4th week of October, 2017

It was a FULL week!

I did a craft with the kids - like for real...  I did a craft with the kids!  (I feel like I don't do enough of that.)  they each made their own beaded pumpkin.  Even Emmalyn was able to participate.

All done!

Maxwell had his turn at the pumpkin patch after Kindermusik.

Lots of pumpkins to choose from

The special one

Go Cubs!  So excited to wear the shirt I got at Wrigley field.  They are going to take it all the way!

Emmalyn doing a great job riding her trike.  She's got the pedaling down.

Look at that mess of hair!

The only time it goes straight is on a slide with tons of static.   :)

Costa Vida finally opened!  We were excited to go try it out for free on their practice night.  I was in heaven with the pork salad.  :)

We went to the annual Halloween party at our next door neighbor's.  This year we went as hippies.

Tyne and me

The decorations were fantastic!  (Katherine and me)

Group picture

She was so sweetly sleeping when I got home that I tried to get a pic, but whoops, the flash bothered her.

I painted the kids' fingernails.  Maxwell was really excited about his orange/black fingernails

Maxwell's wall still has his poster and maps from preschool.  He worked hard on finishing up the maps when he was there this summer.

I had a work trip to California and stayed at Julianne's house.  This was my first time going to her new house.  It was a gorgeous home up in the hills with an amazing view.  I went out on Sunday so I could spent a little more time with her.  We spent the whole day just talking.  At one point, Derek joined in for a few hours.  It was so relaxing and enjoyable.

We cooked dinner!

Lemon, basil, asparagus chicken pasta

The next day after work, I hung out with Jules on set at her show, where she's a judge.  

All dressed up for the show.  I was feeling going about my weightloss so far and felt really pretty in this dress (with some serious heels, you can't tell how high they are in this pic)

I got to sit pretty close to her so we were able to talk a little during breaks.  I was coughing at one point and she kindly got up and gave me her water.  We were also naughty and texted a few times.

After the show

Jules, Kristy, and me enjoying some amazing Greek food after the show

It was nice spending a little time with Derek during this trip

The next morning we had time to go to breakfast before I had to go to work.  It was a really great visit with Julianne.  We had tons of deep, meaningful conversations.  I love her tremendously and I always leave her feeling uplifted and inspired.

I got home pretty late from LA.  While I was waiting for my luggage, I looked through my purse to find my car key... except it weren't there.  I started to panic a little bit but figured it must just be in my luggage.  I got my luggage and tore through it multiple times and couldn't find the key.  I had driven Peter's car and we only have 1 car key (we think Maxwell may have thrown the other one away when he was little).  

So, long story short... Peter had to drive all the way to the airport to get me.  I tried to get a locksmith out there but no one was able to come out that late and make me a new key.  They could let me into the car but every I called didn't have the specific type of key on hand to be able to make me a key.  Poor Peter was a trooper because at one point he had left the house and I called him and told him to turn around because I had found a lock smith who would be able to help me.  Well, then 10 minutes later I get a call from the lock smith saying they couldn't do it until the next day so now Peter had to leave AGAIN to come get me.  I really appreciated that he had a good attitude about it because I felt so awful.

The stinking key!!!  Julianne ended up finding it in her bag that I had borrowed and the next morning she overnighted it to me.  Peter and I decided to still have the lock smith come to the airport because it would be tough being down a car for two days plus it would be good to have two keys again.

So the next morning, I drove Peter to work and then continued to the airport to meet the locksmith.  That was an ordeal!!  He worked for like an hour on my car and then told me he needed to go back to his shop to get a certain machine.  So, I ate lunch at the airport while I waited.  Finally he finished and so I drove back to Peter's work that afternoon in my car and then we went back to the airport so that he could drive his car.  It was such a hassle.

The locksmith

Unfortunately the locksmith ended up taking basically my whole day and that night I was hosting a craft party, which I had planned on spending my afternoon prepping for.  So instead I scrambled to get everything together.

The spread turned out okay than to everyone bringing stuff too

We all did Thanksgiving/Holiday themes on either canvas or chalkboard

My friend Andrea does this as her business and was a great teacher!  It was fun to have both neighborhood and work friends there.

The finished products

Maxwell came home with his first reported card from school.  They don't get letter grades at this point.  He was meeting all expectations on the report card.  For math, he had achieved all parts of the kinder curriculum (which I thought was great but a little ridiculous since it's October and he already knows everything he's supposed to learn this year and they aren't going to challenge him to go beyond that).

September Chicago Trip - Adults only fun!

It's hard to tell what's going on in this picture, so I'll tell you... Emmalyn is all snuggled up to me on the couch.   I love snuggling with her!

My cousins Lindsay and Brandon got a cute new puppy that we got to play with when we were visiting them.  Emmalyn was pretty much in love.

Look at this handsome kid all dressed up for school.  It was picture da).  What a cutie!

Dad did a great job getting him ready for school since I was out of town.

Maxwell's school picture (with his half smile)

I had a work trip to Chicago for a meeting with my client that is based there.  I love going to Chicago.  It's taken over as my favorite city (sorry San Fran).

We got to go to a Cub's game.  It was a lot of fun!

I saw on Facebook that my friend, Rick, from High School happened to also be at the game so we caught up for a few minutes during the game.  It was great to see him and say hi since it's been more than 10 years. (And pretty cool that we met up in a city that neither of us live in.)

Got a cubs shirt.  I was pretty excited to get a shirt that I could fit in!  (My weight loss journey is going well and I'm starting to feel like things are changing with my body.)

Sunrise from my hotel room - so beautiful with a view of Navy Pier!

The view of Navy Pier and the lake from my client's office - it was VERY high up.  Look at how little those skyscrapers look.

View of Millenium park and the "bean"

My friend Melissa was at the kid's school during lunch and sent me this picture of Maxwell at lunch.  Looks like he's having a good lunch, most of it is gone except his turkey.  See his badge that he's got on?  All the kids wear one every day.

When my meetings were over, I had previously decided to stay in town and have Peter come join me for a fun kids-free couples weekend with our friends the Parrigans.

While I waited for Peter to get to the hotel from the airport, I went down and walked along the lake and even put a foot in, just so I could say that I've been in it.

I'm sure this beach is a great place to be in the summer.

Beautiful rainbow stream of water over the river that I found during my walk.

There's always new things to find and enjoy in this great city!

Our first night of vacation was spent hanging out with Sarah, her husband Brad, and her sister and brother-in-law.  We started out at a Korean restaurant for some cook-it-yourself Korean BBQ.  We've never had it before and LOVED it.  It was a total great experience and yummy too.  It was way too much food!

Cooking the meat

The group

After dinner, we went to a different part of town to hang out, enjoy some drinks, and funny enough - ended up watching part of a BYU football game.

The next morning, we got up early to get some sight seeing in before we met up with Sarah and Brad.  We walked to Navy Pier from our hotel (We walked everywhere today!)

The view of the John Hancock building from Navy Pier

The building over my head is the building I was in the previous day for the meetings.  It is the Aon building and so very very tall.  I think the offices were on the 76th floor.

We walked to Millenium park but didn't make it to the bean yet.

We finally met up with the Parrigan's for lunch.  We went to this fantastic cajun restaurant they knew about that was super cool (look at all that hot sauce!).

I love me some hot sauce!  I was really excited to find the hot sauce that I got when we were in Belize.  It's fantastic.  I enjoyed the hot sauce in my beans and rice.  And since it was like we were in New Orleans, I got a hurricane too.

My food - some po boy sandwich or something.

After lunch we walked to the Sears tower (it's now called the Willis Tower) and waited in line to go up to the skydeck.  The line was ridiculous and just never ended..

At this point we were so exhausted from standing in line (and over socialized too) that we just sat down and everyone played on their phones.

My feet weren't tired from all the walking but from all that standing!  It was awful.  It was no way worth the view we were going to have.  There are so many more great things we could have done with the hours we spent just waiting.  UGH!!!!

Stats on the space needle (remember - we visited it this year!)

Floor 103 is how high we went up.  Crazy

Finally we made it through all the endless lines to stand in the crazy glass boxes hanging out over the edge of the building.

The ONE good thing about the wait was that it meant that we were there perfectly to enjoy the sunset.

It was a LONG way down to the street below us.  Such an odd feeling standing on that glass floor.  It made me uneasy but I was totally freaked out.

The Chicago suburbs in the background - they went on as far as the eye could see.

Things were lighting up!

Brad smiling (probably because we could finally be done!)

How we felt about our time at the tower...

"Get ready for an unforgettable experience"??  It sure was unforgettable.

We might have been a little loopy...

Yup, we were definitely loopy.

We then walked to get some dinner.  At one point we passed a 7-11 and I made everyone go in an get a slurpee.  It was a good idea, we needed a little sugar to pick us up.  We were all feeling pretty rough.

After another long wait, we sat down to have dinner at Lou Malnatti's.   

Peter enjoying authentic Chicago deep dish pizza for the very first time.

Look at how much I walked - - over 25,000 steps in one day!!

The next morning Peter and I did the architecture tour on the river.  It was early but we wanted to fit it in.  I LOOOOOVED the Pumpkin Chai Tea that I got.

This tour was amazing.  It was so interesting and educational.  It really opened my eyes to many things that I never paid attention to in city architecture.  It's totally changed how I look at buildings now.  We both really really enjoyed it.

The kids went to church with Brittany while we were gone.  

It's been a lot of fun spending time together.  We haven't been away together from our kids for a night since Emmalyn was born (at least that I can remember anyway).

We had RPM for lunch - it's an Italian restaurant I've really wanted to try.  It was amazing.  The pastas were ridiculously good.  Probably the best since we went to Italy. 

We met the Parrigans one more time.  They were pretty wiped out physically (and socially) from our previous day so we kept it simple and just met for a snack.  We ate at Snack Shack but I didn't really have anything since we had just had lunch.  They then left to drive home to Michigan.

We made it to the bean!  Last thing to do before walking back to the hotel and heading to the airport.

One last bit of Chicago on the plane - Peter ate a Chicago dog.  What a fun short weekend vacation!!!