SISTER TIME

VISIT TO THE WINDY CITY:
Samuel, Madeline and I drove up to visit my sister, Krista this week. Here are some photos of our time there.

Me, 25, Her, 24...I was thinking of that quote from Anne of Green Gables, where she laments..."Why do people have to grow up?!" Sometimes I think the same thing...but change IS good. It's actually more fun to have bros-in-law, sis's-in-laws, neices and nephews.

Cousins...Madeline and Gracie

Me and my Buddy, Samuel, getting ready to brave the ccoolldd weather downtown!

A trip up North isn't complete w/out some serious chocolate...the best around!! Ghiradelli...Yum. They were handing out free samples of chocolate peppermint chocolates at the door.

Samuel opted for strawberry. Us girls, chocolate mint hot fudge sundae. We split...and walked it off afterward, of course.

A perfectly delicious indulgence...even Gracie liked it!

Here's Madeline sharing Grace's crib...all tuckered out.

Love the toes!

Phew!! Our mommies get us all bundled up to go outside!

"Awww...my hat's all crooked!"

"There, much better! Do you like my hat? My Auntie could make you one too!!"

Grace getting all dolled up for the day. Her mommy makes her curly hair look so cute! She had 2 piggies in that day. :)

Samuel and Gracie watching Signing Times...one of our favorite DVD's. (We like the "Diaper Dance" song...it's pretty catchy!)

We walked around Michigan Avenue for the whole afternoon. Great to be out! I don't get out much when I'm at home. Takes 1/2 the day to get my 3 chickadees ready to go out. :) Not to mention the stress of taking care of them while were "out"...so this was refreshing! Madeline slept the whole time, and Samuel rode on top of the stroller.

While we were getting ready to cross on of the streets, we heard some people behind us talking. One person asked, so where are you from? (to a couple standing behind us) They answered, "Oh, we live about 4 hrs South of here, in a town called Paris." Krista turned around and exclaimed, "Paris?! We're from Oakland!" The guy and his wife started laughing and said, "Actully, we're from Redmond!" That's even closer to where we live. (it's the boondocks!!) We found out that the guy knows our cousin Ryan and was on the schoolboard at Shiloh School.



Madeline even had a "Pebbles Ponytail"...hopefully she'll have thicker hair than me. :)

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM:
We walked to Navy Pier, where the Children's Museum was. That was definitely worth the $9...we all had a blast, even Krista and I. We laughed SO hard!! It was rainy and cold on the way there. We figured we'd rather brave the weather than try to squeeze the carseats, strollers, babies, and us in a taxi. We even walked past the place where Oprah lives...Krista was informing me of all of the interesting info. :) Cracks me up that the country girl lives in the big city now! We were laughing at ourselves tooling around Michigan Ave. Plus, I was scaring myself driving in the city...yikes! Be glad you weren't in the car w/ me. I told Samuel to pray for mommy while we were driving...he started in, praying for me and everyone else he could think of. Thankfully, we made it there safe! Here's a picture of Samuel and his beautiful Auntie:

Samuel liked the umbrella.



There were some lovely indoor gardens at Navy Pier. I loved the water fountains!









Auntie Krista was passing on her interest in building and gears to Samuel. We learned some new things, built some contraptions, and had a fun time!

WINTER WONDERFEST @ NAVY PIER

Now this was really fun! There were lots of rides, slides, trees, elves and other characters walking around...we could've spent the whole day there!



COOKIE MARATHON;
We did the annual tradition this year: COOKIES!! Icing, cutouts, sugar, burning the last batch and all! Samuel fizzled out. He only wanted to ice the cookies he could eat right away.

We made chocolate crinkles, lebkuchen, cutouts, and bon bons. (We got tired, so Krista ended up baking the bon bons yesterday, after I left.)

I met one of Krista's friend's, Cayla, and her new little baby, Aveny. She was lots of fun to chat with. We were doing the juggling thing...tending to the babies AND the cookies.

We weren't paying attention to Samuel, and he had gotten into the flour. He was "digging" w/ the measuring cup. Ahh...to be 3 years old! It brought back memories of one of K and I's "baking" experiences when we were 3 and 4. Remember Mom? Yeah, the time you were on the phone...and we decided to make some floury treats!


Thanx, Auntie Krista and Gracie (and George too!) for the fabulous time!!! We want to bring Justin and William with next time!