A good trip to Rockford!

Maybe my brother, Mac and his wife Amy are our Rockford lucky charms. Well....kinda. The Anderson Japanese Gardens were beautiful and peaceful. They had wonderful volunteers that would answer questions and stood at crossroads to point you in the direction of the path that you were on. I was surprised how open the paths were to the water (see pictures below) and kept thinking how difficult that would be with a toddler, but I suppose a peaceful garden isn't the top of any 2 year old's list :) Eddie was a little crabby (crying at Uncle Mac, even though he loved him yesterday, which I will prove in the next post) and I think was a little hot, but other than that everything went smoothly. There were only 2 places that we couldn't take the stroller, but it was just a short walk to the point of interest from where we left the stroller so we felt comfortable with it. After the walk, Mac and Amy went back to our parent's house and our little family went to their on-site restaurant for the Sunday brunch. The view was spectacular with floor to ceiling windows and a view of a private garden, so we weren't looking at people walking around but at the peace and tranquility....ahh....zen. (you know something is coming, right?) So we're we over hear a large party next to us complaining about their waitress - she was rude - she hurried them - she over charged them - she didn't know how to deal with...erm...black people. Oh man. So this group starts complaining to every person that walks by. Finally they got the manager and complained to him. Then, a bright red umbrella blew from the second floor outdoor seating onto the peaceful, zen garden below. Like it was shouting - IT'S PEACEFUL, DAMMIT! at us. While pointing. And laughing. Because, what I've failed to mention is that our table was also peaceful. Eddie was eating his watermelon, Frank and I had some food and we weren't being disrupted by some pesky waiter. ERM...scratch that. A pesky waiter wouldn't be that bad, considering that we had no waiter. For 30 minutes. While Frank and I had 2 plates of food. Without drinks. In the meantime, the red umbrella is laughing its ass off while crashing the peaceful, pretty day. We call the manager over and Frank's exact words were "I'm going to go easy on you, because you're obviously having a rough day." HA! I love my husband. So he explains the situation, and the manager is the nicest guy. He even got us some water! Amazing!! While he was over chatting with us, I mentioned that it was a little funny that the umbrella was crashing the garden. He left, and I looked down - the umbrella was gone, and our meal was free.

{Fishies!} {Contemplating the world} {Mom, it's just like Nanna's! Let's swim!}

{Mac and Amy}

{Our little familia}

{the waterfall was beautiful}

{aw}

{cool angels, that were in the pond}

Eddie took a wonderful nap on the way home, so Frank and I decided to take a nice drive so we could cruise and Eddie could snooze. (Ha! see what I did there?) Once we got home, we rested for a bit, grabbed our neighbor, Jim, and went to Greek Fest in Dekalb. OPA! Eddie was just about done, but we were able to grab a bite (yumola) and visit with our other neighbors, Doug and Mariana and Mariana's very Greek and adorable family.

{kisses for Momma}

{yup, that's a fist full of my hair you see in Eddie hand}

Tomorrow, Eddie and I are going to the Taste of Chicago with Auntie Stef, so we should have an equally as exciting day. I am a little nervous about taking Eddie down there with the crowds and crazies and whatnot, so I am pretty sure that I am going to carry him in the sling so I can have him close to me and far from dirty hands and weirdo's that would like to touch my cuteness of a child. Wish us luck!

-maggie