Nicki And Adam's Family Blog

Spring Break 2018 took us to Duluth, MN. We had to FIGHT THE TRAFFIC all the way there. All the people going north for spring break is just unreal.... Ha! As Charlie says "we don't like to go South for spring break, we like to go North." Apparently this is true, at least for this year.  Duluth was awesome. A great aquariam and Train Depot and a pool in the condo kept us plenty occupied. On our way home we stopped at the Mall of America. We did rides, obviously, and it was PACKED. Like almost panic attack inducing. We stayed overnight at a hotel and have found that: one room (at least a standard room) is just too small for this family of 5. Can anyone say extra LARGE Starbucks? But we have some good stories to take back, that's for sure!

So when a person dies, you have an entire year to grieve through all of the events that they are no longer here for. This includes birthdays, holidays, polka fests (for dad), etc... Today we celebrated Dad's birthday by bringing a cake to the Aster for Mom and going out to eat at Vintage in Madison with whomever from the family was available. It was a joyous day.  Dad-I hope that your birthday in Heaven was spectacular. 

.....of our children because they are SPECTACULAR!

Tonight was a dream, a literal dream. An Amazing win over Purdue, students storming the court, Frank Kaminsky retirement of the Jersey and fantastic seats from Charlie's amazing Teacher, Mrs. Herb.  Some days are truly amazing....today was one of them. Let's get season tickets next year to keep these memories going...

Charlie got his first stitches at age 7, by running around the house and slipping on the tile and cutting his chin on the wood banister.  So far, this has been my favorite injury. We were in and out of UC in about 30 minutes. He wasn't bothered by it at all. GO STITCHES!

Christmas was a little different this year. We celebrated a  bit, but also spent a ton of time working on the house. There was still much to do in regards to cleaning it out and removing carpets, etc.... It was also a bit different because Dad wasn't there, or mom. But we did spend a good portion of time with Mom on both Christmas Eve and Christmas day for lunch. I sure hope she knows how much we love her and how much it truly hurts me to see her there each day. But I don't know a better alternative. Here are some pics of the the celebrations

On November 4th, Bob was in town to visit my mom who has been at Aster Memory Care for about 9 months now. I decided to invite Bob, Dad, Jeannie, Greg, and Raelee and Dan over for dinner. In all actuality, I invited everyone, but those were who could attend. Adam made some delicious chili and merriment was all around. Dad even walked in and hugged me that night (not that he wouldn't do that, but for some reason I really remember it...). We partook in Brandy Old Fashioned's and Margaritas and watching college football games. All was well. As seen below: Raelee was enjoying her first "Legal" alcoholic drink with Grandpa. We were talking about Christmas and Thanksgiving when my dads last words were "Keep It Simple"-but they were very slurred. I went over to Jeannie and I said, "is something wrong with dad?" and she said "I didn't understand anything he just said." So I went behind the couch and touched him and said "hey, dad......