Vacation Days

Adam had a few vacation days to burn, so he took off Thursday and Friday of this week. It really worked out well for us because Adam and I ended up with a stomach virus late Thursday night and Friday morning. But despite the illness, we really did get to do a lot and Connor had a great time.

Thursday night we went to the "World's Largest Halloween Party" at the zoo. As you come in, they have you walk down this path with hidden speakers on the side and recordings of people going, "Boo!" which was surprisingly scary (at least to me--Adam thinks I'm a sissy). They had the "This is Halloween" song from The Nightmare Before Christmas playing (which is still currently stuck in my head), and Connor wasn't quite sure what he thought of it all. But he was very brave, though he held to the sides of the wagon for dear life.

Luckily, it got much less scary after that. He quickly got into the groove of things, saying "Trick Ter Treat" as we pulled the wagon up to each booth where they were handing out candy.

There were storybook characters at different places around the zoo, so we made a few friends. (And according to Adam that Tinman was "playin' for the other team".) We even got to see what our little boy would have looked like had I married Willy Wonka instead. (No smile of course, because Oompa Loopma's don't smile.)

There were also a few scary sightings...like the half-naked caveman by the fence (wait...aren't all cavemen half-naked?) and the headless horseman that came after us on the train. But we had a great time and will definitely be back next year.

On Saturday, after we were recovered from our little bout with illness (sorry, no pics of that), we took a trip to Gallrein Farms here in Shelbyville.

We went to the petting zoo and got to see a goat up close (our second experience with goats--after John & Lynnie's), but the sheep were a little loud so Connor held Daddy's hand. They had a big red tractor, which he loved, and about a million pumpkins.

Adam (who opted out of shaving for this vacation) verified the accuracy of their measuring tools, while I made friends with a nice witch. Then we hopped on the hayride for a trip out to the pumpkin patch.

And at the end of the day, it was time for a nice long nap.

Making Jesus Happy

So the other day, when Connor and I had just finished "Kroger-ing" (well we would have gone to Walmart but he said he wanted to go where the cars were on the carts--I am such a softy), I let him ride on the 1 cent fire truck. Mostly he's just scared of the noise, but he insists on sitting on it and gripping the edges for dear life...though that day, to his credit, he did actually reach out for the wheel. When the ride finished, he said he wanted to ride the horsey next to it. I told him we would save the horsey for another day, and he said, "Ride horsey Sunday?" Sunday is the only day of the week he knows, because that's when he gets to go to nursery with cousin Elsie. So I tried to figure out how to tell a barely two year-old about keeping the sabbath day holy, and the best I could come up with was, "We don't come to Kroger on Sundays because that makes Jesus sad." He got this really concerned look on his face, and said, "Jesus sad...Jesus sad.." and kept repeating it over and over like it was really bothering him. So we walked out to the van and I strapped him into his seat and started to back up, and he got quiet for a minute. Then all of the sudden he said in sweet, soft voice, "Jesus sad. Hold him. Love him." I seriously don't think that boy could be any cuter. I told him how nice he was, and that we love Jesus and Jesus loves us. Now that is what he tells every new person we see, "Jesus loves us!", like it is the best news he's ever heard. And so it should be.

p.s. We decided to go with the giraffe costume. He has a new thing with giraffes--with the zoo giraffes, the giraffe from the carousel (see picture below), and the wooden toy giraffe Grandpa brought back from one of the Europe trips. I'm sure some pictures of it will show up here soon.

Goodbye

On Wednesday night, we got the call that Adam's grandma had passed away. She was one of just a handful of extended family members Adam has, so though she lived a long life and was very sick at the end, it was still hard to let her go.

I have to say that she was one of those people you meet in life that you feel blessed to have known. She was amazingly resilient...she should have left us 10 times before but I think she and her body were just too stubborn to give in to anything until she was ready. But that is what you'd expect from a nurse that worked on her feet every day right up until her baby was born. The first night I met her at Adam's parents' house, I thought for about 2 minutes that she must really not like me from a comment she made in my direction....It turned out she was actually making a joke to the cat on the couch over my shoulder! And that's the way she was--quick witted and always making everyone in the room laugh. I never talked to her without coming away feeling a little better about my problems. I am so glad Connor was able to know her, even if just for a little while. I am sure there was a crowd of people waiting for her on the other side with big smiles on their faces, and I know someday she'll do the same for us.

The Sword (in my back) and the Stone

It seems like we have one "big" adventure every month - sometimes good and sometimes bad. Well Tuesday was that day. I was taking the missionaries in to the mission home for transfers, and Connor and I thought we'd go on over to the zoo to wait for them since it is so close. So we saw Connor's "must-see", the monkeys, and then #2,the rhinos. He even got to take his very first carousel ride. Afterwards, he heard the train whistle and insisted on riding the train on the way out. Since I also particulary enjoy the train, we made a little stop. While on the ride I was leaned over a little to hold onto his sides in the seat, and my back started to hurt. I thought it must just be from leaning over and it would stop when we got off the train.

Well, it didn't. And it got worse. And then I spent the next 20 minutes, including the drive back to the mission home, trying to convince myself I did not have another kidney stone. But, anyone who has had one knows that the pain will quickly convice you otherwise. By the time we got there I was in enough pain I was breathing heavier and I kept getting hot then cold. So I called Adam to come get me and tried to get a hold of my mom to come get Connor. I had to just sit in my van and wait for them, and unfortunately (for me at the time) there were about a hundred super friendly, chatty missionaries milling about that all wanted to talk to me about what was going on...which was the very last thing I wanted to do. They were helpful and tried to give me suggestions, and finally most of them went away. I thought I might actually be able to suffer in peace then, until suddenly this big group came walking down all together from the mission home. I recognized an elder that once served in our ward and he came up to me first and said, "Sister DeLuca, I have some missionaries here that would like to give you a blessing."

And they did--right there in my van. Then Jeremy Call, my new hero, came over to entertain Connor with his magical cell phone. About 20 minutes later, I felt the stone move and the pain dulled to a minor ache. I later found out those missionaries that did the blessing were all about to go home, including one returning to Albania. Sister Knight (my now new best friend from the mission home) said missionaries about to return home are just full of the Spirit and completely in tune. It must be true because they blessed me that the pain would subside, and that is exactly what happened--and fast.

No more Sprite for me. :(