Chicago

At the beginning of May I took a quick trip to visit Elise before she left Chicago. We did a lot in the few days that I was there.

The first day was nonstop!  We stopped at a yummy bakery first off, then the nature museum, and after dinner we visited the Art Institute.

I really enjoyed the Art Institute!  My history classes at BYU were focused around music and art. 
I had seen many of the pieces of art in my books but seeing them in person was incredible!  It was definitely a huge difference from a small, flat image in a text book.

We went down to Chinatown to look for souvenirs.  I had to get a picture of Alexander St.  for my own Alexander.

I think my kids would really love walking around Chinatown... there was so much to see.

Even though Elise lives just down the street from the White Sox stadium I had to stop by Wrigley Field for my Cubs fans at home.

We played at a really fun park with awesome slides!  They were so long and fast!

The view of the city was incredible.

We also stopped by the "bean" and walked around for a while.

That night we got the best Chicago-style pizza.  It was so, so delicious!

The next morning Elise and Austin took me to their favorite donut place in town, the Donut Vault and then we headed to the Children's Museum and Navy Pier.

In the evening we stopped for some authentic  Chicago Italian lemonade.

They turned Buckingham Fountain on that weekend so we stopped by after church.

It was a fun, quick trip and I'm so glad that Elise and Austin showed me some fun sites in the city! 

Time Out for Women

I have been looking forward to going to Time Out For Women for months.  I got the opportunity to work the event which was nice since it came with free tickets!  A few weeks before the event Amy decided to fly out and attend with me!  Since I was volunteering I had to get to the venue really early.  Amy was a good sport and came with me and just hung out while she waited for me to be done with my responsibilities.

Rich was a good sport to take care of the kids while I was gone Friday night and all day Saturday.  (And it was a busy weekend... Fall Festival, a Boy Scout merit badge clinic, and a flag football game!)  There were so many good messages shared over the 2 days--and I'm so glad that Amy was there to enjoy it with me!  It was fun to have Amy here... even if it was short!

Christmas Visitors

This post is long overdue... since I'm writing it in August and it all happened in December and January!  Better late than never I supposed.  I would have just directed everyone over to Elise's blog... but it's private so most of you wouldn't get to see our fun!

Back in December Elise and Austin came to visit for a bit over the Christmas break.  They arrived at our house on the night of Christmas... where we told each other some exciting news--we were both expecting!  And due only a few weeks apart!  (Elise is due any day now.)

To be honest I can't even remember in what order these events happened!  It was kind of a crazy time... I was on the Stake Nativity/Cantata committee which occurred the weekend before Christmas! Plus, I was still early on in my pregnancy and didn't have a ton of energy.  My house was a disaster the entire time... I'm sure that Austin will never want to visit again!

So in no particular order here are some of the fun things we did with our great visitors!

We went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.

While we were downtown Rich wanted to donate blood so he could get some free Thunder tickets.  They had other fun things going on as well.  The boys really liked the bounce house.

We then showed them around Bricktown.

And then we went to dinner.  The boys behaved themselves pretty well.

That was a fun-filled, exhausting day!  Most other days we took it pretty easy and hung around the house.  Hopefully Elise and Austin weren't too bored with us!

There were lots of light saber fights, 

Legos,

toasts with pink {strawberry} milk,

and puzzles. 

Thanks Rachelle for the puzzle!  The boys love it!

The boys even helped Austin with his studying. {He's a dental student}

One night we left the kids at home while we headed to a Thunder game!  (Our poor babysitter had to deal with gross throw up from Alex... I felt so bad!)  We had a great time!

Another night Rich watched the boys so that Elise, Austin and I could head to the temple.

Don't you just love this nativity?

I believe it was on New Year's Eve that we headed down to Norman. We showed them the town, where we used to live, and then headed to the Natural History Museum.  We've never taken the boys there so everyone had a great time.  Too bad we didn't find the children's area until the very end.  That was the best part!

And you can't have a visit from your {future} dentist uncle without getting new toothbrushes!  The boys were actually really excited!

The very last night we stayed up way too late (especially since they had a really early flight).  Elise and I worked on a craft while Austin and Rich watched a basketball game.

Aren't we cute in our matching jammies?

We are so glad that Elise and Austin came to visit us!  We can't wait to see them again!