Chi-town Top 10

1. Better than unbelievable good weather for Chicago in November -- upper 60's!

2. Cutting across 4 lanes of traffic on the Kennedy within 1/4 mile of the Ohio Street exit to downtown Chicago.



3. Learning that Austin has been hiding his apparent talent for Whirlyball from me for our 13 years of marriage.

4. Needing sunglasses to shield all the sunshine during a famous Chicago Architecture Boat Tour.



5. Using the street parking credit card machines that have replaced all the parking meters all over town. (I bet we'll see those old parking meters show up in cool resale shop re-purposed as something vintage & fabulous.)

6. Amazement that any friends who had a baby or toddler while we were in school now have a 10-13 year old!



7. Appreciating Salt Lake City's relatively light traffic congestion.

8. Listening to our kids squealing on the phone about all the fun they're having with their babysitters. Thanks Emily & Evan!


9. Learning that after ten years, everyone looks the same or even better.

10. Old friends = Good times

Best and Worst Souveniers

Of course we brought home a few treats for the kids from our trip to Germany. Here are the best and worst.
First the best... Ligretto!

This is a European game I first played with friends several years ago. I tried to find it online to no avail. While in Vienna, I remembered the game and said to Austin we should look for it if we see a toy store while roaming around town. Wouldn't you know around the next corner was a toy store and they had Ligretto! It turns out this little card game is mildly addictive. The girls and I have had some marathon matches as you can see from the already tattered box and cards that are only a few weeks old. I've since discovered this game is now available at Amazon - free Super-Saver Shipping and everything! Maybe Santa can hook us up with an expansion set.

Okay, now the worst... Lizzie's hat.

In preparation for all of our travel time on planes and trains, I came prepared with a ball of yarn and some knitting needles. You can only read so long, right? So throughout the trip I worked on this hat for Lizzie and finally finished in on the flight home. I was so delighted with it. This was the treat we brought home for her and I couldn't wait for her to try it on. So I put it on her.

She pulled it off. Let's try again.

Off again. I'll put it on.

And so it goes. In taking 20+ pictures, I got the one below that captured it on her head for about .5 seconds. Oh well.

Boo!

I always love the Halloween picture. This year we had
a witch, Hermione Granger, a cat, and a lady bug.

The witch started out as Elphaba (from Wicked) with green skin, black hair and all. However, after spending Friday in full costume, Katie never wanted to see face makeup or colored hair spray again. She opted instead for "Plain Witch" come trick-or-treating time.

Avery's choice to be a cat was perfect since she believes she is one half the time anyway.
She's got a pretty real "meow" and she was absolutely delighted with her whiskers and nose for the big day.

Lizzie's Lady Bug is a family favorite that's been worn by each of the girls. Happy Halloween!

Schnitzel with Noodles

Thanks to the planning efforts of Austin and the love of Grandma, Austin and I were able to spend a wonderful vacation in Austria and Germany. This trip was more about breathtaking outdoor scenery than seeing indoor art museums. We visited castles old and castles new(er.) We explored medieval villages, relaxed in gorgeous parks, drove on the Autobahn, and (my favorite) tasted our way from Vienna to Frankfurt.

Austrian Alps

We ended up in the town where "The Sound of Music" was filmed and had enjoyed visiting several locations that were in the movie. To be honest, I never noticed the background when I watched that movie. So we had a fun movie night with the kids after we got home with plenty of "We were there!", "Oh look, there's those dwarf statues!", "There's the fortress we climbed!"...

Clear water like I've never seen before in all the lakes and streams.

Snacks for the road.

Austin calls this the "Where's Waldo" picture.

We met up with Austin's sister, Emily, and got to stay in their beautiful home and be chauffeured through the Rhine River Valley chock full of medieval castle ruins. Thanks Emily!

Just one more picture...

After our return home, we gathered up the family to "look at pictures" from the trip. Avery, 4, understood this as the time to share all of her "pictures" from preschool. So, we began with an enlightening art exhibit.

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of my mom with the kids. She is really the reason we were able to go. Thanks mom!

Turning One!

Wow! She's one year old! What a year we've had. As I look back to my posts from Sept. 2008, I am so grateful for this last year busy with happy milestones. Growing, off oxygen, growing, sitting up, baby fat rolls, crawling, fewer baby fat rolls. What a happy little person our Elizabeth is. She's become quite an explorer in her eight weeks of crawling.

Getting tickles from Dad in the hammock.

The cupcake shot. I've never had a baby who puts things in her mouth like Lizzie! She switched from dead bugs and leaves to a cupcake with ease.

Low tech.

No birthday of child #4 is complete without the older siblings helping figure out every nuance and noise of the new birthday toys.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Back to School

So we made it to the first day of school after a great summer including warm weather, travels, dance, piano, swimming, and lots of down time. They learned to appreciate the value of a Slurpee on a warm day. Nothing is more fun than finding out who your new teacher is going to be and collecting all those brand new school supplies off the list.

5th grade and 3rd grade, here we come. Now I'm not sure if they're running toward school or away from home...