Thursday, September 29, 2011

Chicaco Baby!

As I Said in my last post Luke and I were able to go to Chicago for five days in August without any kiddos. Eric and Ashlie invited us last minute to go with them since they travel doing scrapbook conventions. They needed another person to help out and so the company paid for my flight, hotel, food, etc. all we had to do was buy Lukes ticket. We left on a Wed. from Vegas and when we were in the Phoenix airport switching planes my mom called and said Janeece had the baby. On the day I left! She had her third adorable little boy named Mckay. Our flight got in late so by the time the boys picked out a rental car (they picked a black mustang) and found our hotel we crashed. We spent the first day walking and hanging out in downtown Chicago which can I say was absolutely AMAZING! I fell in love with it immediately. We went to millenium park to see The Bean and other sculptures and from there we walked and walked and walked through the city it seemed like every turn we took there was something else we wanted to see. We found an amazing chicago style pizza place called Bella Bacinas which was right by the river on Wacker. It was a beautiful day so we sat out front under the umbrellas right on the main road. The food was unbelievable, our waiter and his brooklyn accent was so fun and friendly and it was cool to soak in the excitement of the city. He told us to go to the Bar at the top of the John Hancock building for an amazing view of the city so we walked all the way checking out shops, the river, and the giant marilyn monroe statue. The whole city seemed like a giant mall with huge futuristic shops along the entire bottom with skyscrapers on top. We rode to the ninety fifth floor of the Hancock building (instead of paying to go to the top of sears tower) and decided not to go into the bar so me and Ashlie went to the restroom to find that there were huge windows with the view we had hoped for. From there it was way close to walk up the coast on Lake Shore Drive and up the river walk at sunset. After walking so long we had to hit the jacuzzi that night. The next two days we worked in the booth at the convention and did fun things at night. on Friday night we ate at a yummy Indian restaurant and in trying to find frozen yogurt came across the cutest downtown area of a small town where they were having a car show with music and dancing so we just pulled over and hung out there, it was perfect weather and it was cool to just chill. Saturday night we went to dinner and after being duped the night before trying to find fireflies we went to a park to play around and find some, (Luke hadn't seen them so we were determined.) We just got up Sunday and headed for home. I was really missing my kids by then. Chicago was a beautiful city and it was such a fun experience especially to be with Eric and Ashlie who we always have a blast with. Thanks you guys!

Our last night at a cute park searching for fireflies. We found some but found more mosquitos. Still fun.

Friday night looking for frozen Yogurt we found a car show in the middle of a blocked off downtown area with people hanging out and dancing in the street. Amazing!

Hanging out on the riverwalk at sunset. It was so so beautiful.

Eric and Ashlie were a blast!

This is the view from the ladies bathroom in Hancock tower. You could see EVERYTHING.

Seriously the best pizza i've ever had.

Bella Bacinos in downtown

Historic Chicaco Theater

This is the view from underneith The Bean. So so cool.

The Bean and fountain in Millenium Park


The Boys were so giddy about the car and every chance they got in a big open spot we all bailed out while one person spun brodies. It was pretty fun/scary.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Fun in the sun (St. George that is)

So the first part of August me and the kids went to St. George for a few weeks for my sister to have her new baby. When we left to go down she was getting really close and could have had the baby any day but it ended up being over two weeks later. Being there gave us a chance to really hang out and do lots of fun stuff. For Example: Me and Chalyn got to go to Tuachan to see The Little Mermaid. We swam at my sisters in-laws pool and in grandmas little pool. Had a birthday party at red cliffs for my dad. Went to the Fair parade. Shopped, went to a movie and oh ya took a little detour to Chicago (more on that next post). It was really fun to get to spend some relaxing summer days at home playing with the kids and nieces and nephews.

Try and ignore the fact that it's sideways (I hate when I forget to rotate), we were watching the fair parade.


Hiding in Grandmas Story Cabinet. Chalyn absolutely adores my sisters boys.

Splash time! They played out there forever (and got sunburns but hopefully worth it)

Saturday, September 24, 2011

So I know that it's been two months since I've updated anything but all that matters is that I'm making the effort now right???? Anyways we've had a really crazy/fun/busy/crazy summer and I wanted to show all five of you loyal blog friends what we've been up to (lets be honest it's also to help jog my own memory about all the fun times too, I love to go back and look since I'm not so great at my scrapbooking either) So today I'm gonna start posting some of our fun summer outings and hopefully do one each couple of days till I'm caught up. That would be the circus post that we went to today, so when you see that you know your up to date. :)

Our little stinky, filthy family on hike day below 3 creeks.

Little Handsome Pants. Gosh he makes me smile


Loading up on sugar at the annual candy hunt at The Big Rock!

Yup! He's a Heartbreaker!

"Hiking" consisted of walking the trail between 3 creeks and Merchant perfect for little ones though

Ohhh How he loves the vroom vroom!