Spring Break

It's been a long time since I've looked forward to Spring Break so much! Like 5 years? Wow, has it really been that long since I was a dorm-dwelling college student?!

Julie bought a plane ticket to Des Moines and all the rest of the family made plans to converge at our house for the weekend. Because of their different schedules, they all staggered in (and I don't mean 'staggered' as in reeling and falling like a drunkard, but 'staggered' as in various and overlapping entries of vocal parts in a choral song) over the course of 3 days, starting on Thursday morning with Julie's 9:30am arrival at the Des Moines airport!

I think Serena was happy to see her Aunt Julie

Serena and I hopped in the car Thursday morning to go the airport to pick up Julie. According to Mapquest, it should only have taken us about 20 minutes to get there. The directions were pretty straightforward...just a few turns after getting off the interstate and we would be there. So off we go, and I'm watching the street signs for "Army Post Road." Then, I get a call from Julie. She had landed! It was like 9:25. I was thinking, since when do flights come in early?! But I assured Julie that we were almost there. Sure enough, within a minute, I had come to "Army Post Road" and made my left-hand turn...only to be greeted by a friendly yellow sign that read,

Not a Thru Street

No Access to Airport

WHAT?!??!?! Now I was totally at a loss because I'm not familiar with that side of town AT ALL, but I figured I would just get back on the road I was just on and take the next left-hand turn and see where it took me. I could see the planes coming in and taking off not far away. How hard could this be? So, we got back on the other road and I watched for the next left-hand turn. A few tenths of a mile later, there was a road...and you'll never guess what the name of it was.

ARMY POST ROAD!

What genius came up with this system!? I thought about it and came up with a solution to help other airport-seekers avoid my mistake. They need to put in a sign by the first "Army Post Road" sign that says,

Yes, That Road Sign Said Army Post Road

But It's Not the Army Post Road You're Thinking Of

That One Comes Next

Okay, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that concise-ness is NOT one of my strong points. But surely someone in the Department of Transportation is trained in the best way to word signs and could help me out with that!

Well, so we made it to the airport and found Julie! Then we got to spend the whole day together! And what a perfect day it was! It was sunny and I think the temps even might have hit 60 degrees for the first time this year!

Friday afternoon, Mom & Jessica arrived with Kaden in tow. Jessica carried Kaden into the house (wow, he's getting so big, though!), and Serena and I were there to greet them at the door. As soon as Serena laid eyes on Kaden, she went nuts! Apparently seeing another 'little person' was extremely exciting to her because she started exuberantly shrieking over and over as her big enthusiastic eyes darted between Kaden and me! It was SO funny! Kaden, on the other hand, seemed a little overwhelmed by Serena's enthusiasm, if not down-right annoyed by it. It was hilarious to watch the dynamic between them!

Serena and Kaden hanging out with Grammie Saturday morning

I guess my pictures are a little out of order. :P This one is from Friday afternoon. We were lucky enough to get a good 4 inches of snow dumped on us the day after our beautiful 60-degree day! Kaden and Macy looked cute watching the blizzard out our living room window!

Serena and Kaden (aka 'Duperman'...he was wearing Superman pajamas, and proudly told us all he was "Duperman" as he ran back and forth to the mirror to admire his "duper" self! Haha!) 'playing' on the floor together. Serena was putting a lot of effort into trying to get close enough to Kaden to touch him, while Kaden was just trying to keep his 'ba' straight on the floor the way he wanted it.

Jordan attempting to grill chicken for me for dinner. He's such a good husband! We did end up having to use the broiler, though. But it was really nice of him to try!

Jason & Julia arrived Saturday noon-ish. We had some lunch, talked, and watched their new video of Keira from their 3D (or is it 4D? I never can remember) ultrasound a week or so ago. That was amazing! Then we girls headed off to Babies R Us to find some things for Keira!!! :) That store is WAY too fun...especially if you find yourself looking for baby girl things! While we were there, Julie and I were walking around pushing Serena in a cart (she was in her carseat) and watched her slowly nod off (literally). SO cute and funny! She kept fighting it because she REALLY wanted to be watching everything going on around her, but eventually her eyes shut and she just COULDN'T get them to open again!

Serena with her Grammie

Jason and Jordan passed up the opportunity to shop at the mall with us (hello, Scheels?!) to watch March Madness and play XBox. I'll never understand the mind of a man.... ;)

Serena with Aunt Julie

SISTERS

Julie was craving some good ol' Culvers frozen custard (poor Texas does not have that particular commodity), so before hitting the mall we stopped at Culvers to indulge in the healthy combination of frozen custard and cheese curds. Oh my. It's so fun to get all of us girls together! I wish I had a picture of Mom & Julia too; we all had such a great time!

Sunday morning we dressed Kaden & Serena up in their Easter outfits for church. I know it was a couple weeks early, but it was fun to dress them up and take some pictures!

It's hard to get two kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time! Kaden wasn't that 'into' it, and Serena kept wanting to crawl away!

Jordan, Serena & I

Me and my gorgeous sisters. My goodness, I look so white next to them! Jess just got back from Guatemala, and Julie, of course, is in Texas.... *sigh*

The Rabe fam

(soon to be known as JaJuKaKe, rather than just JaJuKa! Heehee, it'll sound like a yummy kind of cake!) ;)

We dropped Julie off at the airport at 4:40-ish Sunday afternoon, and everyone else cleared out pretty quickly after that. What a busy and fun weekend!

Serena was completely conked out before we even made it to the airport. Tired baby! She missed a lot of naps over the weekend and pretty much never stopped moving (or squealing, haha)!