Winter Vacation: Part 1: Chapter 2

I hope Jackson had as super and fun day as I thin he did on Monday!!! We drove to meet Auntie Cassie and Jonah to try out a trial Gymboree class. I think the age range in this class was 10-15 months. I think. It was hilarious to watch them check everything out. Neither of them really knew what to make of it (it's not like we have loads of climbing things and mats at home!), and they mostly stuck together. They started by crawling onto a chunky mat and crawling on it. It was a weird sensation since it had some give and wasn't a totally solid surface. Once we got started they had fun experimenting at all of the stations. We didn't know the "rules," but the girl leading the class didn't seem to mind when our little guys went to explore something else after taking a turn on her specific piece of equipment. That was great since there's NO way these guys understand to wait patiently for their turns ;) Jackson's favorite thing by far was this little double-sided staircase that had two steps going up and two steps going down. This is because he learned how to go up and down the one step at Mimi and Grandpa's from the dining room into the addition. He just did as soon as we arrived Friday morning! Maybe we was gearing up for that new trick on the drive??? While he definitely enjoyed the step the most, Jackson tried, and liked, the wedge to climb up, the slide (going up and down!), a rock climbing wall type of thing for babies, and a huge stuffed roller. All of the kids worked together to roll it across the floor. That was pretty funny! Bubbles got a huge thumbs up :) The parachute, however, sadly earned a thumbs down :( Cass and I were so glad we tried out the class together, but it's probably not for either of us right now.

From Gymboree, we went across the street to meet Brandi and Kaitlyn at Portillo's for lunch. Cassie, Brandi, and I spent two lovely years in the Early Childhood Education cohort together at U of I. Since then we have lived in Mississippi, North Carolina, Arizona, Virginia, and Wisconsin. It was wonderful to get together with our kiddos! Kaitlyn is seven months old and an absolute sweetheart! Lunch we super yummy! From there we moved to Brandi's in-laws' house a few minutes away.





The boys had a great time exploring the Buerstatte basement! There was a pool table and Jonah was determined to play! He was so funny once he got a ball--he just did laps around the table while carrying it! Kaitlyn was a very gracious hostess and let the boys try out her new toys! We had such a good time catching up and watching Jackson, Jonah, and Kaitlyn play together :)

Jackson fell asleep right away in the car as we drove to go meet my dad at Cheesecake Factory for a yummy snack of Strawberry Shortcake. It is our tradition to do that, and Jackson made a wonderful addition this time :) We were nice enough to share some of the dessert with him and he LOVED it!