Rainy Day

These girls begged to play in the rain with umbrellas last week. 

Sadie was wearing a rain jacket so Elise insisted on a coat too, which made for one sweet outfit. Lou got tired of holding the umbrella after 30 seconds so she opted to just get soaking wet.

Sadie Lady

When we switched babysitters a few months ago Sadie went through a rough patch. Her old sitter, Naomi, is a mother of 3 young kids (1 born this week--hence the switch) and did a great job being strict with Sadie. We now have babysitters come to our house, which is very convenient, but they are not as strict and Sadie took advantage of them being more permissive. The thing about Sadie is she thrives in a rule-oriented setting. She really does. It took me a while to realize it, but when we are more lax with Sadie and let her dictate things she starts acting up. 

Ice cream date with Mom

 I put together a behavior chart where Sadie earns stickers when she makes good choices and loses stickers with not-so-good choices. When she reaches 40 stickers she gets a small reward. After 3 weeks with the sticker chart we are back on track. Sadie's behavior is vastly improved and we are all happier.

PS- The day after I got back from Chicago Sadie told me she wanted me to take lots of pictures of her. Don't you love the Crystal Light mouth stain? She says it is her make-up.

And when I refused to take more she took some selfies

PPS- I used my leftover nail stickers on Sadie's nails. They looked adorable until her bath that night when she peeled them all off.

The City of Revolving Doors

I spent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago with twp of my best girl friends, Jen and Margaret. It was marvelous. The last time we were all together we were about 7 months pregnant. Those fetuses are all 2 now! Unfortunately, we were missing Julia and Mel. We chose Chicago because none of us had spent much time there. I knew almost nothing about the city.

 The handle on my carry-on broke when Daniel dropped me off at the airport in SLC so I got to carry the bag all through 2 airports, onto the subway, and to the downtown hotel. Of course I walked a couple blocks in the wrong direction when I came up from the subway station so I got to carry that bag an extra 5 blocks.  I took that picture on the left as I waited to cross a street in the right direction. I was greeted by this intricate ceiling in our hotel lobby. 

Once we all arrived at the hotel we headed out for dinner. The beautiful thing about this trip is we had several things we wanted to see, but no exact timeline. We had some structure, but everything was laid back. For eating we generally just found something located nearby that sounded tasty with good reviews and prices that weren't crazy.

That first night we chose a pizza place close to the John Hancock tower. After lots of food and conversation we headed up the tower as the sun set. 

 After the beautiful views we had some beautiful ice cream sundaes at Ghirardellis. 

We went back to the hotel and stayed up talking until 3 AM.

On day 2 we slept in and then went in search of brunch. It was hard to find at 11:30 AM. Luckily we stumbled onto a delicious joint named Yolk and fulfilled the brunch craving. Then we went in search of Cloud Gate, AKA "the Bean". 

 Everywhere you go in Chicago there are beautiful views, but it still has kind of a small-city feel. It felt like a cross of NYC and Boston to me. We walked almost everywhere.

Can you find us in the reflection?

I had no idea how huge the Bean is. I loved the reflection of the city off the sculpture.

Then we went down to the riverfront to catch our architectural river cruise. This was my favorite tourist thing we did even though it was freezing when the wind blew. I really enjoy learning the history of buildings and why things are built where/how they are. There are so many different architectural styles in Chicago.

This is a massive abandoned post office. Just sitting right on the water.

Following the water tour we put our names in for dinner at Giordanos and crossed the street to the Sky Deck. I didn't think I would be too scared, but I was wrong. My John genes showed through and I was terrified. My heart still races when I think about walking out onto that clear floor.

I am not posing in the picture on the left. I was trying to gather myself so I could pretend to smile.

In an effort to make me feel less wussy, Margaret admitted that it was a bit unnerving and then she walked out like a champ and posed with a genuine smile.

The pizza at Giordanos was all that we dreamed it could be. We got some veggies added, so it was healthy right?

Day three was a museum day. 

We went to the Field Museum (a natural history museum) first. We went through a fascinating exhibit on the Lascaux caves, which I have somehow gone 28 years without hearing of before. We strolled through a few more exhibits and then decided it was time for lunch. We settled on some Chicago Dogs, which Jen and I both thought were missing some ketchup.

We then walked around the corner to the Shedd Aquarium. Now I am not really an aquarium person but several people recommended it. They had this great jellyfish exhibit. Who knew jellyfish could be so beautiful? We pet some slimy stingrays (one tried to escape with Jen) and saw some manatees (I have never seen any in person), sharks, and a slightly-disappointing aquarium show that talked a lot about a dog.

My overall impression of the aquarium- if you like aquariums you'd love it. If you are neutral or have a general distaste for aquariums (like me) you will think it is OK.

At that point we were starving and hit up one of Rick Bayless' restaurants, XOCO for tasty sandwiches and churros. The churro was good, but I didn't love the dark chocolate dipping sauce. I still ate every bite.

That night we applied nail stickers because we all wanted to be like Margaret. I loved them, but they started chipping and peeling within 2 days. It may have been the big pattern I chose had issues, so I wouldn't recommend this print.

Our fourth day we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. I like art museums, but modern art especially doesn't really invoke any kind of feeling for me. I think this formation thing is cool looking, but I probably don't appreciate it like it should be appreciated.

*John siblings- do you recognize this Monet?*

After a big lunch we shopped at a bunch of stores. There were 2 H&Ms within walking distance of our hotel. We also stopped by numerous souvenir shops for our kids and I picked up a new carry-on so I wouldn't have to carry my bag everywhere the next day.

That evening we ended up walking 2 or 3 miles in search of a yummy dessert, which we found at this interesting place that is apparently operated by The Cheesecake Factory, kind of as an offshoot? We had beignets (amazing), a blueberry crumble, and strawberry butter cake. 

The next morning we woke early to have a yummy breakfast before Margaret and Jen had to head out to catch their plane/train. My afternoon flight ended up getting delayed until 5 PM so I had some good times at the airport. 

The trip was wonderful. Lots of good food, beautiful sights, and more importantly, time spent with good friends. 

See you girls in July!

A Hiking We Will Go

One Saturday in May we woke up feeling ambitious and decided to go on a hike. If we had planned it in advance it probably wouldn't have happened because, honestly, why would we choose to bring kids age 3 and 2 on a 3.5 mile round-trip hike (without one of those intense hiking backpack/seats for kids). As we drove up the canyon it occurred to us that it may be a terrible idea but we had already told Sadie we were going on a hike. Even Elise was randomly yelling "hiiiike" as we drove. 

We got out of the car and started up the trail with a bunch of other hikers. Sadie's competitiveness kicked in and we quickly shot ahead. We found ourselves passing people, including a family with 2 young kids (one of them in a backpack). 

We figured Sadie would slow down as her enthusiasm waned.  

Unhook the piano, Elise!

Well, with the promise of a waterfall at the end, that enthusiasm stayed sky-high. Sadie booked her little behind up the trail and we made great time, even with Elise walking half the time. And yes, Elise wore Crocs for the hike.

We spent a long time throwing rocks into the stream. Elise almost got hit in the head about 200 times. We saw most of the people we passed on the way up as we were leaving. Boo ya. Spirits remained high until we told the girls it was time to head back down. The beginning of the descent was difficult, as Sadie decided she wanted to be carried. Sadie got her second wind, though, and we literally ran down the last mile of the trail. Sadie fell twice during the run and just hopped right back up.

In the end I would declare Sadie awesome at hiking. We'll definitely be doing it again soon.