Sweet Home Chicago

Waiting in the airport to board our flight. We carried on two suitcases for the three of us and two backpacks.

Josie's favorite thing was to stand on the tray table and hold on to the seat in front of her. She did great on the flight. 

She also loved looking out the window. 

The house I lived in from age 2 to 23 when I moved to Calif. My parents sold it ten years ago and moved to Santa Barbara. It was so fun to walk through the neighborhood and visit lots of friends. We went to my home church, North Park Covenant and saw many friends there as well. Such a unique close-knit neighborhood to grow up in right in the middle of a big city.

I love to visit the Art Institute every time I go to Chicago. 

Eric loves this painting.

Cool fountain at Millenium Park. I love the high rises. What a gorgeous day.

The Bean

Josephine is a great traveler. She was such a trooper getting by on short cat naps when she could like in the Art Institute.

So cool going to the 96th floor of the John Hancock to see the view and listen to the audio tour. 

45 min. wait for Giordano's Pizza was worth it. Josie took a nap while we waiting outside on a beautiful evening. Josie really wanted to try a bite but she had to settle for cheerios.  

Smart girl held on tight for the "L" ride home from downtown.

Sandy, Emma, Brian, & Catherine hosted us for 5 nights. Sandy and I grew up together and stayed the closest of friends all these years. She lives two blocks from where we grew up. Her kids go to our elementary school and Sandy is the school librarian. 

Kensey and Steven had a Chicago wedding reception in the park. It was a chilly afternoon/evening but at least the lightening and thunder stopped in time for the party. 

Catherine and Josephine trying to stay warm.

We had lunch with cousin Chris and her daughter Courtney. The rest of her family was out and about. So fun to visit with them.

Emma and Josephine

Sandy went with us to the Field Museum of natural history. It's the 10 anniversary of discovery of Sue - the most complete set of bones found of any dinosaur. Very cool exhibits.

Gordy and Kristi invited the whole gang over for dinner. 

Karah and her dad. 

After dinner a few of us walked to Kensey and Steven's apartment a couple blocks away. 

Our dear friend Janis met us for breakfast at Tre Kronor. I had Swedish pancakes of course.

Saying goodbye to Chicago

Long flight home.

We made good use of an empty middle seat. 

Trip to Santa Barbara

Josephine and I flew to LA and Luke picked us up for a long (holiday traffic-filled) drive to SB.  Josie did great on the flight and in the car. We stayed at Gram & Papa's and had fun with Karen, Luke, & Katie.

Girls in white

Gram and her girls

Thought we'd practice some swim skills in Karen & Luke's hot (warm) tub.

She didn't like it very much.

Reading with Papa

Our friend Olivia from Sweden attends SB City College.

Katie's first day of 3rd grade. She had fun introducing Josie to her friends and teacher.

Sad to say goodbye.

7-month old highlights

Josephine hit her 7 month birthday with a few new things accomplished. She started crawling right before she turned 7 months. It was so cute to watch her. She's still not crawling that quickly and hasn't crawled from one room to another yet. We're in no hurry to have her crawl all over so it's nice she's taking her time. Two bottom teeth are coming in. One started and then a day or two later the other one popped up. They're so cute. They haven't caused too much discomfort. She sits up pretty good on her own most of the time. She does fall back once in awhile and we're glad it's mostly on the rug although a few times it's been on the hard wood floor. She's pulling herself up to her feet while holding on (to sometimes not very stable objects). She started swim lessons and has gone to 3 so far. First day did pretty good, squawked a little. 2nd week she was so scared and clung to my neck and cried a bit but did go under water and didn't mind it. Week 3 daddy came to watch and she was so scared and cried very loudly at the beginning. Everyone was watching her and laughing b/c she was so loud. Poor thing was really scared. After a few minutes she mellowed out and did pretty good. Went under water again without a fuss. She took her first airplane ride. She and I were on our own flying to LA for a long weekend in Santa Barbara. Great flight both ways. It wasn't easy changing her on the floor in the back flight attendant area but we managed. We're ready for our next flight on Thursday but this time it's a longer flight, all the way to Chicago and Daddy will be along to help. Here are a variety of pictures.

She loves to pull down the bumper to look over  the top for us.

She's not too excited about swinging - even cried when I first put her in. 

She loves to read her books - first has to pull them all off the shelf.

Getting ready for her swim lesson.

She's enjoying eating and doing it herself. She had purple cauliflower everywhere. 

Cousin Evan turned 16 and we were there to celebrate with yummy cupcakes.