Chicago!

Craig spent a few years living in Naperville, Illinois as a little child. I had never been to Chicago, so we decided to take a trip to the windy city. We looked on the internet for a condo to rent, e-mailed a few low-ball offers, packed up the kids and headed North hoping someone would reply before we got there! At 7:30pm we caved and called Marriott to book some rooms, but while Criag was talking to the agent his call waiting beeped and he told the lady he'd have to call her back. On the other line was a condo manager accepting our offer for his place in Roscoe Village. What timing! (This is classic Craig.)

Here's our building. We had the top floor above the Cinnamon Boutique. There were quaint little restaurants and shops all up and down the street, and the 'el' train was just a few blocks away.


We rode the carousel at Navy Pier, and Bryce and Jared did the hall of mazes.


We took an architectural tour of Chicago by boat which was fabulous.


We loved the Museum of Science and Industry.


Millennium Park was cool with it's splash area, live bands, amphitheatre and the Silver Bean sculpture.




Lots of educational paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago.


The Hancock Observatory was superb! Great way to see and learn about the whole city. We ate deep dish pizza at Giordano's, brownies and chocolate milk at Hershey's, and sundays at Ghirardelli's. Yumm!
(And by the way, Craig's old house in Naperville is no longer there. New owners have built a much larger house on the lot.)

Briscoe's Visit

We've been so fortunate to see the Briscoe family a few times this year. We went to Japan to see them in March; Noah and Bryce spend the week together in Utah at EFY in June; and just this past week JoAnn and the kids came here for a visit. The boys picked up right were they left off (in front of the t.v. playing video games). We love you Briscoe's!

Swimming Lessons

Alana took a two week swimming course from our friend Carolyn Langstraat and her helper Rachel Swanson. Alana did so well -- she can now jump from the diving board into the deep end and swim to the edge of the pool on her own. What a fish!

Here she is diving for sunken rings 5 feet below:


And the beautiful jump:

Blueberry Picking

Crissy and I took the little ones blueberry picking today. It was incredibly hot and the season was almost over but it proved to be the best time to go. We had the whole orchard to ourselves; the caretaker brought us water to keep hydrated; and when we went to pay for our haul, he said, "No charge for you guys, it's for the kids!"

Computer Crash!

Our hard drive crashed and I lost three years worth of pictures!! We were able to recover all other files, thank goodness, but the photos are gone. Craig is trying a few other things before giving up. I'm thankful for blogging, so at least I have a minimum saved for remembrances. Let this be a lesson to all: Back Everything Up!