In Illinois

I love where we live.  I love the weather, I love our home.  I (usually) love my job, our pets, our proximity to the beach, the mountains, the desert.  I even like being called a Californian.  I love our neighbors and the awesome people I've met in Ladera.

I miss being closer to family.

Our trip was fun because we got to spend so much time cuddling and playing with our family.

Aunt Faith and Uncle Craig

Aunt Cheryl

A very well attended bath

Swinging with Cousins

Reading with cousins and Buma

Playing

Baking with Buma

Sink Baths with Buma and Bupa

Bos with Buma

My favorite part of the trip was Colin with his cousins.  Several times a day he still tells me "Cousins, fun!"  Our trip renewed my commitment to making sure that Colin and Alex know about their family members who live far away and aren't seen often enough.

Come Fly with me!

Colin was very excited for our trip to Chicago.  He was especially excited about going on an airplane.  Mommy was slightly less excited about loading up the family for a plane trip, but I made a plan and we were off!

My preperation for the flight was pretty much all about Colin.  I assuemd Alex would either eat, sleep or cry and there wasn't really much else I could do.

I choose Sleep.

 For Colin, I had a list of twenty activities and I estimated that I could hope for about 15 mins from each (some more, and some less, obviously).  I bought a bunch of stuff  at Target and put it in bags to be pulled out one at a time.

I didn't have a great plan for the airport, but we did fine.  We ate and walked around and looked at the planes.

For this flight, we purchased Colin his own seat.  Colin in his big guy seat!

Colin ate and then fell asleep!!  It was awesome!  Meanwhile, super mom did it all. (If you can't tell in this picture, I have like an inch or two of my seat... oh well.

The flight was super easy.  We just kind of went along with Colin.  We also loaded up some shows on the iPad and I downloaded a few new apps.  I know it sounds crazy, but the flight was actually fun!

So I suppose I should have expected that our return flight (in the morning instead of during nap time) would be a wreck, but honestly, I just kind of went with it, and the boys did AWESOME!

 We had to wake up super early for our 8:30 am flight, but Auntie Cheryl went with us to the airport and through security.  Always grateful for a few more hands!

Colin fell asleep again!  It was fantastic!!  Infact, it was so peacefull, that I took a nap!  Pause and let the amazingness of that sink in... I was flying with two little people and I was able to take a brief nap.  Seriously, magical.

 I was nervous about the flight, and I know they might not all go so smoothly, but it was so great that the boys did so well.  I love my little guys!

Chicago Pumpkin Patch

Colin was a lucky little guy and got to visit two pumpkin patches this year!

So many to chose from, but I know which one I'd pick! 

Mommy wasn't feeling well during our outing, so there are limited pictures, but they were too cute not to share.  

Children's Museum Visit in Naperville

I've been wanting to take Colin to a children's museum but we just haven't gotten around to it.  We found out there was one not far from Gavin's parent's house so we headed down to the Dupage Children's Museum to meet the cousins.

"These guys?  I LOVE these guys!"

Colin had the chance to roll around in a vintage (circa 1990) Peg Perrego Stroller! :)  The unintended consequence is he now really hates the shoulder straps in his City Select.  Opps!

I had so much fun watching Colin explore.  He's at an age where he is really into buttons and reactions so he had exploring all of the different areas of the museum.

My favorite area was bubble area for sure.  Especially the people sized bubble!

 Colin loved checking out all of the exhibits and did really well the entire visit.

Cousin Faces! (Colin's hand because mommy didn't want him to not close his eyes!)

Colin found one of his favorite books at the museum! Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

I'm so excited to explore more places with Colin as he gets older.  I'm hoping to check out Pretend City in Irvine soon, too.

Visiting Chicago

The hardest part about where we live is the distance to our family.  Most of Gavin's family is much further than mine.  This distance seems so much greater since Colin was born.

We just took our first trip back to Chicago to visit family.

The trip there went alright.  I imagined that twice the number of parents would equal half as much work while traveling with a child.  Defying mathmatics, this isn't the case.  Still, we arrived safe and sound!

And Colin got to spend time with all of his cousins!  This is the first time he met two of them and the first time all of Gavin's parents grandchildren have been together.

It was remarkably nice weather.  And we had a nice time relaxing and playing.

Swinging with Buma

His Cousins taught him to play video games.

Colin met his Uncle Byron, who stole his dinner!

Bupa tried to convert him to Apple.  Resist, Colin!

We had a great trip and I'll post about some of our Chicago adventures soon.