Uncle Motz

Before leaving Chicago, we visited Papa's house to return his car.  We were bummed that we didn't get to see Papa and Kari who were out of town, we did get to visit with Gloria and Uncle Motz. The kids had a good time playing with Mozart and giving him nice pets. 

Tommy & Colleen's wedding weekend

What a fun time in Chicago for Tommy & Colleen's wedding. Lots of family and lots of fun!

**I hope to add more pictures to this as I get more pictures from others.  Please send!**

Emily, Kyle & Ryan intently watching Cars

Kimmy, Kristin & I with our old neighbor, Mrs. Nixon at the wedding

Sisters with Mrs. Nixon

GT & David

Emily getting her hair done by Aunt Karen

Emily holding baby Evan

Emily cute and ready for the rehearsal dinner

Emily & Kyle with Mr. & Mrs. Nixon at the rehearsal dinner

Emily & Kyle with Mrs. Nixon

Kyle and Miko playing with Olivia

Kinsch's Fall Fest

Friday morning, Kristin, Kimmy and I took the kids over to the fall festival at Kinsch's.  What kid doesn't have fun with carnival games and a bounce house slide?! 

Ike's first bounce house slide.  You can't really see it here, but he was not too happy about his ride.  Maybe next year.  But Ike still had a great time with the other play area and games. 

That's a pile of Kyle, Emily & Ryan at the bottom of the slide. They LOVED it!

Morton Bar-burrito

Fall in Chicago is beautiful! Kyle and Emily were loving all the colors of the trees. As we drove to Morton Arboretum (or Morton Bar-buritto as Kyle pronounced it), they were in awe of the trees and all the colors they had turned.  I never knew a 4 year old could appreciate such beauty.

And Morton Arboretum didn't disappoint.  Not only was it gorgeous, they had a whole, HUGE kid section to explore. 

The view from the treehouse atop the bush maze.

Look at the HUGE leaf Mommy! And I love the leaves actively falling around them.

Here was their conversation leading up to this video taken from the little cabin pictured above: 
Let's sit here and talk to each other
What should we talk about?
Let's talk about monkeys...

Are you surprised Kyle suggested they talk about monkeys?!

Dinner at ORD

Guess where we went? Surprise, surprise, it was Chicago! We landed in the evening and the kids needed to eat dinner. So what better place to eat your peanut butter and jelly than at the baggage claim sitting on your upside down car seat!

Zoo day

Today we went to the zoo with Dax, Kyle & Emily's best friend.  When they get together, they all have so much fun.  The energy level is so high, but they are so happy to be together.  This is a rare photo of the 3 of them sitting down.  Of course, we were at the gondola ride so you can't really stand up or move around too much. 

And the boys wearing mom's sunglasses

Go Dr. Spike!!

Dr. Spike is biking the California Coast from the border of Oregon to the border of Mexico!!  Follow her travels here! She is currently somewhere between San Francisco and Santa Barbara. 

And just in case she got lost, Emily drew her a map!

Kyle also drew her a picture of Miko.  Can't leave home without your map of your Miko!

Disneyland in the rain is still the happiest place on earth!

Emily has been asking for over a year now to go to Disneyland. So we had a free day and decided to head up that direction. We didn't tell the kids where we were going and let them figure it out.  They had some guesses that we would be going there, but it wasn't until we were walking thru the gates that they really realized where we were.  This was after seeing loads of Disneyland signs, taking a Disneyland (Buzz Lightyear) bus from the parking lot to the park.  But it goes to show you what signifies Disneyland to 4 year olds.  Buzz Lightyear can be anywhere, but the iconic gates leading to the  front of Disneyland with the train station in the background is Disneyland.  Even though it started to pour about 45 minutes into our time there, it was still the happiest place on earth. 

Still in the car... Where are we? Doing our "something fun" of course!

The bus ride from the parking lot to the park

Entering the gates of Disneyland!



On the flying Dumbos!

Carousel just as it is starting to sprinkle... And then the ultimate downpour! We were somewhat prepared for it - jackets and 3 umbrellas.

With the rain, the park wasn't too crowded.  So Kyle took Emily to see her princesses which he promised her last time we were there (over a year ago).  Emily was absolutely thrilled and just all smiles.

I think Emily was so ecstatic she didn't know what to do with herself.  Kyle led the way to the princesses to say hi, while Emily stood back for a second in awe. 

And then, Emily's favorite princess... Princess Aurora spent so much time with the kids it was amazing.  She had a full on conversation with them.  At one point, she asked Kyle if he was Prince Phillip, who apparently is Princess Aurora's man.  Kyle gave her this look of "who in the world are you talking about?!?!"  Clearly it's the princesses we know in our house. 

She's so excited she can hardly contain herself!

Escorting Emily

Prince who??

No, I'm Prince Kyle!

Look whose learning to ride 2 wheeler!

Now it's Emily's turn to learn to ride a 2 wheeler!  She is making good progress riding.  She is getting her balance.  We just need to work on keeping the balance.  She will be back on her princess bike riding a 2 wheeler in no time!  Go Emily!!

Baking

Making cookies with my little bakers.  Yummy oatmeal cherry toffee cookies!