Goodbyes are Tough

Over the past month and particularly over the past week, we have had to say goodbye to a lot of really great friends.  All of these friends moved here two years ago just like we did, but their husbands' programs are over and they are moving on (two years is a really common amount of time for graduate students to be here...we're kind of the odd ones in that we will quite possibly be here an entire decade!).

This has been one of the neatest and most fun communities to live in.  Many of us would have never crossed paths had we not been placed together in University of Chicago graduate student housing....we're all from different parts of the country (some of us even from different countries) and many of us come from different religious backgrounds.  The things that brought us together were our ties to the University of Chicago and our roles as wives and mothers.

Living together in this building has felt almost like living in the dorm again, except everybody is married and has kids. There were lots of spontaneous play dates, random knocks on the door from friends delivering yummy treats or just saying hey, lots of fun times in the Tot Lot during the cold winters, many afternoon "Happy Hours" at the park (the time between 4:00 and 5:00 every afternoon when all the kids were up from their naps and we needed to pass that last hour before dinner without losing our sanity...no alcohol involved, just some much-needed adult conversation), girls nights without the kids, date night swaps (free babysitting!), etc., etc.

In all of these goodbyes, a lot of tears have been shed. We have watched each others' kids go from babies to full-fledged toddlers and we have shared many wonderful memories together. Jesse talks about his friends all the time, and it makes me so sad to think that it is only a matter of time before he doesn't even remember this part of our lives. He knew where all his friends lived in the building and lived for getting to go visit them.

I just wanted to record this phase of our lives with some pictures of Jesse and his buddies and a few rare pictures of the Moms.

This is Jesse with Sid and Holman sometime back in May.  Jesse and Sid decided to become "best buddies" just months before they moved away. The Subway lunch was Jesse's "suggestion" one day on the playground, so we jumped on it!

Many, but not all of the ladies in our building at our holiday party this past December.

Maggie, Andrea and myself at a "Sip and See" we threw for Andrea right after Charlotte was born (our first spring here, more than a year ago).

Jesse and Lilah hanging out in thier pjs and rain boots.

Lilah attacking Jesse with leaves at Promontory Point this past fall. Jesse didn't seem to mind too much ;)

In our final days together, Maggie, Andrea and I had an indoor picnic (it was rainy outside) with our kids.

Celebrating Donut Day with Sid and Holman before we took off for the Children's Museum together.

Jesse and Kayla hanging out and coloring together the week before they moved.

Jesse and Alyse saying a final goodbye to each other.

Jesse saying his final goodbyes to Lilah and Charlotte.

 

Camping Vacation- Days 6 & 7

On Friday we spent the day on Mackinac Island.  We took a ferry over early in the morning (there are no cars on the island) and spent the day touring the fort and other historic buildings, hiking around the state park and eating yummy food (including some famous Mackinac Island fudge).

The ferry ride took us under the famous Mackinaw Bridge, which divides Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  It was cold and windy, especially riding on top, but Jesse still seemed to really enjoy it, and he loved seeing the lighthouses and the bridge and catching glimpses of the boat's captain.

Here we are coming into the docks at Mackinac Island and you can see Fort Mackinac atop the hillside.

The most popular modes of transportation on the island are horse-drawn carriages and bicycles.

We enjoyed touring all the buildings at the fort, things like the soldiers' quarters, bathhouses, family living quarters, etc.

These soldiers demonstrated their rifles for us.  It made a big impression on Jesse and he still talks about the soldiers (sometimes he refers to them as wise men...not sure where he got that) and the "scary place" (the loud noise was kinda scary for him).

Jesse posing in front of the schoolhouse:

Looking through the walls of the fort...

The Grand Hotel...

There was a small area set up for kids with some hands-on activities.  Jesse got to try out a soldier's bed and play a game of checkers.

After touring the fort and eating lunch we hiked some of Mackinac Island State Park's paved trails up to the Arch Rock. Jesse slept through the whole thing.

We left early Saturday morning to drive back to Chicago so that we'd have a full day on Sunday to get things back in order before the new week started. Since it was only a couple hours longer to drive back via the Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin, we decided to take that route, which allowed us to (mostly) complete the Lake Michigan Circle Tour.

Camping Vacation- Day 5

On Thursday morning we packed up and headed further north to Wilderness State Park, which is located very close to the Mackinaw Bridge that separates the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan.  The drive was beautiful and followed the coastline pretty tightly most of the time.

We took a wrong turn as we got near the state park and we realized that it got its name (wilderness) for a reason.  Our little car nearly got stuck in some of the ruts on this dirt road, and between the tall grasses that we were driving over and the low-hanging branches that we were driving under, we kind of felt like we were in a tunnel of sorts.  It was definitely an adventure!  I'm just glad nobody got stuck.

After we got settled we of course had to check out the park's playground.  Unfortunately it was a bit of a let-down and was really just a row of swings and a horseshoe pit. Jesse still had fun, but we ended up going back to the camper pretty quickly because the mosquitoes were so bad.

After dinner we set out on a hike.  In addition to swarms of mosquitoes (the plus side was that they made us hike very quickly and not take many breaks) we also saw a snake on the bridge in the picture below. To avoid disturbing him, we started at the other end of the trail and just hoped he would be history by the time we made it back (he was).

Camping Vacation- Day 4

On our last day at Sleeping Bear Dunes we ventured into Traverse City for a trip to Wal-Mart and a stop at McDonald's for lunch.  Jesse napped in the car after lunch and woke up in time for a hike to Pyramid Point, which was probably my favorite hike from the trip.  The views were amazing and the pictures don't do it justice! After dinner that evening we drove down to the Platte River where it empties into Lake Michigan (just a few minutes from our campground) and let Jesse have a blast playing with the rocks, sand and water, but I didn't bring my camera along so I don't have any pictures of that.