Family Visit

Last week we had some family visitors.  My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niece came to see us.  I loved having them here!  Family is just awesome!  And I have missed being around them.  I know Emma has too.

We were able to do and see a lot while they were here, but my favorite thing was just seeing them, especially my cute little niece.  She has grown so much since I last saw her.  She can just make me smile no matter what.  And Emma adores her!  She like a little sister to Emma.  Eliza would just follow Emma around and want to do the same things.  I loved it.  Here are some of the highlights from their visit.

We went to Chicago three times while they were here for various reasons.  

The first time we took the train.  Emma loves taking the train, and Eliza did too!  

She was having fun crawling around on the seat.

Emma and Eliza

Emma with my Dad

At Millenium Park

 Emma loves the bean.  And Eliza seemed very intrigued by it.  

I loved how she walked right up to it next to Emma.  Love those two!

Navy Pier with Jill

Emma loved the time with my parents.

 We went to a Cubs game too.   My dad really wanted to

attend a game at Wrigley Field, so we all went.

Our parking space for the game.  It was in an alley.  I'm glad we didn't take
our bigger car - I don't think it would have fit!

There was a weird light fog on the field, like it had just nestled right on down in there.

This view down the row from me equals happiness!  I love my family!!

My little goofball!  She took her mitt to the game, and held it almost the entire time hoping to catch
 a ball.   Even if the Braves hit a fly ball that the Cubs caught, she was somewhat disappointed
because it went the opposite direction from where she was.  I think the hot dog, peanuts, and hot
chocolate helped make the night a success anyway, even though she never caught a ball.

I think Emma's favorite thing in the city was going to Ghirardelli's.  And we went there twice!  Our first time the weather was a little colder, so we enjoyed some hot chocolate and some decadent drinking chocolate.  Emma also took more than her share of my dad's milkshake.  I think she liked it all.  

It really is Emma behind that shake.  I promise!

See?  Told you.

She looks very content, don't you think?

And Eliza shares Emma's love for milkshakes.  This girl is so funny to watch while she enjoys a treat!  She barely comes up for air!  I think she must have the ability to convert milkshake into oxygen. 

That's the only way to explain how she can drink it.  And if you start taking it away 

she'll put her hand on yours to hold it there!  Just awesome!!

We were able to see some other things in the surrounding areas, 

and of course enjoy some yummy meals together.  

Emma loves wearing her hat backwards.  I don't know where she gets it from!  

But look, they can look nice too.

Eliza does this funny thing sometimes.  I only saw it while she was eating or drinking, but she probably does it other times too.  She would tip her head back and smile really cute.  Loved it.

Here she's doing her head tilt smile thing again.

Emma loves it when a restaurant has toys you can play with.

Of course, because Emma insists, everyone who comes to visit us has to see the Jelly Belly Center.  So, we went.  And guess what?  It's just as boring a tour the 4th time as it is the 1st.  Oh well.  At least everyone gets free jelly bellies!  So they don't usually complain.

The entire time my family was here I just loved seeing Emma and Eliza together.  They just love each other.  It was so cute to see them hugging or holding hands.

Here are a couple cute videos of my niece.  The first one is of her

reaction to bubbles.  She couldn't get enough of them!

This second video is of her playing with Emma's whoopee cushion.  She would try to take it and blow it up, and when it was ready she would promptly turn around and sit on it.  Usually she would land perfectly on it, but by the time we tried to film it a little of the magic had gone.  Oh well.  You get the idea.  And it's still cute.  I'm so glad that Emma could introduce her cousin to potty humor!

When it was time to say goodbye, Emma just cried and cried.  She loves family, and has a hard time living so far away from everyone.  Skyping just isn't the same as seeing them in person.  It broke my heart to see her so sad.  And I don't know right now when the next time is we'll see my family.  So I couldn't even offer that information to her.  I love living here, and I love the people here, but it is hard being far away from family.  Especially for Emma.  It was so much fun having everyone visit.  I wish they could've stayed longer, but life was beckoning.  Thank you Mom, Dad, Jill, Brad, and Eliza for coming to see us.  You are always welcome!  I hope you can come back soon!!  We love you!

Springbreak Vacation

I love Springbreak.  I just love the extra time I get with Emma.  The days can be lazy, and you can have different kinds of adventures than usual.  Or not.  I usually tend to be a stick-to-the-lazy-day-schedule-as-much-as-possible kind of person.  This year though, we decided to take a little trip.  We went down to Nauvoo and Springfield in Illinois.  I was there about 12 years ago, but Eric (and obviously Emma) had never been.  While living so relatively close we couldn't pass this up.  So we left right after church on Sunday.

Since it was Easter Sunday, I'll briefly share our morning with you.  I don't know why I wrote "briefly" because even if I wanted to drag this out I couldn't.  We really didn't do much.  Emma woke up, found her basket, rejoiced in its offerings, and went on an egg hunt.  Done.  We didn't dye eggs this year (this one is always hit and miss, mostly because Eric is the only one who likes hard boiled eggs in our family, and so we don't usually need lots of them).  We always talk with Emma about the true meaning of Easter this time of year, which happily she is old enough to remember from previous years.  That always makes you smile as a parent.  On Saturday we had watched the First Presidency Easter message to get us ready.  They always do such a nice job.  Some of the girls in primary sang at church, including Emma.  They did a great job.  Emma looked amazingly cute, but you'll just have to take my word for it, since I didn't get a single shot of her all dressed up.  Nope.  I didn't even think about it.  Awesome parenting, right?  That's what going out of town will do to you.  Oh well.

I got too much stuff to even fit in her basket, and this is not including the egg hunt finds.

In Nauvoo we stayed in a little cabin.  It was a replica of an actual pioneer cabin.  I think this was Emma's favorite part.  Within about 2 seconds of entering she had claimed the upper bunk as hers.  She had lots of fun playing lava monsters and trying not to touch the floor.  She also enjoyed playing checkers with Eric on her bed.

We did all the typical stuff in Nauvoo.  Toured some homes and saw some demonstrations of pioneer life.  While we were touring the Joseph Smith sites Emma saw a tiny baby snap turtle.  We made sure to not step on it.  I think of everything we did there, seeing the completed temple was my favorite.  The last time I was there, construction had just started.  It was magnificent to see it towering above the bluff from everywhere in town.  Just awesome!

Here is the tiny snap turtle.  This is a crack in between sidewalk squares.   This guy was small!

Emma's favorite thing in Nauvoo was the blacksmith shop where
she got a little horseshoe that you can see him working on.

Emma standing in front of the home of my third great-grandfather (her fourth great-grandfather).

Churning cream into butter.

Pretending she really needs to use the privy.

Awesomeness.

More awesomeness!

And the flowers everywhere were amazing!!

The next day we went to Carthage.  The Spirit is always so amazing there.  There just isn't really anything to say about it that will do it justice.  The word gratitude comes to mind.

On our way to Springfield we stopped at New Salem, which is a little village where Abraham Lincoln lived for about 6 years in his early twenties.  It's a cute little village that you can wander though, looking into the different cabins, seeing how things were in both the residences and businesses that were there.

And of course, it wouldn't be us without a complete breakdown at some point
into sheer sillyness!  Love these two!

This is what Emma was doing almost the entire time we walked around. 

While in Springfield we went to see Lincoln's home, his tomb, the Lincoln library (hardly spent any time there - not really worth mentioning anything about it), and the Lincoln museum.  We saw his home just before they closed the day we arrived.  Our timing was great.  We had just enough time to see it.  I had forgotten from the last time I was there just how high the ceilings inside are.  They throw your perspective of the size of everything way off.  Chairs look way too small even though they are sized to modern standards, and the bed looks too short for Lincoln to have slept comfortably in.

The next morning we went to see the tomb.  It was a little chilly so early, and Emma wanted to bundle up.  Right as we were leaving a worker went inside with a big fan.  Eric joked that he must have needed to clear out the smell of the decaying bodies.  Nice.  Very morbid Eric.

She's so cute all bundled up!  Love the bright colors on her.

On our way to the museum when we stopped for gas I decided to stalk Eric.  He didn't think I was really taking pictures, but ha ha, I was!  I love the look on his face each time he looked at me wondering what I was doing.  Hey, gotta keep myself entertained somehow!  It's okay - you can think I'm weird.  Eric sure does!

And then, while driving down one of the roads, we noticed that the dashed white painted lines in the middle of the street were very crooked.  Actually, they all seemed to go in a slightly different direction.  Maybe someone drunk painted them?

I dont' know if you can see it well enough in this picture, but the white lines really are crooked!

Once we got to the museum, most places inside didn't allow photography, but the entrances to the two exhibits were pretty cool.  The first one was a replica of the cabin where Lincoln was born, and the exhibit took you through his childhood, and young adulthood.  The second was the facade of the White House with the Lincoln family standing out front, and this one took you through his years as President.  There was one other area where kids could play, where pictures were allowed.  And surprise surprise!  Guess what they had in there for the kids to play with?  Yup, Lincoln Logs.  It seemed fairly appropriate.

With her log cabin creation.

Dressed at Lincoln.

Our trip was short, but lots of fun.  We couldn't have asked for better weather, or better company.  I love spending time with my family.  And Emma is such a good traveler that she makes trips easy.  And the nice things is, we still had a few days of Springbreak left to enjoy after we got home!