Weekend

Considering Brad was on call this weekend and spent Saturday and Sunday doing surgery until about 2:30/3:30 in the afternoon, it was actually a good weekend. When Brad got home on Saturday, we decided to go downtown. They were having a festival there, it actually goes on all week, but we wanted to see what it was like. There's a playground by the River Front and Jacob had lots of fun there. The festival wasn't all that great, but now we can at least say we went! The weather was great. It was in the upper 60's with a light breeze. Brad and I even got to throw the Frisbee, which Jacob thought was hilarious. Every time I'd throw it and Brad would catch it, he'd laugh!

A view of the River Front. This is where we played Frisbee. Perfect weather and so nice!

Just a random picture from when I took Jacob to the zoo last week. This peacock opened his feathers up so I snapped a quick picture. Beautiful!

Today Jacob is officially 18 months old! Yesterday I took him to nursery for the first time. Well, he actually went when we were in Chicago, but since I wasn't there and he hasn't been since, I'm considering this time his first official time. Since I was teaching my primary class and Brad wasn't at church, I decided it was time for Jacob to start nursery. I think he liked it. Janae, the nursery leader, said he did pretty well. I didn't tell him when I left and he didn't cry at all. They said he really enjoyed it when they colored. He did cry some during the second hour, I think from lack of sleep and probably being hungry and ready to go home. Overall though, I think it went well. In Nursery they made these cute little name tags with pictures drawn on them of the kids. Jacob just loves his and wants to wear it all the time. He even wanted to wear it in the bath last night. Funny kid!This last thing is mainly for the grandparents. Jacob loves to throw the ball. Last night we were playing basketball in his room and we thought we'd see if he could catch it. He did! I'm not sure when kids are supposed to be able to catch a ball, but we were impressed. I got out our camera. Unfortunately, we don't have a video camera, we just have a regular camera that can take videos so the lighting is bad, but this way I can document the age at which Jacob could catch a ball. Enjoy and happy 1/2 birthday to Jacob!

Down and Dirty

Jacob had a very busy couple of hours last night. I was making dinner while Brad was showering after having gone for a run. Brad then came into the kitchen to help me get the rest of the meal ready. Jacob was off playing (working) in the other room. I thought, hmmmm, he's playing very well by himself. Then I thought, hmmm, the house sounds too quiet and if any of you know Jacob, you know he's not a quiet child. That's when I went down the hallway to see if I could find Jacob and see what he's been up to. My first thought was maybe someone had left the toilet lid up, as he loves to play in the water. Nope, not that...
He's finally tall enough to reach to the top of my dresser where I keep my makeup. Darn it all! At least he didn't make too big of a mess, considering. Luckily, it was only one tube of lipstick that he got his little hands on. It is on his clothes and a little was on the carpet, but that came right up with carpet cleaner.He looks pretty sorry for what he did, eh?
We got him cleaned up and had dinner. Then was FHE. For our activity, we were going to play croquet outside. We went into the kitchen and Jacob started playing in the pantry. We have a little step ladder in there that Jacob loves to climb on. Most of the time, he doesn't really bother the food. Although there have been times where he'll take out all of the salad dressings and line them up and then put them in his dump truck and haul them all over the house. Sadly, that's not what he wanted tonight. Apparently, we hadn't fed him enough for supper because when Brad took him out of the closet, he was furiously licking his hand.
This is what we discovered. I'm not sure how he was able to open the applesauce correctly!
So in the end, we fed Jacob a little more applesauce before playing croquet. I think here he's showing us how strong he is now that he's had his applesauce.

What a night!

Spontaneous

I am not known for my spontaneity. I am a planner. It is in my nature. It's something I'm good at. However, last weekend I decided to make a suggestion of something our family could do together that I would normally plan in advance to do. So, we decided to take a road trip to...

Yep...all the way to Mammoth Cave! To prove we were all there, I'll post this picture (even though Brad's eyes are closed and it's not a very good shot...)


The cave was pretty cool (no pun intended). It's always 54 degrees, year round, no matter what the temps are outside. We did the Discovery Tour because it was cheap ($4/person - excluding Jacob) and because it was short (approximately 1/2 hour). The other tour that day was $12/person and would've lasted about 2 hours. I didn't think Jacob was up for that. This picture inside the cave proves my point.
Obviously, the lighting in the cave isn't very good and unfortunately, my batteries were running low. But, that's the cave behind Brad and Jacob. Also, there are some old tools and things inside the cave that have been there since the War of 1812 and are very well preserved because at 54 degrees, not much bacteria and things grow inside the cave, so things stay well preserved. This is an area where slaves worked about 12 hour shifts cleaning dirt for gun powder during the War of 1812 (or something like that). It was all very interesting.

It was a fun road trip and a neat place to take any visitors that may want to see the World's Largest Cave! We had fun on our spontaneous adventure!

Signs of spring

In the last week, things have really started to look and feel like spring around here. We planted some grass out front about a week and a half ago, and it's already starting to grow in. We also planted lilies in front of our house. I went outside to leave one morning, and this is what I saw (nerdy me, I had to run back inside and get the camera for an immediate picture)!

(I love the close up of this flower, so pretty!)

Also a couple of weekends ago we noticed a bird trying to build a nest in our backyard, on top of the down spout. Brad took down what was there and we thought maybe the bird would get the hint. On Monday, Brad took down some more of the bird's attempts at a nest. Two days later, there was a nest. I guess this bird just really didn't want to give up. I think she even worked at night so maybe we wouldn't notice. I think it's funny that she attached a "Danger" piece of red police (or something) tape...do you think we got the hint?!

I guess soon we'll have baby birds around our house. With all the work this bird went through, I didn't have the heart to tear it down again.

And the last sign of spring? Well, of course there was General Conference, and since it's at the beginning of April, that seems to signify the beginning of spring. And on that Sunday, it was warm enough for me to be outside with just a short-sleeved shirt. You know that means spring!

We hope you've enjoyed a look at spring from our house!

Where was Jacob?

So, a few of you have asked where Jacob was while we were in Chicago. Don't worry...we didn't leave him at home to fend for himself. A great couple we go to church with who have a daughter Jaob's age babysat Jacob for us while we were gone. It was so nice to not have to worry about Jacob and take him around the cold city of Chicago. According to Cyndi (the babysitter) Jaob did great. He probably didn't even notice we were gone and probably really enjoyed having a playmate. As you can see, he survived and has learned a new trick...he got up here all by himself!

Chicago!

We arrived in Chicago on a very cold, windy, snowy day. Perfect Chicago weather, right?! We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago, thanks to Brad's company paying for the room. Here's a picture of our hotel room.


My cousin Desaray met us in Chicago. She came all the way from Salt Lake to spend the weekend with me and keep me company while Brad was in meetings. When she got there,we walked around the city while Brad was in conferences. Desaray felt right at home when we ran into this:



That evening when Brad finished with classes, we went to Giordano's. It's a great pizza restaurant in the heart of Chicago that is famous for it's stuffed pizzas. There was a great sign on the wall that I'm sure Brad would like to have hanging in our kitchen! If you can't see what the bottom of the sign says, it says it's the Eleventh Commandment!






The next day while Brad was on a break from conference, Desaray and I took him to see "the bean". Des and I had been there the day before, but we wanted to show Brad the Cloud Gate sculpture. The skyline is reflected in the sculpture, which was one of the purposes of it.


This is Des and I with the skyline in the background.










Desaray and I spent one day going shopping in Chicago. Who knew Chicago had such great shopping. Okay, so I didn't actually buy anything, but there sure are a lot of places I could have purchased something, if I had the money to. We took "the El" to a suburb of Chicago and went to a place called the Blues Jean Bar. It was a unique store where they have "bartenders" who take your jean order and then make you turn around for them so they can see every bit of you in the jeans. It was kind of different. Des tried the jeans on so she had to turn around for them, I was just there for moral support!


At this point, my days get kind of fuzzy and I'm not sure what we did when. We went to the Sear's Tower and got an amazing view of the city. Then we went to Navy Pier. There's a great view of Lake Michigan from the end of the pier. I'm not sure why they call it Navy Pier, so don't ask!. We walked so much while in Chicago that I think I started to get shin splints! Every day when we'd get back to the hotel I'd just collapse and give my legs a rest.




On our walk back from Navy Pier, we passed this building that had different rocks sticking out from it. Another couple walking by was looking intently at the building, and that's when I noticed the different rocks are from different places around the world. So, here's a picture of me with my two "hometown" rocks!


On our last day, we ate at a placed called Brian's Juice Bar. It was so good for breakfast and very filling.
Then, Brad and I headed off to Midway Airport and Desaray headed to O'Hare. Unfortunately, the same train doesn't go to both places, so we had to say goodbye across the train tracks.

What a fun weekend, but very cold. Next time I visit Chicago, I hope to go in the summer when I can feel the breeze and appreciate it instead of loathe it!