Drive to Utah + Thanksgiving Point

After Chicago, I was pretty tired of taking pictures. So I didn't take too many on our long long car ride from Chicago to Utah. Let's just say the girls didn't quite sleep as often as we were hoping they would. In fact, Lily would not nap, and stay up until about 10 pm in the car. 

She was so exhausted once we got back to Utah, that she fell asleep at 10 am the next day.

Lucy was just beggining to crawl when we leave Utah and just getting into toys. And then she went 4 months with hardly any toys at all. So her first day back at the house Lily slept in until 9:30 am, and she woke up at her normal 7 am - so she potentially had the entire toy collection to herself, which was quadruple the amount of toys she had during our stay in Columbus. And guess what she wanted to play with? For 1 solid hour she played with the pink chair and the itty bitty kitty book. And then she kept playing with it off and on through out the day. The kitty book eventually got dropped into the bathtub and destroyed, but she still considers the pink chair her territory. 

$2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point!
We didn't waste any time in getting the Lily^2 team back together. Lily Diane was a little disappointed that Baby Lucy was no longer a baby, but the Lily's were happy to see each other - as were us moms!

It didn't take very long for them to become best friends again

Hay Ride!!!!

All in all, it's great to be back home.

Conference Highlights

Let us pretend that I am not  months behind in blogging and talk about this conference weekend. Here are some highlights:

+ Lily was reunited with her long lost "daughter", Dollie. Dollie took a vacation at her great aunt's house for 2 months, much to the distress of her mother Lily and her sister Minnie. But, the family is together once more and Dollie is once again being lovingly taken care of by her mommy.

+ Lucy signed her first signs! She requested "milk" and "more" banana. The funny thing is I haven't been quite as on top of teaching Lucy sign language as I was with Lily. These signs seemed to come from out of no where- however with Lucy's refusal to talk, this will hopefully help prevent some tantrums (which are many and frequent in Lucy's life).  Lucy is a huge, spunky, spirit trapped in a little tiny body - the which, I'm sure, is very frustrating to her.

+ "Is that Heavenly Father?" Lily always asks when she sees President Monson. She doesn't ask that of any other apostle, and no matter how many times we correct her (she often asks that when looking at the picture of the first presidency in our bedroom). I would like to think that she recognizes him as Heavenly Fathers mouthpiece, but that may just be the overly proud mother in me talking.


+ An attitude of gratitude. The past two weeks we've invited some old friends over for dinner and fhe, and asked them to share a message. These two woman, Mino and my former MTC companion Jenn (Dutson) Talbot, are spiritual powerhouses and are two amazing role models for me (despite us being the same age. They both felt impressed to talk to us about the key to happiness, gratitude. And then during conference, it seemed that gratitude was a frequent subject. I think I need to be more positive and grateful at all times in my life, especially at the difficult times.

+ Jordan received a job offer from Cummins! It just shows they are a smart company. We have 3 more weeks to think about it and then we'll get back to you as to what we decide :)

Chicago - Day 3 - Rainy Day

We had the best tour guide this day! Dougie! Kim unfortunately had to work, but Doug was in the limbo phase of having taken his Bar Test but not having heard back the results (although there is absolutely no doubt that he passed it.). So he was willing to play tourist with us and showed us around the bus system. 

First stop of the Aquarium. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the .75 mile line (no exaggeration) to get into the aquarium. However, because we had a stroller, we got to use the back entrance that didn't have stairs, and that line only was a 10 minute wait. 

Outside the aquarium

The weather was super grumpy and rained all day. And the cure for a rainy day? Dessert disguised as breakfast. This was at the Rumba Room, another famous restaurant in Chicago and this is their red velevet cake pancakes with white chocolate syrup. divine. 

After nap time we all went to the Navy Pier, but the weather was still in a foul mood. Boo.

Doug and Kim were awesome and offered to babysit the girls for us so Jordan and I could go out by ourselves in the evening. We headed across the city to Greektown and ventured to try a wonderful Greek restaurant. It had won a lot of awards and there were pictures inside the restaurant of all the famous people that had visited the restaurant.

This told us when we didn't like the food that, it wasn't the restaurant, it was us. We discovered that we just don't like Greek food. It was still a super fun date and the girls had a blast jamming out with Doug and Kim.

Chicago- The Perfect Sunday

What made this day so perfect? 

For starters, wonderful friends. We met up with Jordan's awesome former college roommate Doug and his beautiful wife Kim. After church and once it cooled down a bit, we headed out for a BBQ along Lake Michigan Bay.

Lucy waving and saying, "hi!:

A football was thrown around, completing this days perfectness for Doug, Jordan and even Lily.

Lily and Lucy's relationship from Lucy's perspective.

Lily watched her first wedding. There was a ceremony taking place close to our BBQ spot, so Lily and I went and watched from a distance. Lily now tells me, "Lucy and I are getting MARRIED!"

First she wont eat meat, then she hugs a tree. We had better never move to the west coast.

CHICAGO! Day 1

Chicago? It's totally on the way from Columbus to Utah. Well, close enough. 

We heard we HAD to eat at this amazing restaurant called "The Yolk", but so did 4,987,462,385,392,598,564 other people. So, during the forever wait, we went for a little walk. It's a good thing too. Their breakfasts were more like desserts!

Of course as soon as I saw the park I thought, "This is the perfect place for a bunch of feet." I guess I just don't get some art work.

By the time our turn came up, Lucy was snoozing. She needed a little pillow and Jordan was ingenious enough to provide one for her (baby wipes!)

The Chicago Zoo is FREE!!! WOOHOO!! 

The Lioness's (not me, Lucy and the Lion)

I guess with all the zoo's we've been visiting, exotic animals have become a bit of a bore to Lily. Her favorites were the farm animals!

Once we discovered how pocket wrenching parking prices were ($16/hour!) we fell in love with public transportation. Which took us right to the most famous park in Chicago.

"The Bean" One of Chicago's most famous tourist attractions. 

Fun Fact: I saw this on a Hot Dog stand sign, "It is considered unlawful and harmful to your taste buds to put Ketchup on your Chicago Hot Dog." 

We (especially the girls) were absolutely exhausted. But, we HAD to eat a Chicago Pizza. And not just any, the best. Lou Mahati's. Of course another 493,304,684,384,392,473,201,343 other people wanted this amazing pizza as well. It was worth the wait and dealing with exhausted (AKA Whinny & Clingy) girls on top of our own exhaustion. Out-of-this-world delicious enough for Jordan to request a picture with the box.