whobody has AWESOME hair?

I still have one more post to do about our last day of vacation....but I took these pics this morning and JUST had to share!

So, Cruz's hair is OUT OF CONTROL! 

It seems to have grown about an inch in a week. He just has a natural mohawk. Even if I try to smooth it down after a bath, it still ends up like this!!!!

I know I should probably cut it to get it under control...but I just can't. He is too young (and, as his mother, I do think it is cute!)

whobody loves the Choo Choo place? (part 3)

So... after we rested for a few hours after the zoo...we headed out for supper.  We went to the All Aboard Diner...which is ALWAYS the highlight of our kids' Chicago trips.  This place is great (for kids)....trains everywhere, train songs playing, Thomas on the multiple TVs...and most exciting of all, a train serves your food! Seriously, there is a track on the counter and they load the food up in the kitchen, and it rides the track all around til your food is in front of you. The kids LOVE IT!!!

(They hand delivered our beers, however, I guess they didn't want them to spill....)

So, here are the kids at the model train set up....

Then Nash and Lola went over and got in the 'train ride'....now here is a little secret....

(imagine me whispering now)

....our kids don't know that you can put money in those things to make them go....

seriously, IF they go with me to walmart...or to the mall and IF I let them get on those rides...I don't put money in them....well, not usually anyway. :) So....the owner of the place saw my poor kids sitting in the train ride pretending to make it go...so he went over and put money in it for them :) Now that is good business....because he did THAT we of course put our own money in a couple more times. Nash was in heaven!

After they explored a little, they sat down for the appetizer...chocolate shakes and fried pickles. They had chocolate shakes...and I had the fried pickles. :) We couldn't get any of the kids to eat them! But, of course...they LOVED their shakes.

I did take a quick picture of them while our food was being delivered...you can see the engine of the train right by the waitress. Fun stuff.

Like I said, always the highlight of the trip. I highly recommend this place to anyone with kids! They love it...and the food is very good too. :) After supper we swam...and then we had some tired tired tired kids! Gotta love vacation....

whobody belongs in a zoo? (part 2)

The first morning in Chicago, we headed to the Brookfield Zoo. The kids LOVE animals...in fact, Keaton and Lola plan to own a zoo someday :) (they have actually been working on a list of animals AND a layout of their zoo...but Keaton is a little worried about how much a zebra would cost...he is thinking maybe $500...) Anyway, that is for another post.   Here are all of the kids at the entrance of the zoo...and it was only 9:30...and already HOT HOT HOT! We always seem to pick the hottest weeks to go on vacation! (this summer they are hard to miss)

 We of course had to stop at the lion statue by the entrance...this is Lola and Keaton 'hamming' it up...and Nash looking at them like "What are you guys doing???"

....speaking of hamming it up....

then...before Nash even had a chance to actually BE tired of walking... "Keaton, carry me please..."

The kids loved Stingray Bay where they got to pet and feed the stingrays.... I actually stayed outside with Cruz for this one....it was one of the many places that you couldn't take strollers into.....and he was sleeping in his stroller....

it wasn't too bad in the shade...which is pretty much where Cruz and I tried to hang out most of the day....

Nash was the MOST excited to see the crocodiles...and loved every minute!

 

 the giraffes.... and when Nash does that pose he says "look mom, I doin' pilates!"

Happy Cruz with his toy/binkie! It was so funny...I can't tell you how many people we would meet on a walkway and they would say "Oh, look at that baby's legs!" I think they noticed how muscular they were.....

This was near the end of the day...we were all pretty HOT by then.

We really had a great time at the zoo...with kids this age, it is the perfect place to spend the day...ahem, I mean morning... Nash still needs his nap! I took the picture below of the 3 kids chilling out in our hotel after the zoo...can you tell they were WIPED OUT???

whobody loved chicago? (part 1)

As I have mentioned, we took a little trip to Chicago at the beginning of this week. We are very lucky to have friends and family that live in all sorts of cool places to visit (chicago, kansas city, st louis...(watch out wyse family...you are on our list)....milwaukee....madison...)....so we can take a vacation there AND visit our loved ones.  Two birds with one stone....so to speak.

The lucky recipient of our family vacation this summer was Jason's brother "Chicago Tom".  He lives in Chicago (obviously) and this is our 3rd trip to see him.  These trips have been a great way for us to get to know Tom and spend some time with him other than holiday meals!

We took off on Sunday morning with all intentions of going to church first, and then driving to Dubuque to visit Cora, and then driving to Chicago. Well, of course, Cruz fell asleep on the way to Guttenberg....so I made the executive decision to skip church and head right to Dubuque. I figured that we would be 'pushing it' with the Cruz-Ship enough throughout the trip that we didn't need to mess with his schedule already!

We visited with Tessa, Steve and Cora for a little bit, then headed on our way.  The kids were excellent on the trip (it is only a 4 hour drive) and they love to watch movies in the car.  We got to our hotel, and Cruz and I chilled in the room, while the rest of the family went swimming! Then Uncle Tom met us at our hotel and we headed to downtown Naperville for supper and a walk by the river (now, a tradition for this trip).

Supper was at Giordano's....and was excellent. This is our 2nd time there....and we loved it. The kids even ate great...they love pizza.  We also ordered calamari for an appetizer...2 of our children wouldn't even try it...but one of our children LOVED it!!! Guess who?

Yep...Nash.  I said I wanted to take a picture of him eating calamari...so he kept posing like this... My apologies for the "see-food".

After supper, we walked a couple of blocks down to the river.  The kids LOVE this....although it was hot, Cruz was fine too!  This picture above was my attempt at  getting a picture of all 4...pretty tough to do, by the way.

Lola really LOVES vacation...and she LOVES Uncle Tom.

This is pretty much how the whole river is... a sidewalk, next to the river. Although it made me VERY anxious...the kids loved to walk along the river and check out the ducks and fish.  I just followed along with the stroller....and Cruz...well, he slept!

Of course....Lola always has to PUSH it....I kept saying to not get too close to the edge....but THIS was how she stood the whole time!

Keaton was e.x.c.e.l.l.e.n.t for the whole vacation. He is Mr. Helpful...and Mr. Responsible....and Mr. Happy...the whole time.

Another attempt at a picture of all 4.... I would try to get them to look at the camera... Nash would always say "CHEESE!!!!" but be looking somewhere else the whole time!

Then, of course, "Nashy want to hold Baby Cruzy!"....so we let him...and Keaton had to get behind him so he didn't fall backwards. Cruz is BIG!  We had a great first night!

whobody has a new cousin?

My sister Tessa has a new baby daughter....Cora Rose. She was born on July 9th and weighed in at 9 lbs and 3 oz! I was fortunate enough to be able to help 'coach' Tessa through labor and delivery. (Her husband, Steve, was there too....and although he was worried about getting woozy...he was a champ....and I really wasn't needed :) but was so glad that I could be there anyway!)  It was truly one of the most awesome things ever.  I have really loved (aside from the immense pain :) every one of my labors and deliveries...and it was really cool to see it from the other side. Tessa did awesome and now has a beautiful new daughter!

The kids were super excited to have a new cousin. (Lola is especially excited to have a little girl to take care of and teach how to be a girl rockstar!) I took the older 2 kids to visit Tessa and Cora at the hospital.  They loved it! Lola is very excited about the matching outfits we bought for her and Cora.

Then after Cora had a few days at home, our whole family stopped in to visit them on our way to Chicago! Nash was pretty excited to hold the baby...

Congratulations Tessa and Steve! We are so excited for you guys...and she is perfect!

whobody is growing a green thumb?

Today during quiet time (Nash's nap time) we headed outside to get the garden produce back under control and caught up. (I will be writing about the Chicago trip soon...but these pictures were a lot easier to go through and add than the ones from the trip.) 

We were only gone for 4 days, but we had a MESS of beans and peas that needed to be harvested.  First, Keaton and I worked on those while Lola cut flowers...that row of zinnias is my new genius way of hiding the rest of the garden from the driveway. Then Keaton got bored and decided it would be more fun to help Lola!

 Yes...Cruz's shirt says "Crabby but cute" he looks crabby in this photo....but really wasn't. He LOVES to be outside...especially when it isn't 100 degrees out!

 The kids have been super helpful this summer in the garden....(this is the first year their "help" has been helpful!).  They are good at pulling weeds and harvesting the veggies.  The garden pictured above is our little garden with the row veggies... and then we have a big garden with the vines back between the sheds.  After I took the kids' pictures with the little garden, they took my camera and went and got some shots of the big garden. (They are very proud.)

I really love having a garden...and hopefully the kids will learn a lot from it too! So far they have had a blast seeing things grow (and it is a great way to get them to try new things.) Although it has been a hot and dry year...our garden is doing great! Big thanks to our friends the sprinklers.... :)

whobody is a little behind?

I am behind in blogging....

I am behind on bookwork....

I am behind on my housework....

I was behind on laundry....but worked on it all day...and this is the result:

I was pretty proud of myself when this was all done...

THAT being said, these are only the kids' clothes and the towels...I still have the adult laundry in the house to fold and put away.

Preparing for our vacation to Chicago made me behind on the laundry in the first place...

THEN being in Chicago for 4 days in 100 degree heat...going out for all meals...swimming...well that ALL creates a lot of laundry!

I hope to catch up here in the next few days. We have very little on the calendar for the next 2 weeks...and I am so excited about that. This summer has been CRAZY BUSY!  Hopefully I get a chance to write about all of the fun things we have been doing soon!

I hope you enjoyed my finished laundry as much as I have...now to put it away!

(Yes, their closets are pretty empty!)