen and wrote his name all by himself for the first time!!

The kids and I also met my mom in Peoria at the Riverfront Museum for a day.  They had fun, and then mom watched the kids while I went and took my Paramedic recert test....and passed.  So, another check!!  (whew!)

 Be able to just relax.  Check.  We kept busy and did a lot of fun stuff, but we managed to have down time too.  Just being at home with the family is some of our favorite times.

Waiting for some cookies.

Helping grandma make applesauce.

Hanging out in the evenings...tonight having fun with cell phones :)

There were two rats in the van's engine, and Roxie killed one.  Orrin ran inside to get his gun, ran back out, and said, "Got it!"

 Take Orrin to the dentist for the first time.  Check.  He was pretty unsure but mostly brave :)

Take a walk with the kids in a stroller, and not have anyone stop and ask us for money.  Uhhh...check.  Obviously, right :)

Set my cruise on the automatic car every time I drive.  Yeah, probably check.

Play hide and seek with gpa and gma in real life....not on skype!  Check!

Go garage saleing.  Yes, check :)  And to Frugality a lot.  Have to get these kiddos clothed for the next year.....

Start my laundry after 2pm.  Check and double check.  Sometimes I even started laundry after supper.  It seems like a little thing but is a pretty awesome american experience.  I put the clothes in the machine, then took them out and put them in the drier.  Then they were done.  It was kind of like a miracle.  No starting the load at 6:30 almost every day to get all the laundry done by 10am, so it can get dry before any rain comes in the afternoon.  No decisions of "should I leave the clothes on the line and hope the sprinkling rain stops, or should I take the clothes in and spread them all over my house so they dry and maybe I can get them put away before tomorrow?"

Celebrate Orrin's 4th birthday.  Check.  We were going to have both sets of grandparents at the party, but that didn't work out, and it was totally fine.  Orrin got to open gifts twice ;)  He got his Lightning McQueen semi and cars from Gpa and Gma Z and was pretty thrilled.  We had his party at G&G Gerst's.  He had a farm cake with candy corn, and his favorite gift was a big tub of Ben's old legos from U Walt and A Nola!!  So much fun!

Jealous :)

Pizza at TriOak with grandpa for Orrin's birthday.

But they were much more interested in the semis :)

Buy something off Amazon prime just to see what two day shipping is like.  Check.  Orrin was bummed his semi didn't come with the Lightning McQueen car, so we told him he could see if he got birthday money and/or work for it.  He did both....he got birthday money from Great Gma Gerst, and also helped Gma clean church and return pop cans to earn money.  We ordered his little toy car off of Amazon, and it arrived two days later.  Wowzers.

Go to Red Lobster for Endless Shrimp.  Check.  One Friday we didn't have anything going on in the evening, so Dad suggested we go there for supper :).  The waitress found out that Orrin's birthday was that week, and he got a free dessert.  They also came out and sang Happy Birthday to him, which he did not find very impressive, but we thought it was pretty funny :)

Zimm Octoberfest.  Check.  We had a really fun time together with the Zimmerman family for "Christmas".  We had lots of good food (of course), fun games, and Great Grandma got to be there too.  We played Bon Voyage where the teams of people raced to put on a clothing item in their "suitcase".  The first team done won the game.  There were a lot of crazy costumes :)  The little kids had fun playing with the clothes after the game, and grandma probably thought we were all crazy :)

Have a fire in the fireplace.  Check.  There were a few pretty chilly fall days, right??

Have a date together.  Check.  David and I got to go to Chicago without the kiddos.  It was a really relaxing trip, and a highlight of our time home.  We went on a walking food tour and experienced lots of fun Chicago-eateries, history, met new people, and had sushi for the first time.  We had planned to do a little more the next day, but we just headed home instead because David was to leave to go back to Haiti the next day.

Covered Bridge.  Nope.  We were supposed to go there the Friday before we went back, but with David gone, we just decided to skip it this time.

Spend time with Great-Grandmas.  Check.  We got to spend time with all three!  Great grandma Zimm was moved to the nursing home right before we arrived on furlough because she was really weak and sick.  She had a few ups and downs during the months, and she really enjoyed visitors :)  A few times we got to go to the nursing home for church with her.  One Sunday she got to hold Cassia on her lap in the wheelchair.  A few days later, she stopped eating and talking.  We went to visit her, and the kids were having popcorn.  She mouthed, "Popcorn."  So Cassia, who was sitting on gma's bed, started feeding her popcorn :)  She continued to go down after that, and passed away that next Sunday, the day before we went home.  We missed the funeral, but we were glad to be able to spend time with her while we were back.

Take two months in the States.  Well, almost check.  David left a week early to go back to Haiti after the hurricane.  The kids and I got the full two months.  We were glad that we made the decision for me to stay back with the kids...Cassia has a cyst that got infected the weekend we would have left, and I had to take her to the dermatologist and get it lanced and on antibiotics.  She was kind of a mess for a few days.  (And I got a bouquet of flowers out of it :) ).  We were really glad for the time we got to be on furlough, it was a really relaxing time and needed to gain a little perspective.

"When I get back to Haiti, I won't be able to help you Grandma."