Aunt Bella Comes to Town

Aunt Bella and Uncle Dwight are in town today! It's Spring Break for Aunt Bella and we're thrilled they came up to visit. Bryce was napping when Aunt Bella, Uncle Dwight, Nana and Amy got here and Bella snuck in to wake him as a surprise. Bryce was definitely surprised to see her, haha! Somehow, Aunt Bella lured Derek and Bryce into doing math with her. You can take the teacher out of the school, but you can't take the school out of the teacher. ;) Amy does the same thing!  All the kids were excited to show everyone the flying toys I brought back for them from Chicago, so we went outside to fling them around. After playing outside, we placed Chick-fil-a orders with Mitchell who kindly picked it up on his way home and we enjoyed a fun family dinner together. We went for a quick family walk once around the neighborhood before Nana and Co. set off for home. We love hanging out with our family!

 "Brycie Bryce..."

 Look who it is!!

 Yay! He loves his Aunt Bella. :)

 Counting the TMNT trading cards. Bella had him counting all the way to 12 while Derek added and subtracted for her. :)

 Derek was fascinated with the TMNT cards. He made sure Aunt Bella saw all of them.

 Uncle Dwight is a crack-shot with that flyer. He nailed Aunt Bella on the bum lots of times, haha!

 Andi and Ace were excited to have all the company. Ace kept trying to herd Andi away and hoard all the attention for himself, silly boy.

 Bryce improved his range with the flyers after Aunt Bella demonstrated for him

 So excited!

 Andi wanted a turn, too!

 Clara didn't quite get the hang of it and kept snapping her hands with the elastic band. Oops.

 She was very persistent and struck some awesome poses, haha!

 Derek found an advantage from having the high ground

 In true little-sister fashion, Clara wants to do everything her brothers do

 Run!

 Bryce and Clara lead Nana to the swings so she could provide some Nana-power!

 Wheee!

 Nana and three of her little hooligans!

 Aunt Bella loves Derek cuddles.

 Derek has some funny faces!

Aunt Amy scored some rare Clara-cuddles. They only last a few seconds, but they're so sweet. 

Chicago - Days 3-5

We've been pretty lazy since Beth and Jilli went home. ;) I finally got around to scanning all the photos and it's been an AMAZING experience. Aunt Mary has a lot of photos of her mother's side of the family, including a scrapbook her mother (Margaret Jane Snyder) put together. There are pictures from 1910 in that book!! Also crazy cool - Aunt Nancy has her parents' wedding photos. There are about 70 of them and they're in great condition, aside from the cardboard being water warped. Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy were a huge help in identifying the people in the photos and, with their help, I was able to sort them into decades (roughly) and Snyder or Lachus family piles. Mom helped me set up Aunt Nancy's super cool scanner that scans up to four photos at a time and creates individual files for each photo. That made scanning the smaller photos much faster. 

Aunt Mary, Mom and I headed out to do some quick shopping and checked out Dollar Tree and a Dollar General-type store. Their Dollar Tree was so cool! I snagged some cute hand mirrors to embellish for Clara and the girl cousins, and scored an entire set of ninja turtle key chains for the boys (I know Mitchell, Austin, Jared and Colton will be jealous. Ninja turtles are their thing). At the Dollar General-type store, I found a cool ship model that the boys will love. They love pointing to the giant ship model in Jeff's office and they'll be thrilled to have one of their own. I also found a Chicago PD car to go with Derek's police officer picture I took on Saturday. ;)

All too soon, it was time to go home. Mom and I caught the 5 pm flight home to Dallas on an international plane, which was really cool. Screens were built right into the backs of the seats and the flight plan (and our current location on the route) was displayed at intervals on the cabin dividers. Super useful. Bobby picked us up from the airport in his very spacious SUV and then we went to BJ's Brewery for a late dinner. Turns out Val still had my car keys in her car but I didn't have to wait long at Mom's for her to come back after the Stars game (hockey) had ended. Bobby and Mom stayed up to keep me company and we had an entertaining conversation. :) Finally, I snuck into the boys' room to ruffle their hair and give them a quick kiss (I know I would've woken Clara if I tried to go in her room) before I snuggled up next to my sweet husband in my very own bed with a laptop full of family photos just waiting to be edited and a brain full of some very happy memories. Thanks for an awesome trip, Mom, Aunt Mary, Aunt Nancy, Beth and Jilli!!! I can't wait to go back!!

Lily is a pro at sleeping on her back

The spread! Sorting and scanning party!!

Some of the pictures were so warped, we had to put this bucket of scanned photos on top to keep the lid down.

Sorting into piles by decade. The Lachus pile is on the right and the Snyder pile is on the right at the other end of the table. 

Mom bought some "happy Jesus" candles for Aunt Mary since her other candle had a picture of a sad, crucified Jesus on it. We lit the Jesus candle and Mary candle while we were working. :)

Oh. My. Word. Mitchell asked for only one thing... pizza from Giordano's. His favorite is the spinach pizza and boy, is it good! Mom picked up 4 frozen pizzas that we packed into our luggage and got a spare cooked one for lunch. Delicious!!

Lily loves to walk around with her babies in her mouth

I FOUND THE WHOMPING WILLOW! Hogwarts must have a charm on it to disguise is as an old Chicago house. ;)

Mom and I on our flight back home!

Helloooooo Dallas! Did you miss me? I sure missed my babies!

Chicago - Day 2

Today we went into Chicago to see the St Patty's Day Parade... and see the Chicago River dyed green! We walked around the river and watched the boats spraying the bright yellow dye for a while and then headed into the Sheraton hotel so Aunt Nancy and Mom could rest while Aunt Mary, Beth, Jilli and I walked a few blocks away to watch the parade. We weren't too sure about where the parade started and stopped, but we walked around for a while before we got to where we were trying to go. I was glad to get the walking credit on my fitbit, haha! Turns out, we picked a spot at the very end of the parade, but we still got to watch the mounted policemen and the politicians and some floats pulled up right in front of us. 

After the parade, Aunt Mary took Mom, Beth and I to get massages at her favorite Asian massage place. It was definitely an interesting experience to get a group massage. We all went back into a large room with 12 plush chairs. Aunt Mary and I sat together and Mom and Beth sat together in the row behind us. A man slipped a black strap from a machine next to me around my forearm, plugged a black box into the same machine and dropped the black box into a the bucket of water my feet were in! I found out later the black strap was a grounding band, but it was still a little unnerving to watch, haha! It was a nice massage though! We kept our clothes on, but my legs, shoulders and neck felt great afterward. Thanks Aunt Mary!

Later that evening, Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy cooked a fabulous homemade dinner with delicious steak, salmon, baby potatoes and green beans. Soooooo goooooood! We had a birthday cake for Jilli since she and Beth are flying back to Dallas in the morning... yum. :) Rhonda came over to spend time with us and we all played Golf (the card game) after dinner. We saw Linda briefly when she came to pick Rhonda up. It was great to see them again!

I laughed so hard when I saw this statue of a uterus on our drive into the city. The statue is called "Being Born."

Giant treefrog over this Rainforest Cafe! So cool!

City workers sprayed bright yellow dye into the river... they had a lot of fun, too!

Mom and I in front of the Chicago River

"Chicago Rising from the River" by Milton Horn (1954)

I wore my "Wicked Witch of Ireland" socks for St. Patty's Day. ;)

I knew Derek would get a kick out of seeing a picture of police officers. Two of Chicago's finest were very kind to pose with me!

A sample of some of the street art we saw in some spots. Love it!

Mom, me, Aunt Mary, Jilli and Beth in front of the river. So much green!!

We spotted Nessie floating down the river with a leprechaun and... King Arthur?

My lovely Great-Aunts - Aunt Nancy and Aunt Mary!

Mom, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Mary, Jilli, Beth and I - we're all in a picture! 

Aunt Mary rocks!

We met up with my second-cousin, Olivia, and her boyfriend too. Yay family!

New York Fire Fighters joined the Chicago Fire Fighters for the parade

Every fire engine needs a dalmatian!

Aunt Mary is the selfie queen. :D

Jilli enjoyed her perch from my shoulders and kept us informed of the approaching parade line-up

We're buds. ;) She's 2 years older than Derek and weighs 15 pounds less.

Aunt Mary took my picture in front of the GIANT POTATO!!!! Yum!

Jilli, Beth and I posed with one of the members of the bagpipe brigade

Happy birthday Jilli!

She was determined to get that last candle ;)

Playing some Golf with Mom, Aunt Mary, Rhonda, Jilli, Aunt Nancy and Beth!