Visitors

In June we had some visitors! Brian and Heather came to visit. We were so glad that they decided to vacation in Milwaukee with us. We had a wonderful time with a good balance of activity and relaxing. We played at the park, had picnics, went to the Milwaukee Art Museum, went on the Sprecher's brewery (with the best root beer) tour, went to a Brewer's baseball game, slept in, visited with friends, celebrated Colby's birthday, even exercised, rode the subway to Chicago, went to Millineum Park and Navy Pier, ate Chicago deep dish pizza (love Lou Malnati's!), enjoyed custard, ate a lot actually, were entertained by Devri, visited the Chicago temple, and lots more. We had a blast! Thanks for coming Bri and Heather! I will let the pics tell the rest of the story.

P.S. We like visitors! (hint hint family)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 Weeks

8 Weeks

And then she was two!

The highlight of this two-year-old's day was definitely the candles. We had a birthday preview the week before with the family in Roosevelt. Grandma Trudy made cupcakes and put two candles in for Dev to blow out. After that her birthday was all about blowing out the candles. When she woke up the morning of her birthday I told her happy birthday and she starting blowing, so I let her have candles in her muffins. We had plans to get together with some friends during the day, but Devri came down with croup the day before so we just stayed home and took it easy. Although, she was sick we had a really good day. She was so cute and spent most of the day talking about her "happy happy" and showing me how to blow out candles. Our friends Sean and Jessica came for birthday dinner and cake. Thankfully they stayed a while and Sean and Colby assembled all of her presents. It was such a fun day and we're so thankful for our "happy happy" two-year-old!

This is a short video on my camera of Dev blowing out the candles. The longer version on the video camera had us all laughing. After all of her excitement and anticipation about blowing out the candles she was a little nervous to get very close so it took us a long time to blow out candles. When she finally blew them out, Colby lit them again and we started over. I think we spend 15 minutes blowing out candles. :)

 

 

 

 

 

Spring ?

I can't say that spring has officially sprung here in Wisconsin. We are barely getting rid of our snow and could be getting more today! However, we've stopped hibernating and have been trying to get out more. A couple weeks ago we went to the zoo with some friends. Dev was in heaven and thought she was as big as everyone else.

We attended the ward and neighborhood Easter egg hunts and had a wonderful Easter. The next day Colby started his inpatient pediatric rotation and we haven't (hardly) seen him since. :) He hasn't had a day off for a couple weeks! He's busy, but thankfully he enjoys what he is doing. I started a job a few weeks ago. It's a part-time accounting job that I can do from home, so I have loved it! It's amazing how things work out when they are supposed to!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Green

Saturday we ventured down to Chicago for the St. Patrick's Day festivities. There is a parade and the river is dyed green. I found out about it (via Facebook friend's pictures) last year and have been wanting to go since. Colb was willing to go, but didn't know why I was so excited about green water. It reminded me of dragging Janelle to Stonehedge while we were in London. Yes, it's just a pile of rocks, but a very special pile of rocks. Yes, it's just green water, but very bright, emerald green water.

We drove to a park and ride and then hopped on the subway to avoid traffic (probably our best decision of the day). Dev loved riding the "train" and it brought back good London memories for me. It was a typical March Chicago day...cold, breezy, and a bit foggy. We found a good spot to watch the parade and watched until Dev was getting pretty cold. Then we decided to find someplace for some lunch. The crowd was huge and we got stuck in a tight, rowdy bunch trying to leave the parade. It made me a little nervous since we had Dev, but we made it out. There were lots of good, helpful people which is always a relief to see among the college crazy crowd. I am always amazed at what a different lifestyle we live when I have been away from the "world" for a while. We found some lunch, warmed up, and finally went to see the green water. Dev had fallen asleep in Colb's arms by this point, but the water was everything I expected it to be! We walked around a little more and then made our way home. As we got back to the park and ride and walked out to our car Colby had an interesting conversation with a guy that was typical of our day.

Guy: Hey (standing next to his car which we had to walk past to get to ours) I'm taking a pee [politer word substitued].
Colb: What?
G: I'm taking a pee!
C: Now?
G: Yah, I thought I'd tell you since you have your kid.
C: I appreciate that. Just let me know when you're done.
(waiting...waiting...)
G: Okay, I'm done.

Overall, I don't know if I would go again for St. Patrick's Day, but it was a really fun day and we enjoyed seeing the festivities while we are so close. I love downtown Chicago and we are excited to take a few more visits with warmer weather and smaller crowds. If anyone wants to come and visit us, there is lots to do!