Trip to Minnesota

After two days on the road with our kiddos, we arrived in Minnesota ready for a week packed with family and friends.  We were blessed with so many people that wanted to see us and share a meal and reintroduce our kids to each other after two years in Kenya!  We went nonstop from one social engagement to another, but it was good to spend quality time with so many people we love in Minnesota.

First things first: cousin time!  Have I ever mentioned there are a lot of Horn cousins?  There are, and we saw a lot of them last week, and our boys wasted no time finding swords and lightsabers as soon as the first cousin walked in the door :)

Oh, and in the middle of family time we squeezed in a chance to completely spoil Caleb and Kai by taking them to Wild Kratts Live at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis!  Wild Kratts is a favorite show in our house and it was quite the cause for excitement to see Martin and Chris Kratt live on stage, using their creature powers to boot, and rescuing animals from the Zachbots!

Back to cousin time.  It was particularly fun to watch our boys spend time with their immediate cousins.  The three boys and three girls loved playing together and chasing each other around.  After celebrating Caleb's and Faith's birthdays together, we enjoyed a family photo shoot at Como Park and I'm looking forward to seeing how the photos turn out!

Even more cousins!  We spent several nights with Eli's cousin Josh and his family.  Eli and Josh have been best friends for forever.  And Josh married a girl named Jamie who happened to be a friend of mine in college and who was a roommate of mine after graduation, so it's a magical mix of fun and friendship and family whenever we're together!  And our kids are the same ages and loved getting to know each other again.  And running around with water guns :)

And then the Farm.  Oh, the Farm.  This place will always have a special place in our hearts.  Eli proposed to me in the barn there.  And we lived in the basement apartment for several months during our first year of marriage.  Then we lived there again for a couple weeks after we had to move out of our house in Duluth.  The Farm has been a very good place to us.  Plus, Grandpa Horn has a tractor there now.  I'm pretty sure Asa enjoyed a slice of heaven :)

The Farm has a long history of cousins running amuck.  Eli has countless memories of being at the Farm with his cousins, and now the next generation of Horn cousins are having adventures around this place too!

We also found time for some college friends!  These guys are dear friends from Bethel (and Chris stood up in our wedding) who live in California but happened to be back in Minnesota at the exact time we were.  It was providence!  Oh how we love these people.  Chris and Kim are some of the most life-giving people we know and we were so filled to spend a morning with them, playing at the playground and eating Chipotle.  Also, their girls are very tall.  And there are three of them.  Any ideas who we should set up with our own destined-to-be-tall boys down the road???

And more Bethel friends!  Eli and Josh and Jordan were all roommates at Bethel.  I already mentioned my history with Jamie, but Paige and I also knew each other well because she also lived in Michigan and we made several road trips together back home during the holidays.  Michiganders stick together!

Oh, and of course we ended our time in Minnesota with more cousins.  I'm telling you, there are a lot of Horn cousins!  And there is one word that best describes whenever they're all together: shenanigans.  I wish the pictures could capture the hilarity that ensues whenever these folks get together.  From throwing kids around to making babies cry on purpose to taking the lightsaber duels to whole new levels, there's never a dull moment at a Horn gathering!

This photo is of our generation and the next.  Only half of us were there.

So after a full and fun week in Minnesota, we packed up the car again and headed back toward Michigan.  We stayed overnight in Chicago to see some more friends and made a quick stop at the Field Museum too.  (If you don't know about the ASTC museum reciprocity program, check it out.  There are tons of museums you can visit for free just because you have a membership at one other place in the program.  How else would we have gotten into the super expensive Field Museum?  Buying a membership to the Flint Children's Museum was the best idea ever!)  It was fun to show the boys a tiny bit of our old stomping grounds in Chicago.  And of course they loved all the animals and dinosaur bones.  What little boy wouldn't?

We made it back safely to Michigan and have had a few days of unpacking and repacking.  Next up: Oklahoma and Texas!  Here we come!

A Boy Turns 6!

We've been back in America for less than a month and already had a birthday celebration.  Caleb turned 6 years old yesterday!  He really wanted a Star Wars party so we pulled something together last minute over the weekend and he was very excited and proud of his party.  His favorite part was the cake I concocted.  I must confess it was my favorite part too :)

Go on, guess the planet it's a picture of.  Think Luke Skywalker escaping from a wampa cave only to discover that Darth Vader has found the frozen rebel base...  Yep, it's Hoth!  I love being creative and I love making my birthday boy happy, and since he was adamant about wanting a white cake this year, I thought Hoth would be a good way to go.  Caleb was pretty stoked :)

He chose the piece with the wampa on it because, let's be honest, the wampa is the coolest thing on Hoth.

Caleb was excited to have his cousins and friends come over for the party.  My sister and my best friend brought their kiddos and plenty of shouts and giggles, and a good time was had by all!

And apparently helium balloons are still a hit.  Our boys played with them all night and Asa even wanted to bring his balloon to bed (we said no).  Thank God for the joy of helium balloons!

Then, as we had promised several months ago and which Caleb has diligently remembered since, we went to get a goldfish on his birthday.  His first REAL pet (chameleons from the yard don't count).  He was SO excited!  He couldn't stop bouncing around and squealing and looking at all the fish to decide which one he wanted.  We got the fish bowl, the rocks, a plant, a net, fish food, and of course, the fish.  So we're taking this pet business seriously!  (At least, for this year we are.  The reason we promised him a fish is because we hope it will die before we go back to Kenya.  Is it okay to admit that???)

Well, he chose a good one and named it Goldy :)  Afterwards I asked the birthday boy what he wanted to eat for lunch, to which he replied, "Well, I think maybe fish, because we just bought a fish."  That kid has no idea how funny he is :)  Nothing says "welcome to the family" like bringing home a fish and then eating his kind for lunch...

Kai and Asa are pretty excited about the fish too :)  They are regularly checking on Goldy to see how he's doing and whether he ate his food.  First pets are a wonderful thing!

Caleb is smart and oh so creative.  He loves to tell stories and he loves to draw.  He is an independent spirit who likes to spend time alone looking at books and imagining stories in his mind.  He loves to snuggle and is extremely affectionate, giving me hugs and kisses unexpectedly and offering words of comfort when he can tell I'm upset.  His favorite thing to think about, talk about, learn about and dream about is the world of animals.  He knows soooooo much about animals - habitats, food chains, predator/prey relationships, camouflage and mimicry, carnivores and herbivores and omnivores (and apparently piscivores which he's been telling us all about lately), poison and venom, migration, hibernation...  Nothing gets Caleb's heart beating faster than the animal kingdom.  And he learns so many other things because of that love.  Caleb knows about countries and continents around the world because he knows what animals live there, and he's become quite an artist because he spends so much time drawing pictures of "animal scenes."  And we love that about him - that he's passionate and he wants to learn new things.  Caleb is also kind and tender-hearted.  He is helpful and obedient.  He loves to learn about Jesus and remembers so many things he learns from the Bible.  He brings joy and laughter to our home and we are proud to call him our son.  We continually pray that Caleb Clark will follow the Lord wholeheartedly all the days of his life.

We love you, Caleb!

Happy Birthday!