McRady Invasion!

In June, we got a visit from Brady and McCall.  The best part: Brady's work paid for the trip, since they ran out of free trips to Hawaii!  We did our best to make Chicago a good substitute for Hawaii.  Here's what we covered:

We started off the visit with a bike trip along the lake front.

Blake enjoyed the bike seat, while Sam and James fought over snacks in the trailer.

It was the last day of school for Henry and Ellis, who couldn't have been more pleased with their new-found freedom.

We celebrated with chocolate cake shakes from Portillo's, at Brady's request.

Then initiated James on the tire swing - an integral part of the Iverson park experience.

James' favorite Chicago activity was discovering that we have a vacuum!  James is totally obsessed with vacuums, and getting to use it is the ultimate reward for him.  Our floors have never been cleaner.

We got talking about Chicago donuts and how amazing they are, and then Brady made the mistake of claiming that Dunkin Donuts are just as good as any other donut.  We accepted the challenge and collected donuts from five different donut shops, then had a blind taste test to crown a champion in each category: best old fashioned, best frosted, best specialty, and best overall.  Dunkin Donuts came in dead last in every category, and Stan's Donuts was the clear winner.  Take that, Dunkin.  

The next day we took a trip to the Botanic Garden, and the boys all loved the model railroad exhibit.

While at the Children's Museum on Navy Pier, we couldn't help but notice that Sam and Blake, and Ellis and James, are total look-alikes.  It's a real joy to navigate two double strollers through a crowded museum.

Here are the boys in the pretend car wash, practicing for what is hopefully not their future career.

Sam the fisherman!

Ellis the fireman!  Sam the dog!

A key part of this visit were daily soccer games with Uncle Brady.  The boys couldn't get enough soccer time...and Brady was happy to oblige.

We found time for a date night at the Cellar.

Speaking of look-alikes...yikes

No trip to Chicago is complete without seeing the Bean! Inside the Bean is basically a giant fun-house mirror, which would be hours of fun if it wasn't so crowded.

 What a great group of boys!  We we so glad they came to hang out with us!

Tanner and Meagan come to town

This is the summer that we decided we are NOT taking a giant trip to Utah.  Instead, we declared it to be the year everyone else can visit us!  We spoke, they listened.  So Tanner and Meagan decided to visit Chicago.  It was fun because they, having no parental obligations of their own, had plenty of energy to entertain our kids.

As you can see, our boys loved the attention!  Tanner and Meagan were also free to do many Chicago outings on their own while I managed normal life - drop-offs, pick-ups, snacks, carpools, etc.  But on this day, Sam and I joined them at the Shedd Aquarium.

The boys had a half day on Wednesday, so we all went to the Botanic Garden together.  

The weather was just deciding to be somewhat springy, which made everything lovely.

Meagan and I enjoyed tulips and other lovely flowers, while Sam and Ellis played War in the stroller, and Henry and Tanner talked about Pokemon (and how they would create their own Pokemon-like game) for approximately 2.5 hours.  Everyone was happy!

I decided to pose with my boys to capture the magnificence of my growing belly.

We drug Tanner and Meagan along to the Real Salt Lake vs. Chicago Fire game.  Many boys were in heaven!  Ben couldn't believe that I made him look at the camera (and away from the game) for what was apparently a very important 30 seconds.  

Two of us need an RSL shirt.  

Tanner was perhaps even more excited about this AMAZING pizza we ate at Pequod's on the way home.  It is now officially our favorite deep dish pizza.  Tanner was enthusiastic about pretty much all the food Chicago had to offer on this trip.  He went along with Meagan on all of her artistic Chicago adventures, saying, "I'm just in it for the food."  We did donuts, hot dogs, barbecue, popcorn, etc.  It took me a few weeks to recover...

We also played LOTS of games during this week, and somehow I have no pictures to prove it.  It was so fun having Tanner and Meagan in our house playing with us.  Perhaps my favorite part was when Meagan showed me all of her graphic design work and the programs she uses.  She is so talented!  I am jealous of all the projects she gets to do in school.    Thanks for coming, cute Griffin couple!

The Jacksons' Epic Visit

Let's be honest.  Grandma and Grandpa visit us frequently.  The Jacksons, now, they certainly don't come visit us every day.  We had a visit from Kati and Joe about seven years ago, and we have never had a visit that included Jackson cousins.  I only mention this to try to describe how excited we were to have Kati, Milo, and Max come visit us in late-October!  It was the most special thing that has happened to us this year.

I wanted Kati to see all "my places," so she humored me by going for a jog with me and bringing the three boys along.  We stopped at the strength training area and did some crazy awesome chin ups while the boys played at this playground.  

We took a little trip to the Botanic Garden, because I can't get enough and love to share it!  Plus, I really loved watching the changes every week during the fall.

Kati is a major plant and gardening lover, so she went crazy about all the plants (not unlike our dad a few weeks earlier).  Milo took this great photo for us.  :)

Um, I think Ben must have snapped this while we played some games.  Boy, did we have some great night-time conversations.  We learned from Kati's wisdom (we don't get enough of this when we come to Utah because of kids' bedtimes).

I was so excited for the Jacksons to be here for trick-or-treating.  I think I talked up our "perfect Halloween neighborhood" a little too much; I'm pretty sure I jinxed it.  This picture is very deceiving.  I'll just say that it wasn't so adorable to layer puffy coats under everyone's costumes and then run from house to house in the freezing wind, getting pelted in the face by ice and hail.  It sure was memorable though.  

The kids didn't last nearly as long as usual, but I think they still did just fine on candy, since people weren't getting enough trick-or-treaters and so were giving out huge handfuls of candy.  Yeah, we did alright.

Ben watched the kids while Kati and I went out for dinner one night.  Oh, these boys had so much fun playing together.  And such a treat to have them at our own house!

We were pretty bummed to see them leave.  Sam is still frequently talking about what we're going to do next time Milo and Max come, as if it's going to be any day now.  We hope it will happen again soon!

Iversons Stop In

Not long after my parents game, we got a quick visit from Grandma and Grandpa Iverson!  They stopped at our house as part of a giant road trip to see all of their kids throughout the country.  

We continued our fall celebration with them by visiting the Botanic Garden and seeing how the fall color had progressed over the course of a few weeks.  

We found some gorgeous trees . . . 

and some giant pumpkins!

They had a giant gourd mountain on display.  I loved all the different colors and shapes.

All of us enjoyed the beautiful day.

We had lots of fun grandparent time, especially Grandma reading her fun Halloween books.

Since they drove from Utah, Mom and Dad I. were able to bring eight boxes full of Ben's keepsakes that have been sitting in their house.  Two months later, they are still sitting in a giant pile in our bedroom!  But we did go through several of them and found a few treasures.  This picture, drawn by Robbie Mower in high school, was among them.

Grandma and Grandpa Come to Town

Our October was filled with beaucoup de visitors, probably because I keep telling people to NEVER come to Chicago between November and April, unless they want to FREEZE in completely unacceptable temperatures.  I am realizing that that is six months of the year, or in other words, half of my life.  I am working on my attitude (and my collection of wool socks and other warm, lovely things).

Anyway, yes, Chicago is lovely in the spring, summer and fall.  And we are so glad that people came to visit us in October.  It was my dad's first time seeing our home! 

The Chicago Botanic Garden was so lovely and enchanting that I bought a membership, so it can be my new nature retreat that I can escape to whenever I feel like it.  I am SO excited about this! 

The boys love running around here, and my Dad loved seeing all the different plants (and took pictures of many plants and their placards for his yard-planning purposes). 

Guys.  We played a lot of games.  Mostly Wizard and other card games, but we also enjoyed this game designed by my brother Tanner, our family's resident Board Game Geek.  The game is called "Hello My Name is Ernest," based on the play by Oscar Wilde.  It was really fun! 

 We had to visit the Bean.

 Yup, there we are!

 And I enjoyed seeing the Art Institute with my dad, who tutored me through every art class I've ever taken.  He was pretty disappointed that "American Gothic" was on loan for a few months.  We will have to go back someday!

 We went to Wisconsin to Oriole Springs orchard.  Apparently, missing school for an annual apple picking trip is becoming another tradition of ours.  We call it a "family emergency."

 I love fall and apple picking with my boys!

 Donuts from Harvest Time are pretty much the best thing ever.

Another highlight of the trip was that we got to put on yet another production of Newsies together.  Ellis insisted that I find a script of not just the songs, but "all the words" from Newsies.  "Just type it in!" he said.  And lo and behold, we found a script!  We shrunk it down to 26 pages (8 pt. font) and put it in a binder.  Which means, of course, we are going to have to do a live production of ALL THE WORDS AND SONGS from Newsies.  With Grandma and Grandpa.  We had auditions.  Ellis landed about half of the roles (he was the judge with the strongest opinion).  Grandma landed the part of "audience."  We got about 8 pages into it in the first hour, then took a break.  Don't worry, he didn't forget, and we got lots of chances to continue the play for a few pages here and there.  Trust me, it was a top-notch production!