Midwest Vacation: #2

The plan for Friday (my dad's birthday) was to meet at the meatball counter at IKEA at noon. The rest of the Michigan relatives were to arrive in the morning so Sal and I checked out of the Suites and caught a ride with Anne and Don while Jordan rode with his grandparents. We meandered through the lovely furniture and accessories and finally tracked down the others. It was so great to see the kids, especially the newest one: just two months old on Apr. 2. She's a real sweetie!

I picked up a couple flexible cutting sheets for Joanna's kitchen and a big, soft, fluffy hippopotamus for Sal. She loved it so much I just had to get it. I can't find it on the IKEA website so you just have to imagine it. Here's Zoe getting caught in the act of smacking her dad in the behind. Naughty girl!




With three recent birthdays in the family, we had to spread them out over the day so we celebrated Anne's before eating. She got a Car-eoke book for Christmas sing-alongs in the car. After a delicous lunch of Swedish meatballs and macaroni and cheese, I received my 40th birthday gift from my siblings. It's a new green iPod shuffle. They engraved a message on the back: "Breeze by 40 Love, your Siblings" Thank you all. I love it so much.

We were all staying in the same hotel that night so we all headed over to the Garden Inn to check in after lunch. The kids wanted to go swimming so after exploring each other's rooms, we six adults watched the three kids frolic in the pool for awhile. We agreed on a place to go for Dad's birthday dinner: the Kopper Kitchen. John ordered saganaki (flaming cheese) which was fairly exciting. Dad seemed to appreciate his new pretty dress shirts and the CD of us singing together at our last mini-reunion.

The guys headed off to help Joanna's brother with a mechanical problem at the theater he volunteers at and everyone else seemed interested in an early evening so Sal and I ended up watching Hidalgo in our room by ourselves. I really really liked it.

Here's a couple photos of what today looked like in Kaleva. Yes, it's April.