Shedd Aquarium and Laura's Graduation
David's youngest sister Laura graduated from high school this June and we went down to celebrate with her! Plane tickets out of Chicago were so significantly cheaper than Grand Rapids we decided it was well worth the drive. We ended up leaving GR on Wednesday after David got home from work and spent the night in a Pricelined 4 star hotel for cheap! It was a sweet hotel room, very modern and state of the art! Our flight wasn't until Thursday evening, but we decided to come out a day early so we could take Kayla to the Shedd Aquarium! That is something we had said we'd wanted to do this summer, and since we were already making a trip to Chicago for the airport we figured we'd do it then! It's amazing how having a child changes you; I was excited to go because I was excited to see her reaction to everything! And I was not disappointed. She was enamored by the fish (especially the sea horses, the clown fish- aka NEMO, the turtles and the sharks). They recently re-opened their dolphin/sea lion/beluga whale exhibit, and while they haven't started shows yet, they were doing a training session and we got to see them all do tricks! We got a front row seat and the sea lion at one point was only feet away from us! Kayla was terribly excited by this! She also loved to watch the dolphins jumping and waiving. We got there as soon as it opened and stayed well past her normal nap time - she almost fell asleep on David's shoulders! But it was a really fun day and we were happy that we went!
As usual our plane was delayed such that we didn't arrive at the Taylor's until well past 11pm (and Kayla was WIDE awake the whole time!). Oh well! The next morning we got up early to go to Laura's graduation ceremony. Kayla ended up doing really well during it all. I had anticipated that she and I wouldn't be in there very long and would instead be running around outside.. but the auditorium had a natural hum to it and so no one heard Kayla's chatting! And it was the most efficient ceremony I've ever been to. They had the whole thing done in about an hour and a half, maybe less, and there were over 500 graduates! Not bad. After the ceremony we went outside to meet up with Laura. We were struck by the intense heat. It had been in the 60's or lower 70's in GR lately and hasn't been hot at all. I hadn't worn shorts yet! But the heat in NC was sweltering and we were HOT HOT HOT! As we got ready to go (it was past Kayla's nap time and way past lunch), we noticed that Brian's car was not where we had left it.... it had been towed! Apparently the parking attendant misinformed Mom Taylor and told us we were allowed to park in this parking area, but in hindsight, we were not. So, it took almost another hour to get our car back. Kayla did pretty well all things considered!
That evening we just relaxed and enjoyed time with family. The next day was all about getting ready for the party. David was outside painting and working on making the outside ready for the party with the boys. All of the girls were inside working on food and cleaning and such. The party wasn't until 4, and we were ready for it! The food was delicious and although we didn't know any of the guests, it was really fun to spend time with all of the family. At the end of the party, we took a group picture of all of the family that came (although unfortunately Laura was out with her friends and wasn't back before the family started to leave).
We left first thing Sunday morning, so it was a quick trip for us. But we were happy to be able to go and support Laura and to visit with all of the family that came to celebrate with her!