Chicago - Day 1

I'M IN CHICAGO!!!!! Mitchell took a few days off to stay with the kids so I can take a trip to Chicago with Mom. Aunt Mary has a ton of family photos that I want to digitize so I packed up my laptop and the stick scanner and went on my way!! :D Mom and I got on a plane at 5:20 this morning (neither of us slept at all last night) and we landed at 7 am in Chicagooooooo!!! Aunt Nancy picked us up and we grabbed Starbucks on the way back to the house. Beth and Jillian are here for the weekend and we've had a blast hanging out today. Lily, Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy's black lab, hasn't stopped wagging her tail since we got here. She's the happiest dog I've ever seen. :)

One of the things Aunt Mary was most excited about doing with us was a service project with a company called "Feed My Starving Children." It was so much fun! We all went to a large warehouse-type building with a seating area and a larger packing area. We watched a presentation about the statistics of FMSC, what countries receive the meals we pack (today we packed for Kenya!) and we learned about the positive impact FMSC has on the children of the world. Other people had reserved a time to come and pack food and we were all split up into about 6 teams or 5 or more people. Our family of six adopted another lady at our station and we were ready to go! Aunt Mary and I held the bags under the funnel while Aunt Nancy, Beth and our new friend scooped vitamin powder/chicken flavor, lentils and rice into a funnel while Aunt Mary and I took turns holding the plastic bags under the funnel. We passed the bags to Mom who heat-sealed them and gave them to Jilli for quality control. Another lady from the neighboring team was in charge of counting out and boxing them in groups of 32. Out team was assigned the mascot country of Djibuti and our recovery cheer was "Shake your booty for Djibuti!" We enthusiastically cheered every time we filled a box. After packing for about an hour and a half, we were told to clear our stations and gather for a report on our efforts. Normally, FMSC averages a box of food per volunteer, but we almost doubled that!! Our team was moving very quickly and had very few slip ups and it was so fun to work to a physical rhythm and be part of a team. On our way out, we passed through a small gift shop full of handmade items from some of the countries that FMSC sends food to. All the money from purchases goes back to the artisans who made the items! Aunt Mary was very kind and offered to purchase a souvenir for me. I found a beautiful purse made in Swaziland and a braided headband made in Haiti (which I'm wearing right now, actually. Love it!)

They make hair nets look hot! ;)

Jilli, Aunt Nancy, me, Mom, Aunt Mary and Beth! We make a great team!

Here is Kenya!

Me and my mom next to the wooden map of the countries of the world

After our service project, we went to dinner at Maggiano's and ate a delicious meal of pasta while Jilli got a yummy lemon cookie dessert with candles for her birthday (technically on Sunday, but we're milking it). ;) I had a nice hot chocolate to sweeten my palate. It's a great start to what I already know is going to be a fantastic vacation!!

We are enjoying some AWESOME food!

Jilli is (almost) 8!

Mother and Daughter!

I seriously love hot chocolate. :)

Kid Mania

Liz had the idea to meet at Kid Mania in Plano to let the kids stretch their legs and we were excited to hang out. Kid Mania is basically what Going Bonkers is in Lewisville. Derek and Bryce were thrilled with the familiar play areas and enthusiastically chased their cousins and friends from the ward (the Griggs) through the veritable miles of mesh tunnels.

 A nice man was making balloon shapes for kids. Derek got a gun and Bryce and Clara got swords. 

 Clara loved riding the little teacup ride. Don't be fooled, she and Sierra were having a good time. ;)

 Sweet sisters! Emeri took good care of Oakley and made sure she didn't fall out of the teacup.

Katelyn and Isaac were tearing it up on the motorcycle game. Clara perched on the back of Derek's motorcycle to get in on the action, too.

 Bryce loved "playing" this racing game

 Derek took a break to check out the video games in between bouts of sweaty racing in the tunnels

 Clara's favorite activity is jumping, so she was in heaven with all the trampoline mesh

 Ready for take-off!

 Lots of donkey kicks are fun

Derek surprised me by sliding down a slide with a pack of boys. He makes friends very easily. :)

Picnic at the Park

Derek has been asking to go back to the "red plane park" recently and we thought it would be fun to have a family picnic! So off to Aviator Park we went and invited the cousins to come hang out too. I made hot dog and cheese kabobs for dinner with strawberry-blueberry-marshmallow kabobs for dessert, Austin and Liz brought pizza and Jon and Jenna brought broccoli and cookies. Yum! The kids had a blast playing on the playground and going down the hill into a wooded swampy area to play. We brought Andi with us to stretch her legs and play with Liz's kids since we've been watching her for a few weeks while Liz's family was in town. Isaac was happy to cuddle her and walk her around the playground for a bit before the mini forest began calling his name, haha! The kids climbed on fallen trees and played with stick swords to their hearts content. As we were all packing up to go, Austin suggested that they should probably take Andi home, since their family had been gone for over a week, and I suggested that we could keep her (then ducked my head in the car to buckle kids in, haha). Liz chimed in supportively and Austin, rather taken aback I think, agreed. We are thrilled to be able to keep Andi and are very grateful that Austin and Liz are happy with the arrangement. Today is our official "Gotcha" day and we're so excited!

Bryce and Clara got to ride the historic red airplane, haha

Isaac loved walking Andi around

Derek and Clara loved the hotdog and cheese kabobs

 We didn't know it yet, but this was Gotcha Day! 

Bama tried to coax Oakley to sit with her using a creme stack (buttercream-sugar cookie sandwich) as a bribe, haha! It worked for a little bit.

Oakley loves Bama's creme stacks!

Liz and Andrew!

Isaac and Derek are great friends!

I think Isaac missed Andi

Pirate Katelyn!

We;re following the leader, the leader, the leader - we're following the leader wherever he may go!

Derek is so silly

Nathan grabbed the first stick

Emeri hadn't even finished her dessert kabob before she was down playing in the dirt with everyone - she doesn't like being left behind, haha!

Gracie brought her stuffed wolf puppy for protection

Bryce was just happy to have a stick :)

Randoms from February

03 Feb: It's rare for Clara to cuddle, so I had to preserve the memory... even if she's cuddling with Jabba the Hut, lol.

 05 Feb: The 100th Day of School! Derek chose to put 100 stickers on his Groovy Day shirt

12 Feb: Sweet little pigtails! This girl loves her cheesesticks!

12 Feb: I sure do love this short haircut

 18 Feb: We get to watch Andi for a couple weeks while Austin and Liz have family in town. :D

 20 Apr: We've had a crazy run with strep throat lately. Clara and Bryce liked playing games on my ipad while we waited at the primacare.

 22 Apr: Ugh. My turn at the doc.

 23 Apr: Derek started this after watching Kung Fu Panda, but I only got a picture of Bryce - he's bowing and presenting his plate to request a brownie for dessert, lol!

24 Apr: Peek-a-Bryce!

24 Apr: Our little pack rat - she was stuffing used wipes into a jewelry container, lol.

29 Feb: Happy Leap Day! We're so excited to have our first foster dog. :)

Playing "Statues"

We've discovered a fun game to play - "Statues!" It's basically musical chairs without chairs. The kids play and giggle and wiggle til I say, "Statue!" and then they freeze into their pose of choice. I usually suggest poses like Angel Moroni, airplane, or opera singer, but their favorites by far are their dinosaur poses. After they started on those, there was no other option, lol. 

 Derek and Bryce insisted on tasting the Milkbones that I give to the dogs. Yuck!

 First time to "strike a pose." He's trained pretty well for photo ops, haha!

 The opera singer

 Angel Moroni

 They figured out they could do dinosaur poses, haha!

 Bryce's more common dinosaur pose

 Derek's flying pterodactyl

 My dino-boys! They are something fierce!

 Dachshunds or creepy mermaids?

 Bryce for President 2016!

 I have NO idea where he got this pose, but it's funny!

This is actually a pretty common scene - if the boys are wrestling and Bryce decides he's had enough, this is what he does. Derek can't shift him, lol!