Minnesota

We had so much fun in Minnesota. We got to visit with two sets of my grandparents, saw LOTS of other family that we seldom see, got to visit with my parents, Thomas got another "Gram bag" and time with Pops, we saw Joel TWICE (he even got up to meet us for breakfast BEFORE work!), got to eat lots of Grandma Bonnie's bread, Thomas went up and down the stairs to the basement about 30 times a day, he played lots of "pickog" or ping pong and we all got lots of hugs!

We got to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary by going to the Minnesota reception of my cousin Bjorn and his new wife Emily. It was so fun to see them and meet Emily's family as well as get in some more visiting time with my parents and other grandparents. It was a gorgeous dinner and we had a great time!

Four Generations: Gordon and Bonnie Addington, Tom and Sue Addington, Brax and Kim Watkins, Thomas Watkins

I would say one of the highlights of the trip for Thomas was getting to spend time with my cousins. I have a lot and he got to spend time with a bunch of them on Thursday night, and then a few more on Friday morning. They were all so sweet to let him be around since he was the youngest. He kept running around saying, "kids! kids!" and when they were gone he asked for "more kids?!" Then Friday night my cousin Mandie babysat so Brax and I could go to another one of my cousin's wedding reception. Thomas had a great time with her and woke up on Saturday morning saying, "Mandie again?"

One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing Thomas spending time with my sweet grandparents. He said "Gampa Gordy" about 600 times while we were there, and "Bonnie" about 350! He loved being around them! And Grandpa was so sweet to read to him on several occasions! I have SUCH great memories of being read to by him and it was a joy to see that tradition continued on to Thomas.

Chicago

On our way up to Minnesota we stopped in Chicago for two and a half days. We used the last of our Hilton points and stayed at the Embassy Suites Downtown/Waterfront. It was totally worth using our points. The hotel was great! We were able to walk to both Navy Pier and Michigan Avenue very easily. Brax and I even got to watch the Navy Pier fireworks on Saturday night from the comfort of our hotel room! We had a lot of fun! We played in our hotel room, Thomas and Brax played in the pool, we took full advantage of the great breakfast, got in a fun visit with my cousin Sarah and her husband Brad, enjoyed Chicago Deep Dish pizza and all in all lived the city life for a couple days. (I'm really a city girl at heart!)

Thomas' favorite thing that we did in Chicago was the Lincoln Park Zoo. He got to see lots of "ammals" and the zoo is free so we went twice. He even got to see polar bears and penguins which they didn't have at the Birmingham Zoo. However, elephants have still eluded us. We're looking for a zoo that has some of those to show our little Bama buddy! Even though the lions, tigers and giraffes were especially pretty his favorite exhibit was the Monkey House! It was also really neat to visit the farm that is at the zoo. It was supposed to be a petting zoo, but while we were there there weren't any animals being petted. It was really cool to see the cows being milked and that's where Thomas got to climb on the huge tractor. We got to see a bee hive, and baby chicks as well as eggs in an incubator. It was a GREAT zoo and the heat of the day made us so thankful that our first two days weren't quite so hot!

We had fun at the Chicago Children's Museum. Even though a lot of the exhibits for for older kids Thomas did get to play in the water, do some painting, sit in an ambulance, build a skyscraper, and put new wheels on a car.

We went to Navy Pier twice. On Sunday monring we walked all the way down to the end, and then back for a boat ride. This is also where the Children's Museum is so we let Thomas take a train ride and had lunch here at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company after we visited the Museum.

On This Glorious Day Five Years Ago...