First Day of School

The faces say it all!

This is the best smile we got for the day. She had just had immunizations the day before. She really wasn't feeling like going to school. Then, for the first few days she would cry and run from the bus. She's doing fine now though. I didn't realize what a mama's girl she had become.

And the backpacks!!!!

We love you Bill

Here's a story. It started last year at about this time on one of our many trips to Disneyland. I don't remember exactly how this happened, but Richard and I were there alone (or maybe the little kids were with Richard's bigger kids or something). Anyway, the park was REALLY crowded and over there by the Pirates of the Carribean ride (where it gets really thick with crowds) we saw this face that we instantly knew. So we stopped there for a few minutes trying to figure out how we knew him. We were racking our brains, "Do we know him from church?" "Did we do an event with him?" "Did I go to school with him?" "We both know him, so it's been fairly recent." "What if he recognized us? It would be rude not to say HI."
Okay, we stood there for at least 10 min. thinking about it. Finally Richard says, "Oh my gosh, we are idiots. It's Bill Rancic from the Trump show, Apprentice." We stood there and laughed at ourselves for the longest time and would laugh every time we thought about it for the next month.
Well, the story has come full circle. We went to a fancy event in downtown Chicago that was to promote a new magazine for small businesses and he was the keynote speaker. He was great and told about his amazing successes. It was a fairly small gathering so we had a chance to talk to him personally and we told him the story. He was so sweet. He said that we should have said HI anyway. He was there for his nephew's birthday. Of course, Richard had the crowd laughing along with us. It was such great closure to that funny day.

Portland Family Reunion

Almost as soon as the girls got here I left for Portland for a great family reunion. We stayed at my brother, Weston's house for most of the time. Highlights include: the Silver Falls hike and picnic, singing with my family for sacrament meeting (a choir of about 20 family members and one of the best I've been in for a while), seeing the relief society applaud my mother when she introduced herself (I have no idea how they all knew she was the greatest women in the room), and playing Guitar Hero for as long as I could drag it away from my nephews. I never knew it was so much fun--and yes, I ROCK! It kept telling me so. (BTW fam--I know you were all taking pictures of me. Did any of you get some that you could send to me?)

Welcome to your NEW Home

I was so proud of the girls who successfully traveled solo from SLC to Midway Chicago. We had been missing them badly and were so excited for their arrival. Notice Maddie is holding the Breaking Dawn book, which she camped out at Wal-Mart for until it came out at midnight. She got buttons and stickers and all kinds of treats for being one of the crazy campers. Go Twilight!

I must add that the day was not without its troubles. Their flight was delayed for 2 hours due to thunderstorms in Chicago. But, by the time they got here it was very hot and humid. So we went to the park near our house just to be able to stretch the kid muscles after they had been sitting for many hours. It was very hot, but within about 30 min. there were some really strange cloud formations that were moving very quickly and getting very dark. I told the kids that we'd better get home and within 2 min. it was pouring down rain with major thunder and lightning. Suddenly the TV was blaring out a warning about tornados in our area. The kids were crying because the TV was telling us to get to our basements, and it was a very loud and scary storm. Sure enough, there were 3 touch-downs in our area that night. Thankfully, our immediate neighborhood was safe. Welcome to the mid-west girlie girls.

Street Dancing

Ellie is a born entrepreneur. After seeing several street acts in downtown Chicago her little head got to thinking about the money making opportunity available in that venture. So she started telling me about her plan to dance on the street for "money for college." Here's the plan: "First, we need to get a drink of water and drink it all. Then we need to set the cup on the sidewalk where there are lots of people. We could bring some music, but if we don't it's okay because I could just dance without it. Then people will put money in the cup and I will have money for college."
So, being dutiful parents, we indulge her idea. We wouldn't want to squelch that entrepreneurial spirit. Therefore, while we were at the Woodridge shopping center we ate at Chipotle and got water, and drank it all, and put the cup out. And. . .after a short period of apprehension she got the nerve up to go for it. All we had to do was dodge the looks of passersby who were wondering why we had our 5-year-old out dancing for money. She danced and danced on the street until some very nice guys came by and dropped $1. 55 into the cup. They obviously recognize the entrepreneurial spirit in the young child. Well, of course now she was boosted into a new category of confidence and her dancing became much more deliberate and lively. All until. . . (sniff) she tripped and scraped her knee on the brick pavers. And that was the end of a brilliant career of a street dancer.

Legoland Discovery Center

We went to the Legoland Discovery Center at the Woodridge Shopping Center. It was amazing. The top photos are of a Chicago exhibit. There is this guy from Naperville that wanted to work for Lego so he built the city of Chicago out of Legos to impress the big-wigs. It is absolutely amazing. Every major building and landmark were represented. I was completely impressed, and so were they. Of course, the guy now works for Lego. The other photos were just some of the neat things made from Legos. There were so many cool things there, including an amusement park type ride that takes you through a maze of animated Lego people and creatures including a dragon with light-up eyes and moving parts. Then you go to a big room full of Lego tables so that you can play with Legos for as long as you want. And then you exit through the store and listen to all the children cry for Legos and watch parents pay $20/lb. for bulk Lego pieces. It was great. There is so much to be amazed by that it sort of feels hum drum after a while, which is sad, because if I had made all those things I would want people to oooh and aaaaah for a long time.

Lincoln Park Zoo

We went to the zoo with our new friends, the Springer's. Ellie has a new buddy named Rebecca. They have so much fun together you'd think they had been friends for years.
This is a cool place that is free to the public. . . and it's a real zoo. . . with lots of animals. I was just so amazed that it was free. So we packed a lunch and then it seemed like an even better deal.
So, Ellie was bugging everyone about going to the bat exhibit. For about 1.5 hours she kept bringing it up. She was holding the map and would get annoyed if we veered in the wrong direction. (I don't even know how she learned to read a map. I couldn't make heads or tails of it myself.) Well, we finally made it there and as soon as she got a glimpse of them (from about 20 ft.) she had completely changed her mind and did NOT want to see them at all. She cried until I took her out. It was a darkened room and I think she just thought it was a little too eerie. So, there she is, hiding her face.
Our favorite part was the gorillas. They are usually my favorite part, but these guys were the best. They had the whole family there, but the silverback (is that what you call the dad's?) was cracking me up. He was sitting there in the corner just looking at everyone, but he was soooo tired and you could really see it on his face. He was nodding off just like you might see the bishopric do sometimes. He was really trying to stay awake though. It was just weird to think that gorillas try to fight off sleep too. I guess kids wear you out no matter what specie you are.

Millenium Park and the Silver Bean

One of the first days in our new area was spent taking a train ride from Naperville into the city and exploring for the day. The train was such a great adventure for Ellie. It's a double decker so we sat on the top to ensure the best view for our trip. It took about an hour on a Saturday because they stop at every station. Weekdays are different. They stop at two spots and then zoom into the city.

We walked all over the place and spent a good deal of time at Millenium Park where there is this giant, silver, bean-shaped thing. When you look at it from the front (top picture) you can see the reflection of all of the surrounding buildings in it. It's really cool. Then when you get close you can see your own reflection at different angles. It's a very unique sight.

There is also a place where tons of children converge to play in the puddles of two big "buildings" which are acutally fountains. Ellie loved this.
This is one of the Crown Fountains in Millennium Park, Chicago. The red glow in this photo is from that large image! The person pictured smiles and changes expression every few seconds, and the face changes on a regular basis.

From there we walked over to Pizanos (one of the best pizza places in town) to experience "Chicago-style" pizza. Ellie was very interested in trying this. It's basically deep dish with kind of a sourdough crust. When she first saw it she wasn't sure she wanted to try it, but when she did she LOVED it. It really was great. The cheese was the best part. I don't know what it was, but it was something special. I wish I had more photos of the day, but my camera hadn't been charged in about a month and those bean pictures were the last ones until we found our dock.