Sunday, August 31, 2014

visit to Texas

I had a wonderful visit these past few days. On the first day I dropped McKinzie off at work and kept her car. I then took these two with me over to Ruth's house. Julianna was able to come over as well. It was great seeing them! I really hope we can stay in touch. I'm aweful at it but I'm trying. 

Then on the drive to McKinzie's house Adam asked me, "Nonnie? If we have the ingredients, can we make cookies?" Oh man!! That melted my heart!  I quickly called McKinzie to see if she had everything. Yes!! Adam and I made cookies together. :0)

Retta loves to hold Adam's hand. He's such a good big brother. He'll slow down and take her hand. I sure love these two!


A quick selfie just before bed. 
The excuse to get to Texas was a convention. I spent Friday with Angela in meetings. Saturday McKinzie was able to join us. We all learned lots. Now I need to put it to work. 

I had so much fun with McKinzie! Thursday night we stayed up till 12:30 talking. Then again on Saturday we stayed up till 1. Geoff joined us Saturday. We laughed and laughed!  I'm so glad their kids sleep hard. 

Entertaining ourselves waiting for our food. I've never taken so many selfies as I did with these two. 




Sundance Square is so fun for kids. We let the them run around after dinner. The temperature was 89 degrees at 9:00. I loved how warm it was. This is one thing I miss in Chicago. There's more I miss...like my daughter. 

Thursday, August 28, 2014

lucky me

I get to visit this cute family over the weekend! I can't wait!!

Saturday, August 23, 2014

a week with Colton


A couple weeks ago the boys best friend from Texas, Colton, came to visit us for a week. They were all soo excited! The first morning/day together Harry Potter was the first thing they did!  I'm not surprised at all.
We spent one evening doing an egg toss and water balloon fight.


They had lots of fun playing at one of our city pools.



Although, I think Colton was freezing most of the time in the water. I told him the cement would warm him up. lol
 
 
Mason needed to go find signs of animals for a scout requirement.  We headed out to our local nature preserve, behind our neighborhood.
 
They looked everywhere while I took pictures.

It was a beautiful day!! The sky, the clouds, everything was perfect!

Carson loved catching frogs. They were quick.
This Queen Anne's Lace is quickly becoming one of my new favorite wildflowers. It grows along the roads throughout the summer.

 


These two made mini brownies. Super yummy!! Thursday night they all, three boys and two girls, slept in the backyard in our tent.  So grateful for Karlee and Bailee for joining them. :0)

Then the last full day with us, Friday, we went into Chicago to see some of the sights.





 
The kids rode the ferris wheel and this swing.  The swing looked super fun but I know it would have made me sick. We ate some burgers then found a maze.  It was fun!  There was a bridge that a tunnel around it was spinning.  I could hardly walk through it.  Bailee about fell over too. We played a couple of timed color games as well. As we were racing around this tiny room, after our color,  my foot kept getting smashed.  By the end my pinkie nail was completely torn off.  OUCH!! The kids ran through the maze again and again.  I think they did the color games a few more times too.  Once was enough for me.


 

 
 

On a side note, Carson learned how to blow bubbles while we were at Navy Pier.  He's trying to blow a bubble as I'm taking their picture.
 
I'm still in awe that Colton's parents trusted us enough to let Colton fly for the first time by himself and let him visit us for the week. I know his Dad was VERY nervous. They were some of our most favorite neighbors.  We miss having Colton across the street for the boys to play with, we don't have that here.  I miss borrowing ingredients from Lori, I haven't asked anyone here yet.  We miss the impromptu sleepover, that's never happened here.  There are some things about Texas that we'll never be able to replace.  Colton and his family is one of those things.

Friday, August 22, 2014

another first


Bailee starts her second job today!! Wahoo! She is working as a receptionist in a nail salon and today she starts at Barnes and Noble in the cafe. Now she needs to work, work, work to save money for college in January! I'm so proud of you Bailee! You got this!!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

new skill



A week before school started Carson attended a beginners string camp. He loved it!! He chose to play the viola because he liked the sound of it.  I'm excited to have a string player in the family. Go Carson!!

tiny trees

 
The day before school started I asked the boys if they wanted to get on the roof to help cleanout gutters. YES!! They were excited. I first helped Carson up near this tree, so he could hang onto the tree as well.  He quickly got nervous and climbed down.  Mason got to the top of the ladder, wasn't able to climb up using the tree, and decided not to.  So we then took turns standing at the top of the ladder reaching into the gutters and pulling out leaves and gross. 

Mason couldn't stand it because it was so very wet and drippy, plus he couldn't stand the bugs in the gutters.  Carson pulled out leaves until it smelled too bad for him.  (My boys are wimps.)  With someone holding the ladder, I pulled out leaves.  It was gross, and smelly, and there were more insects than I cared for. But I pushed on.


Carson did climb up to get all the leaves that were caught behind the gutter. It was surprising how much there was. Mason really wanted to get up again.  There was just no way for him to get up there without hanging on the gutters and pulling it down. He was very disappointed.


 
 
 

We then removed the bottom downspout off this gutter. We think ice builds up into the shingles because the gutter is touching the roof and there's no place for it to drain in the winter.  Hopefully this will stop the ice building up under the shingles and melting in our dinning room. 
I don't think I shared about the ice damning problem. This is the dinning room.  The plaster filled up with water when it warmed enough to melt. Luckily I walked past the dinning room just before it started to drip.  Although I wouldn't call that a drip.
 
Here is the beginning of the ice damning.  Not too cool!
 
I guess we'll find out in the Spring if removing part of the downspout worked.  We might use heat tape too.  ;)