Downtown Chicago

The months leading up to our cross country trip I thought it would be fun to make all of us a special shirt that we could all wear during our trip.  I know families have shirts made through a company or the like, but I thought it would be more fun to make tie dye shirts.  It would be a project for the kids and I to do and would serve a purpose for our trip.  Boom, two birds with one stone!

I remember doing it as kid with buckets of dye and white shirts that were scrunched together with rubber bands.  When I went to the craft store they had tie dye kits for about $10.  Cool!  We all sat around the TV as we watched "how to" make the different designs.  Each kid chose his design and Anne and I got to work.  This became a mother-daughter project since the boys chose not to help - which was fine because we had a lot of fun.

So we are already on day 8 of our trip and we still haven't worn our shirts.  We decided this would be the day!

Out of all the shirts, I liked Max's the most!

We decided to go downtown and visit Millennium Park.

What a fun place.  As soon as we got there, the first thing we see are The Crown Fountains.  I certainly didn't read about this place before coming so I wasn't expecting to see this.

I've never seen anything like this before!  The kids just went crazy and wanted to play in the water.  How could we not let them, right?  If I did read about Millennium Park before we got there, I would have brought bathing suits and towels.  Our first stop for the day and our children get soaked!  It was another beautiful day with mild temps and blue skies!  Just loving it!

Lots of squeals of delight!

Thank goodness Max stayed put in his stroller!  He stayed nice and dry.

It would have been perfect to have Max in the middle of this photo, but that wasn't going to happen.  We already get comments from random people when crossing paths with this big family of 8, now we were more of a spectacle with being a big family of 8 in tie dye shirts!  I certainly don't mind showing off our beautiful family - I'm blessed - but the tie dye may have embarrassed me a bit!  I got over it eventually, but people are free with their comments as usual!

We eventually left the Crown Fountains and started exploring.

There were art sculptures all over the park.  In this one, it looks like someone dumped water all over the sculpture and Bernadette.

This is Anne being one with the art (by Jun Kaneko).

We walked through the Lurie Gardens.  I just love the skyline of Chicago.  It is such a beautiful city.

Once we got through the Lurie Gardens we heard some music and knew something was going on.  We approached the Jay Pritzker Pavillion and on it's Great Lawn they were having a huge Zumba class!  The music was lively and there were tons of people participating in this Zumba class.  We stood watching.  There were all sorts of people exercising from old men to bag ladies - all shaking their thang!  It was almost contagious to go out there and join them - didn't happen.  This is definitely something I don't see everyday.

Then we headed over to a red tent which had something going on inside. 

I don't really remember exactly what it was, but I think it was something Target was sponsoring and they had a bunch of activities for kids.  So our kids stopped by to play a bit.

Then we headed off to my favorite part of the park...

The Cloud Gate, aka The Bean.  I remember reading or seeing this before and again, didn't realize I was going to be seeing it that day.  I think it was a neat idea of putting this in the middle of the park.  It's not just a piece of art, but a fun toy for people of all ages!  You can just see why it's fun to hang around.  It's a big mirror shaped like a bean that distorts it's reflections in a fun way.

There we are together in our tie dye!

At this point my kids are damp not wet.  Drying off still...

You can get under this bean and get some cool reflections.

After walking around Millennium Park we decided to walk through the city, down Michigan Ave.,  and get some lunch. 

What a fun city.  I keep having to compare it to New York when I talk about it.  It's just more open, cleaner, friendlier people, classier, prettier - however, New York is classic, artful, interesting and is really a city that is always awake!  I'd choose Chicago to live in, however.

You know you watch a lot of movies when you start recalling a bunch of different scenes from movies when you look at the Chicago River.  Gotta get a picture of it!

We walked around Chicago for a while.  Had to find a potty for Eddie to use.  And then find a corner to nurse Max.

We walked through an art fair which was nice.  We headed back to our car and realized we lost one of Bernadette's bright green crocs halfway there.  The kids and I parked ourselves near a building on Michigan Ave. and timed Daddy to see how long it would take for him to return to us.  I think we clocked him at a little over 12 minutes.

Once we got to the car, we went on a drive to visit where my father-in-law grew up.  There were two homes that he lived in which were very close to each other.  We took pictures of us there and then we headed back to our hotel to call it a day!

We rested up at our hotel for another day downtown.  We were going to head to Lincoln Park Zoo and also spend time at the beach along Lake Michigan!

4th of July in Chicago

We left Ohio and headed to Chicago on the fourth of July.  We drove most of the day and got there just in time to check into our hotel and head to a local celebration.  Our hotel was near the airport and we found a place to celebrate not too far away! 

When we got there, it was a familiar scene of tons of people walking to the same place looking for the perfect spot to lay their blankets and stuff.  We had no idea where the fireworks were going to show up since it was a large park with a huge lake in the middle.  We used our imagination and decided on a spot.  It was also really near the food!

The kids stayed with me while Joe went and got some food for everyone.  He came back with a large pizza and some Mexican food!  I'm always hungry and remember the food as being really yummy.  As we were waiting for the food, the kids noticed all the other kids playing with toys that glowed.  They saw some swords that lit up like light sabers and Bernadette was eyeing the battery operated bubble gun.  There were bubbles everywhere!

After eating, Joe took the kids out and about to look around since we had some time to kill.  When they came back, they had a bunch of those toys that lit up and that bubble gun Bernadette was eyeing.  They all decided they would help Daddy with some of their own money to purchase all these fun toys.  Joe said that the guy selling the toys didn't realize what a hit they were going to be.  They were all sold out - our kids got the last double sword thingymabobby.

 

Eddie came back with some cotton candy.

 



We watched the sun go down, listened to a really good band playing Journey songs in the background while the kids played with their toys.  We were getting a little wet from all the bubbles coming our way from every direction, but the sound of their laughter and look of their smiles was just awesome as we enjoyed the gorgeous evening.

The fireworks started at 9:30pm!  To me, that's late.  I seem to think that they usually start at 9pm.  What's half an hour?  A lot when you have 6 kids.  Thankfully, it didn't matter.  The kids were great and having fun!  The fireworks started and our view was pretty good since they had one on either side of us.  I'm not sure if that was planned or another celebration going on at the same time.  Anyway - stunning fireworks!  All the kids enjoyed it, even Max who didn't show any signs of being tired.  No one was scared of the loud noises.  Yeh!

Overall, a great evening!  Thank you Chicago! 

The next day, we were going downtown!

Cross Country Conintued - Butler, PA & Toledo, OH

I really tried to blog about our cross country trip, but with all the craziness involved with sneaking a family of 8 into one hotel room, getting kids ready for bed, getting ready for the next day, winding down AND rarely getting a strong Internet connection, made blogging not possible.

The three weeks of traveling has now turned into one huge blurred event in my head.  I no longer have those great details of the trip in my head to share, but still have the highlights - I think, we'll see.

Thank God, we have the itinerary Joe made on an excel spreadsheet I can refer to as I continue to record our travels.

Tuesday, July 2-3

After leaving Niagara Falls, we headed to Butler, OH to visit Joe's brother's family.  Tom and his family live furthest away from us and our visits are rare.  The kids were so excited to play with their cousins.  When we arrived, their cousin Timmy shared all the Star Wars toys they had!  This provided endless entertainment for my kids since they are consumed by world of the Jedi at the present time!  We spent the evening eating pizza and chatting while the kids played.

The next morning, the kids spent the morning playing Wii.  Our kids just spent their money combined on a Wii set and it arrived right before we left for our cross country trip.  The kids were so happy to be playing Wii and looked forward to coming home to play some more.

 

 

After the kids played for a while, the grown ups played a game or two.  It became pretty competitive between Joe and Tom and it spilled over into the kids' cheering for their dads!  That competitive spirit is contagious!

 

After, eating lunch it was time to continue our trip.  It was a short, but nice visit! 

 



Our next destination was the Toledo Zoo.  We love to visit zoos and see the animals.  The highlight of this zoo were the polar bears!  It was crowded, perhaps because the polar bears were very active when we visited.

We were also told that the hippos (old time favorite animal) had a great show at this zoo, but we were a little disappointed because we couldn't get a good look at them. 

Did I mention how great the weather was?  Our whole trip was so pleasant with mild weather.  It makes for really great traveling!  It was even better knowing we were away from the sweltering weather back home - yeah!

This picture reminds me of the fish we left at home.  We have a 10 gallon and a 50 gallon fish tank at home filled with tropical fish.  We had a neighbor who graciously volunteered to feed our fish twice a day!  So blessed to have good neighbors.  This particular fish would not fit into our tank.

This was the first of many zoos we visited on our cross country trip.  We spent the night in Toledo.  Our original plan was to head over to Indianapolis, IN the next day and hang out at the Indianapolis Speedway and then celebrate the fourth of July somewhere near or in the city, but because of rain in the forecast, we decided to head straight to Chicago, IL and spend the fourth of July over there.

My Mommy



January 20, 1947 - August 6, 2013

My mom.  She passed away on August 6, 2013.  It's a significant life experience to have one of  my parents pass onto heaven.  There are the roller coaster of emotions to ride through putting your mom to rest.  Then there are the constant thoughts of your time with your mother during your life.  The last moments I had with her became vivid and more meaningful.  I immediately started talking to her in my prayers and felt close to her, but at the same time I missed her and felt her absence.  I often describe it as feeling happy/sad - knowing Mom is in the place God prepared especially for her in Heaven and imagining her radiating God's love and peace, makes me happy - but sad, too.

No one did a eulogy for my mother, which is fine with me.  Having been to funerals before, celebrating my mother's was different.  Being able to see family and friends come together at a moments notice to celebrate her life was so very touching.  Being surrounded by those who loved my mother, we got to hear plenty of stories about my mom and how she touched their lives in some way.  It was amazing to hear some of the stories.  It became clear how God used my mother to touch and impact many lives.  I noticed a lot of people remembered her boisterous laugh - it was contagious!  Even that, a simple gift from God, she was able to share with us.  No eulogy needed, got plenty of heartfelt words from everyone.  Like my mother, we are truly instruments of God and if we let Him into our lives, imagine how his love could spread - just like that. 

I find myself eulogizing my mother when I'm by myself.  I catch myself doing so and start talking to my mother and telling her everything. 

My mom.  I think the greatest gift my mother gave me was my faith in God.  She was an example in her own way - the way God made her - of a mother who grabbed hold of her vocation and instilled faith into her family.  She made sure she showed us the importance of faith in God's love.  What a challenge that is in today's world.  This is a promise we make at baptism to make sure we raise our children in the Light of Christ - thank you, Mom for fulfilling your promise to God.  She didn't just stop with her family, she continued on to be a bright light for friends and family who crossed paths with her. 

My mom.  I am so thankful to have seen such great faith in my mother in the last two years of her life.  We consider those two years to be a huge gift from God.  We thought we were going to lose her but God had other plans.  My mother endured so much and was faced with so many challenges, but embraced them all with a sweet surrender and a smile.  The time my father was able to spend with my mother, while he cared for her, was a blessed time for them.  The grace of the sacrament of marriage, at work, blessed their marriage the last couple of years - only the two of them can relish in that intimacy.

Mom, I love you, I thank you and I miss you.  I know you will always be near.

My parents at my wedding

This is one of my favorite shots of my parents in their youthful days!

One of the few family shots of all of us together

This was taken at their home in Ft. Valley, VA



Maid Of The Mist

Day 4
Niagra Falls, Buffalo
July 1^st

Our next destination was to Niagara Falls, NY.  I haven’t been there since college and even then, I don’t think I had a full experience.  The plan was to go on the Maid of the Mist and get a close up look at the falls!  I was so excited to do this.  I don’t think the kids had any idea of the magnitude of the falls.

The ride there was smooth.  We were checking the weather to see if the rain was going to be a problem and it looked like we’d make it there during a window of no rain.  Since we were driving through Buffalo, NY we wanted to stop by the birthplace of the buffalo wing!  Buffalo wings are very popular in our home and we needed to pay homage!

We made it to Anchor Bar in time for lunch.  We heard it may be crowded, but fortunately it wasn’t at all.  We ordered about 50 wings and a large pepperoni pizza.  It was a lot of food!  At home, only a few of us eat wings.  Joe & I always eat them.   Patrick is the only child that regularly eats them with us.  Bernadette occasionally eats them if I tear the meat off the bones for her.  After feeding Max his lunch of butternut squash, I gave him some of the wings (w/o the hot stuff) and he liked them so much he had around 2 or 3 wings!  The wings were really yummy and the pizza was really delicious, too.  We had plenty of leftovers to take with us.

 

We found our hotel right near the falls, got settled in and then proceeded to walk to the Falls.  Once we got there we found the place to buy our Maid of the Mist tickets.  We made our way to the boat and were given our blue plastic ponchos.

Since I was carrying Max with my baby carrier, I tore a hole in mine so his head could stick out and still be protected.

There were two levels of the boat we could ride on – we chose the top, of course!  As we approached the falls, it got windier and the mist started get heavier.  The kids were loving it!  As we got closer you could feel the power behind it all.  It was fierce and a bit scary at the thought of just getting closer.  It was definitely an experience.  The ride was too short because once we got there we turned around and headed back. 

We walked around some of the other viewing areas of the falls.  I loved the mist. 

The Canada side was so close, too bad we couldn’t cross over for just a while.  It was neat enough to be able see another country.

Back at the motel, we started munching on our leftovers.  We did so much walking that even Tommy decided to eat some wings.  He decided right there that he liked wings and ate a handful of them.  So far on this trip, Tommy has surprised me with the new foods he’s taking to – wings and burgers.  Wow.  That makes me happy.

Another great trip with new memories and experiences.  Thank you God!

The next day we were headed to Butler, PA to visit Joe’s brother Tom and his family!

Grand Canyon, PA

Day 3, June 30 – Grand Canyon, PA

After going to Mass and having a huge breakfast with the family, we departed for the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.  I’ve never heard of this place before, but it’s supposed to be stunning!  We had about a 3.5 hour trip ahead of us.  We wanted to head over to our motel first and get settled in first.  I’m sort of weary of motels because you never know what you’re going to get.  We pulled into a really small motel – it almost looked like one long trailer.  We got our room and started to unload.  Our motel was really comfortable and clean!  Ahhhh…  The kids are always excited once they get to a hotel/motel.  They start jumping from one bed to another.  It makes me sort of nervous all the time.  We are a family of 8 and most hotels consider our family size a fire hazard for one room.  Shhhhhh, don’t say anything!  The kids are just fine sleeping on the floor or wherever.  Perhaps, when they are older we’ll try to get more room for all of us!  As for now, Joe & I walk in with the kids separately so we look like two families rather than one large one.

We headed towards the East View to see the Canyon.  It was really stunning! 

 

What a view it was!  We took some pictures and admired the view for a while and then decided to take one of the paths down to the bottom which is about a mile down in switchbacks.  The little kids already didn’t want to walk any further, I didn’t think we’d make it down the hill yet alone back up the hill!  I would have loved to go down to the bottom so it was a little disappointment.

We ended up going to the Pine Creek Rail Trail because it was stroller friendly.  However once we got there it didn’t seem to really take us close enough to the creek at the bottom of the canyon.  The kids started to get really tired so we headed back to the car.  They just ran a race up and down two steep mountains and they couldn’t handle a stroll on a flat trail?  I guess they were just tired…Joe & I just figured this wasn’t a place to bring little kids.  Perhaps, when they are older.  I even suggested to Joe that we could make this a getaway weekend sometime.

 

Back at our motel, there was supposedly a pond and a little “beach” with paddle boats that the kids could have fun in.  My kids seemed really excited about that.  We decided to eat dinner first, but finding a place to eat was a little challenging since the first two places were closed.  Joe found a place called the Log Cabin Inn.  I was expecting something more simple, but it ended up being a little upscale with things like filet mignon and seafood on the menu, etc…  The restaurant had a bunch of stuffed animals all over the wall.  My kids loved that!  We had a moose right above our table.  There was a stuffed bear (formerly dead) at the other end of the restaurant near the salad bar! 

As we walked in, I could sort of feel the stares of the other customers in the restaurant looking at the size of our family.  I immediately thought they were worried about the peaceful dining environment turning into chaos!  Fortunately, my kids were really well-behaved and I started counting the number of people that came up to our table to comment on our beautiful family and well-behaved kids - I counted 6.  Wow.  Though I’m thankful my children were well-behaved, I had to pause and think that perhaps the opposite behavior is what people were expecting with large families?

Dinner was fantastic.  Anne discovered the salad bar.  She’s going to do the salad bar next time, she says.  The other thing that she surprised me with was her love of my marinated mushrooms I got.  Really?  She ate all of them.  They were good, gotta find a recipe now.

Afterwards, we went back to our motel and the kids put their bathing suits on and headed to the back.  The rain came and poured down heavily as we ate dinner and luckily ended in time for my kids to enjoy the pond.  I followed everyone to the back of the motel and saw this beautiful mist above the pond and around the mountain tops. 

 

The pond was beautiful and the grounds behind the motel were so well-kept!  The kids hopped into the paddle boats and paddled all over with their dad.  Bernadette and I found some beach toys to enjoy.  It was absolutely peaceful and quiet with the sound of my kids’ laughter.  Couldn’t ask for anything more.

The evening ended with hot showers and a good sleep.  The next day we were headed over to Niagara Falls, NY!

Day 2 Patterson Cross Country Trip

Grand Loop, Hyndman, PA

We arrived a little after midnight, but still woke up early.  We all got something to eat.  I wanted to make sure I drank a lot, get enough eat for energy and ate a banana since I knew I was going to be running a lot of hills.  My kids were already outside running around checking out some of the race course.  My brother-in-law is the mastermind behind this Grand Loop.  His house is nestled between two large mountains.  He spent the last couple of months laying out the trail that would take us up and down both mountains, making sure it was challenging, marking it clear for everyone to follow safely and making some actual obstacles for us to do.

Both obstacles here are ones you climb.  The one in the back has a rope to help you climb the wall to the other side.

At first, I thought you were supposed to run through this obstacle, but then learned you were supposed to go under the poles. 

There are a few times a year we get all the Pattersons together and this was one of them.  Just waiting for them to arrive adds to the excitement.

As soon as everyone arrived we sat down together to go over rules, the course and safety issues.

There are four brothers and members from each family raced.  We started the race around 10 am.  Each racer is being timed and the competitiveness was in the air – who would have the best time?  Certainly, not me.  I have not done any training whatsoever to prepare.  However, just the thought of running it was thrilling!  I’ve always wanted to do this sort of thing and when you do watch people run a race like this, you can’t help but be inspired!

 

This is the map of the Loop.

So the race began as we watched each member disappear into the mountains, loop around and go up the second mountain to return and do the obstacles at the end.  Once we saw the racer reappear out the of woods and make their run back -  the cheering began and we would all gather to watch them finish the best part of the race – the obstacles. 

In my family, Joe went first.  I followed him after two minutes and then Anne followed me.  I was feeling pretty optimistic and also inspired by all the other families who raced before us.  I was thinking I was going to do pretty well.  I was worried about Anne doing this course by herself, but after watching everyone, I was a bit more confident she would be fine. 

I was following Joe at one point and then he just disappeared.  He is in great shape, I knew he was almost done as I was huffing and puffing up the first hill.  I was telling myself, slow and steady.  Once I got to the top of the mountain I started running the crest of the mountain thinking I would make up the time for my slow climb.  As soon as I was on my way down, my legs felt like jello.  It was almost as tough as going up! 

I got down one mountain and started jogging to the back mountain.  I could see Anne behind me and she was doing really well.  I was using her as a motivation to keep on going.  The second mountain was more like walk, stop, pant, pant, walk, stop, pant, pant…  Once I got to the top of the hill, I started picking up my pace again on the crest.  As I was following the signs in front of me, I sort of missed one and got off the path.  I was lost!  I couldn’t believe it!  Fortunately, my daughter was not far behind and she helped me get back on the path.  It delayed her time a bit, unfortunately.  Once, we were together I made sure she knew it was ok to pass me.  I eventually passed her and then I thought I was at the end of the loop and was so happy, but my heart sank when I saw one last hill to climb, a steep one, too!  The trail was so slick it was hard to climb, I kept sliding down.  Anne eventually caught up and couldn’t get up the hill – she kept sliding down.  She was getting so frustrated, poor thing.  I had to help her out and gave her my leg to grab and pulled her up.  After that, she eased on up the steep hill as I was crawling up the hill out of breath.  She would have passed me up eventually.

Finally, I slid my way down the rest of the mountain and jogged back to the end of the race towards the obstacles.

I was able to complete three out of the four obstacles.

I ended up with the worst time – I knew I was going to be humbled.  However, so very pleased to have finished the race!

Here are a few pictures of the race:

This is Joe climbing the wall.  I was not able to do this obstacle.

 



 

This is the last obstacle before completing the race.  Everyone in the family swam under the poles!

So proud of my little one!

I think it’s such a blessing to be able to have family come together from all over to spend a weekend doing something as creative as the Grand Loop!  Even though not everyone raced, most everyone did and it was so exciting to watch each member complete the Loop.  Everyone did a great job!  Thanks to my brother-in-law who put the whole race together.

The next day we left the Farm to head over to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania!