Duluth or bust...You Betcha!

This weekend, we had the opportunity to take a road trip to Duluth Minnesota. Duluth? Yep, Duluth, where Matt's parents are serving a Mormon mission for the Church Education System. They are really enjoying the work that they are doing and I think Wanda, Matt's mom, is in her kind of heaven having the opportunity to learn, meet lots of new people and serve others. I know Ferrin, Matt's dad, is enjoying the opportunity to learn, study and serve others, as well.

It was also Wanda's birthday weekend and we were happy to be able to share it with her! We started off Friday morning, after Matt and I wrapped up a few loose ends with work stuff, for our 8 hour trip north. We went to Duluth by way of Milwaukee, Madison and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It is really pretty country, even with trees not having any leaves. Matt took this incredible picture of the rainbow from the car! It turned out very well.

Quinton was a trooper the whole way! He was very patient with us while he watched a movie, played with Matt and ran around at every rest stop!

We stopped at one rest stop that had this giant deer statue...

...and this GINORMOUS orange moose...cause moose are orange, right? I think, since we were in Wisconsin, the moose was supposed to look like it was made of cheese or something. But even that is a weird shade of orange for cheese!

Quinton was funny, he wouldn't go up and touch the moose! Can you blame him?

Friday night, we stayed at a fun hotel that featured and indoor water park. We arrived so late Friday night, we weren't able to take advantage of the water park until Saturday morning. Matt's parents came over to the hotel and joined us in the aquatic fun. The place was PACKED with other families with the same idea, but Quinton couldn't have cared less. He LOVED the water and the water features.

One of Quinton's favorites parts of the water park was this kids water feature. At the top of this water jungle gym was a big bucket that would fill up with water. Just before it was going to tip over, a little bell would go off and everyone knew the waterfall was coming! Quinton became like one of Pavlov's dogs every time the bell started sounding. He would stop whatever he was doing and watch the bucket tip over. The picture above is the BEFORE picture and below, is the AFTER picture as the water started its descent. We must have watched the thing dump over a hundred times from a dozen different angles!

Quinton also loved the lazy river. After spending 2 hours and 45 minutes playing in the water, the lazy river was his favorite place to sit and relax!

Later that afternoon, we were able to drive around Duluth and go to the "beach". Lake Superior was pretty cold, although we hear it's thawed out quite a bit. It was a nice sunny day to enjoy the sights, though.

Quinton still a little tired from swimming, hangs on to Grandma for warmth and comfort.

Quinton is holding what's best described as an 'ice cube' from Lake Superior.

I took a close up of the 'ice cube' because it's form was so interesting. Cool picture, eh?

This is a view of the city of Duluth from a little island across the bridge.

Ferrin, Wanda, Matt, Me and Quinton enjoying our visit to Duluth!

Quinton trying to warm up on the beach. He's used to the beaches in Florida where I grew up but not this beach that had ice cubes floating around!

Matt enjoying some time with his parents.

Quinton and his Grandma enjoying time together.

Wanda and Ferrin's digs while they live in Duluth.

This was such a fun weekend!

We were sad to go on Sunday morning, but we were worried about a snow storm on it's way into Duluth. We had an uneventful ride back to Chicago (but we did stop at the Outlet Malls at the Wisconsin Dells...to stretch our feet and get some exercise, of course!). Lucky for us, the weather held up and we made very good time getting back home.

I was lucky enough to grow up near my mom's parents in Florida. I was also very fortunate to visit my dad's parents in Idaho often and spend great summers camping in McCall, Idaho with them. I love that Quinton loves his grandparents so much!

They are a wonderful blessing in our lives.

Local Tourists

This past Saturday, we treated ourselves to some fun downtown. We went to one of our favorite Chicago eateries, Harry Caray's. I had a yummy burger, Matt had some awesome pork chops and Quinton thoroughly enjoyed his spaghetti. I think the people at the next table got a kick out of watching Quinton slurp his noodles Lady and the Tramp style and then just shoving handfuls in! The bust of Harry Caray. Notice Oprah's picture on the right, above Matt's head.
Ye olde noodle slurper!

Q LOVES to make "foo faces", or funny faces to you and me.

We were able to go and see the famous "Cloud Gate" for the first time. Quinton thought it was too strange to touch so he looked at it from a safe distance.

Quinton running around with the Chicago skyline as his backdrop.

More of Q and the skyline.

It was such a fun afternoon to go and play downtown. We are waiting for a little bit nicer weather weekend to go to the museums and the aquarium. Maybe even for an out of town guest to come over for a bit of motivation to do more sightseeing (hint, hint).

Somebunny Loves You!

What a fun time of year!

The first day of spring meant about 6 inches of snow for us after enjoying about a week of no snow on the ground!

Just when we'd noticed buds beginning on the trees and green shoots coming up from the ground, we received a huge pile of snow! Last Friday, it was snowing so hard and fast that the DMV closed 2 hours early! I found that out when Matt and I made it there at 5 minutes to three and were told that they were shutting down! It has taken us a while to find the time to go and switch to Illinois licenses so I was pretty peeved about them closing early. I said, "I called two hours ago to make sure you were open on Good Friday and no one said you might close early. This is ridiculous." The man in the 80s polyester shirt behind the counter replied, "Ma'am, this snow is ridiculous." and that was then end of our conversation. So Quinton and I had the PURE JOY of spending 2.5 hours at the DMV, yesterday, registering our new car and obtaining my new Illinois license...that was sure fun! Especially when I took the "written" test on a computer and had to hold Quinton in my lap, squirming and yelling the whole time...yep, that's my boy!

Needless to say, we made the most of our wintry Easter weekend!

Friday night, we ended up having some friends over for some yummy and HOT tortilla chicken soup. Their little girl, Miss M and Quinton had a lot of fun decorating sugar cookies and bunny cakes. I enjoyed eating Quinton's creations!

Saturday, our church held a kids Easter egg hunt. I helped a couple of the other ladies put it together and it was a lot of fun. Quinton is quite the master egg hunter these days...I think I even overheard him talking to kids in an Australian accent saying, "Crikey, this one's a beaut!"

(Rachel, Rebekeh and me in our spring colors)

After the egg hunt, we went to our friend Kate's 1 year birthday party. It was lots of fun to spend time with friends from when we lived here about 4 years ago. After all of the sugar of the egg hunt and birthday cake, though, Quinton and Matt were ready to crash. I dropped them off at home and then ran around town making sure I had everything we needed for our big Sunday Easter dinner.

At church on Sunday, there were several great talks about the real reason for Easter, Christ's resurrection. My friend Rebekeh gave a great talk and it was nice to feel the spirit. Sunday was also my first day in my new calling to help teach the 4-5 year olds. Boy, are they an active bunch! It's so much fun, though, to see what Quinton will be like before I know it. I think I am going to like this calling!

After church, we prepped for our big dinner and at 4pm, our guests started arriving. I think it total, we had 12 adults and 7 kids under the age of 4 at our dinner. Luckily, the house we are house sitting has a giant dining room table and all of the adults were able to enjoy one another's company with more yummy food than we could eat! It was so great to sit around a big table and talk to friends. All in all, it was a great dinner!

Another exciting thing that happened this weekend is that Quinton has a new cousin! My older sister had her little baby girl a couple of weeks early. When I spoke with my mom yesterday, they still didn't have a name for Baby Girl Snow so I am anxiously awaiting to hear what her name is and see a picture of her! I hear that mom and baby girl are recovering from the early arrival and I know a lot about that! Congrats Alyee, Cliff, James and Winter!

On a side note, Quinton has taken to bathing TWICE a day just because he loves the master bath so much! He has some fun toys, we add a few bubbles and voila! He is in heaven! This picture is of him in the tub on Friday with LOTS of snow falling outside of the window.

Hip Hop Hi!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I think this year is a little confusing with St. Patrick's Day and Easter being so close together, I think I even saw Easter eggs decorated with shamrocks today! Ya hafta love the commercialism of it all!

Saturday was Quinton's first ever official Easter egg hunt! A local high-end retail plaza around the corner from us hosted the egg hunt at 8:30 am on Saturday! It was pretty cold but for Quinton's age group, they had the hunt indoors. This being Quinton's first hunt, I was worried about whether or not I had adequately prepared him. I read on a friend's blog that she had prepped her 2-year old by hiding eggs in the house and then letting her find them. Quinton and I hadn't really practised for this event and I was nervous!

No Worries!

Quinton is a natural in the art of hunting eggs and taking out the competition! Just kidding, he didn't take any other kids out but he did wag his finger with a severe, "No, no, no" at a little girl he caught trying to touch his basket of eggs! Quinton was one of the first kids off the line and immediately found a stockpile of eggs and loaded up. He did a great job of sharing, too, surprisingly enough! One kid's egg fell out and he didn't notice. When Quinton picked up the egg, I thought he would put it in his own basket (cause that's what I would do) but he ran over the kid and put it into his basket. Nice, huh?

It was a fun morning. We topped it off with a shy hello to an Easter bunny character and a yummy bagel from Panera. Matt was out riding his bike with a guy from church. He's trying to get back into a training routine for his triathlons.

Saturday night, we invited some old friends and new ones over for dinner. It was warm enough outside to cook a pork tenderloin on the grill, which came out perfect! And my friend Rebekeh (aka my twin) made these super-delish St. Patrick's cupcakes (here's the recipe link). It was a great time. Here is a picture of me and Rebekeh:

And one of her daughter, Miss M and Quinton:

Last Friday, we enjoyed a lovely day at the park. We were actually heading over to the Children's Museum but it was so nice out, we stopped at this great park along the way and played outside, instead. Quinton didn't even want to wear his coat, even though it was still a little chilly but what can I do? He has a mind of his own!

Well, I had better get back to Quinton, I think I just saw a naked bum streak past me!

New 'Do 4 Q!

Well, you'd think by the title, I'd be writing about Quinton's first professional haircut he received a couple of weeks ago at this cute place called Kidsnips. Alas, no, I write tonight about the hairdo he gave himself this morning while I was emailing a friend. He must have heard me talking about how dry the air is here because he comes waltzing into the office-area with a silly grin and as he turns his head, I saw nothing but white in his hair. It's a little funny because with a full head of white hair, I thought he bore a striking resemblance to his Great Grandpa Gardner with all of the white he had in his hair! Lucky for Quinton, though, it was only my lotion!

Talk about goopy!

I was in the process (sort of) of trying to get us out of the house on a beautiful (and sort of warm at 40+ degrees) morning to go on a walk. After wrestling him to wash his hair out in the sink, he was squeaky clean and had soft, silky hair!

We eventually made it on our walk...an hour of bliss out in the sun. Just me and Quinton walking to Panera for a yummy cinnamon crunch bagel (sorry, Dad!).

Our little family has been settling into life in Chicago pretty well. We are learning to live with frequent showings on the house we're house sitting in and Matt's new work environment (home and on the road). We even hosted a church playgroup here on Wednesday, which consisted of about 7 mommies, 2 babysitters and a zillion kids. I exaggerate, just a little. It just seemed like a zillion kids but in fact, was probably only 15 or so. Not too shabby for my first playgroup here! The best part of about it was having enough space and toys in the basement to keep most of the kids happy! I also enjoyed the opportunity to meet a bunch of new friends and hang out with old ones.

Last week, when it was REALLY cold, Quinton and I went to the Kohl Children's Museum. They have a special Clifford exhibit right now, which is one of Quinton's favorite cartoons. The place is so much fun! They have a water feature room, a mini-grocery store where everything is kid-sized, and all kinds of fun experiments. I really had to drag Quinton out of there at closing time!

We also hosted our first official guest two weekends ago! My Aunt Sheryl from New Jersey came into town for a job interview. It was so fun to have family in town! She and I were even able to get away from the boys and have a yummy lunch in downtown Evanston. On Monday, when she had her interview, we dropped her off at the train station. It was a rainy morning so she had an umbrella with her. So now, Quinton will occasionally ask, "Umbrella train, Sherry?" Translated, he's asking me where Aunt Sheryl is and he equates her with the train and umbrellas...what a funny kid! When she was here, he would walk around the house looking for her saying, "Sherry? Sherry? SHERRY?" I enjoyed the opportunity to visit with my Aunt and have Quinton get to know her a little.

Well, we have a showing tomorrow morning so I had better be off to bed so I can clean up!

Movin' On Up to The West Side

The west side of Lake Michigan, that is!

Well, after talking about moving to Chicago for what seemed like YEARS and was in reality ONLY 6 months, we have finally arrived! We arrived about a week ago but it's taken me this long to feel like I can spend a little "me" time blogging.



We left Broken Arrow, OK on a rainy day and arrived here to sub-zero temps, a not-so-nice shock to our thin-blooded Quinton! The three of us drove the 12+ hours from Tulsa to Chicago over the course of two days. Some highlights of the road trip were going inside the St. Louis arch and taking the egg-ride to the top...boy, what a view! Quinton really enjoyed looking at the cars from that high up! They looked like his Matchbox cars from that high.

Another highlight was finding the famed OscarMeyer weinermobile parked at our hotel in St. Louis! A freak blizzard hit downtown St. Louis just as I took this picture from the hotel room window. I had hoped to snap a family shot next to the weinermobile but the weather was crazy and by the time it had left, so had the weinermobile.

Monday, February 18th, our first night in Chicago, we stayed on the Magnificent Mile aka Michigan Avenue, at the Marriott. Our view was nothing short of amazing! We had this floor to ceiling window above downtown and Quinton loved it! Unfortunately, the introductory temperature outside was 9 degrees, with a wind chill factor of 11 degrees below zero! Sheesh! Every time we went outside, Quinton insisted on being carried and he would bury his face in his coat!

Tuesday, we headed north west around Lake Michigan to the house where we are staying temporarily. Some lovely friends of our from when we lived here before have their house on the market. We have the privilege of house-sitting while it's on the market but when it sells, we'll be looking for some inexpensive cardboard boxes to call home! Kidding, but real estate is crazy compared to living in Tulsa! By the way, we sold our place in Tulsa! We were so sad to leave our little house but hope the new owners enjoy it and the neighborhood as much as we did!

Wednesday, the moving truck showed up and unloaded. I swear I wouldn't have been too sad if the contents of the truck had been lost...I'm a little tired of moving the same stuff over and over. Plus, we're not sure how long we'll be in this house, so we put about 90% of our stuff in storage. Heck, we don't even know how long we'll be in Chicago! It could be 18 months or 5 years, we just never know.

Since Wednesday, we have REALLY enjoyed visiting our old haunts on the North Shore. Walker Brothers, Boris' Cafe in Winnetka and Old Orchard. We have been able to visit with some great friends as well, Erin and Jeff, Erin and Geoff (two different couples), Ryan and Camie, Ben and Sarah and Rebekah and Keenan. It is so great to reconnect with our friends. Quinton has thoroughly enjoyed making new friends but still asks for "Jack's House"...the little boy three houses down in Tulsa and when I tell him we're going to a new friend's house, he's say, "Sarah's House", another friend in Tulsa. One good thing is that he now refers to our current abode as "Cookie's House" so he knows we're not just on a vacation and that he really lives here.

Well, I don't want to bore you too much so I'd better go and get some cleaning done.

If you're ever in Chicago, give us a call, we'd love visitors!

Open House = Empty House

Well, I don't really have a clue what Diaper Diaries Day # it is because I had to take down my calendar that I used for counting...we had an open house on Sunday and the calendar wasn't right for "staging" purposes. We actually neded up putting away a lot of our stuff and taking down pictures to stage the house just right. We are really hoping to sell the house soon!

I have to say that Matt worked like a dog on Saturday to prep for the open house. I had a two-page legal pad-length laundry list of "honey-dos" for both of us to do. Matt scrubbed, spackled, vacuumed and anything else I could think of to make the place look tip top! It all paid off on Sunday when our realtor told us that our house looked like it had been professionally staged! The hardest part of it? KEEPING it looking like this! I had a realtor call tonight, 15 minutes before Quinton and I were meeting friends for dinner, and the race was on to have the house spic and span again!

If any of you have ever had your house on the market, you know exactly what I am talking about when I say it's a MAD DASH to spruce up the house. Now, add in the antics of an appropriately active two-year old and it's a scary recipe! I was SO close to being done and still making it to dinner on time when I hear the clink, clink, clink of coins. Unfortunately for me, Quinton was not dropping the coins into his beloved piggy bank, but the air intake slots to our rather expensive vacuum! Ugh! Vacuuming was all I had left to do, too! In the midst of shaking the vacuum rather violently to get the coins out, Matt calls from Ft. Lauderdale to check in. I accidentally hung up on Matt when I was shaking the heavy vacuum over my head and dropped the phone. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to shake all 16 coins out of the vacuum without having to perform major surgery. I was only a few minutes late for dinner, where Quinton and his partner-in-crime Jack wreaked HAVOC on our meal. Of course it was ME, not Quinton or Jack, who ended spilling my drink all over the table (thank you, Tonya, for saving my digital camera)...but it had to be someone, right?

Dinner tonight was with my two neighbor friends whose husbands are out of town, too. On Tuesday nights that our collective husbands are out of town, we like to go out to dinner with the kids to have one night where we don't have serve PB&J for the kids and Lean Cuisines for ourselves! So there we are, 3 adults whose sanity is questionable for taking a total of 5 kids (three 2 year olds, a 4 year old and a 7 year old) out to dinner at a respectable establishment. I know I ended up throwing in a little extra tip for the fact that the server was going to have to wash the mini-blind pulls behind our booth because Quinton and Jack were spitting them out of their mouths. Ewwwwww, right!?!

All in all, a normal night for us three mommies!

Matt and I are excited as our move approaches but we are also pretty sad. We lived here about as long as we did in Phoenix and this move seems so much harder. We put down a lot more roots here in Tulsa, admittedly, but it's also the people we have had the opportunity to know. Our neighbors, friends from church and Matt's colleagues have been huge blessings in our lives these past 20 months! Just like in Salt Lake, Phoenix and Chicago, previously, we are thankful for everyone's friendship.

Onward and upward, right?!