A WINDOW INTO MY WORLD

Summer Fun

Cherry Days Parade on the 4th of July.

The Splash Pad at the Gateway.

1st trip to Lagoon, FINALLY!

Every couple of years I treat myself to a little trip to Chicago, my home town. This year I decided I would share it with my family & we turned it into a 2 week trip. After all the house drama, we needed to get away!

We spent the 1st week visiting with my sister in Orland Park, IL.

Hanging out at her neighborhood park.

Spending a day at Six Flags Great America. Unfortunately, it was so crowded we only got on 4 rides. Booo… The highlight of this day was having Combi pee in a water bottle while we were in line for a ride. After waiting 40 minutes we were NOT getting out of that line!

We started our 2nd week in Nauvoo. This was our favorite part of the entire trip.

Inside Carthage Jail

This was the view from our room. So beautiful!

Playing pioneer games

After 2 days days in Nauvoo, we headed off to CHICAGO & stayed with my other sister. I have to say that in our desire to relax, we took it to the extreme. Sleeping in until 10, not leaving until 12. Taking an hr to get anywhere. Needless to say, we didn’t do all the wonderful tourist things you would expect. But we definitely relaxed which is hard to do when you’re in a city like this!

Science & Industry Museum, my all-time favorite museum.

Legoland Discovery Museum

I sat here for an hr building this house just so that it could break when I put in the last piece. Stupid house!

The Lincoln Park Zoo. It’s a free zoo right in the heart of the city. The ONLY free thing we were able to do.

Dinner with an old HS friend @ “Rainforest Cafe"

I had such a great time sharing some of my childhood memories with my family & letting them see what it was like living in such an amazing city.

Most memorable moments:

Culligula courageously walking down a gang-way.
KB saying, “Hurry up guys! There’s a car coming down the alley!!”
Of course, the pee in the bottle incident
getting caught in a crazy rain storm @ the zoo
catching fire flies
having pizza delivered @ 1am.
Combi getting on his 1st upside roller coaster
JaJa constantly asking about the gangs.
eating only 1 slice of pizza & being full
driving down Lake Shore Dr.
parking a block & 1/2 away from Nelly’s apt.

A Visit From Our Favorite Friends

We got a wonderful visit from our best friends, the Taggarts.

We have been friends with them since we 1st got married, which was 13 years ago. We were in the same ward & lived in the same neighborhood. At the time, we lived in a condo & they lived in the houses that surrounded the condos. Culligula was dying to see the inside of one of those homes so he kept asking me to make friends with Jen Taggart.

One evening, we were out for a walk when we ran into Jen. We talked for a minute & she invited us over for dinner. Yes! We we’re in! Culligula could finally get his wish & he could stop trying to make me talk to her.

Well, we had dinner as planned & it was an instant friendship for all 4 of us. After that, we were inseparable. We had video game/scrapbook sleep overs, we’d play basketball frequently, go for walks every morning… It was a time the 4 of us will always cherish.

3 years later, Jen had Dani & the following year I had JaJa. Then she had Lexi & I had Combi & so on & so forth. You get the picture.

We’ve been through a lot together. We’ve laughed a lot & we’ve cried just as much.

Since our move to UT & their move to TX, we don’t see each other as much. We did meet in CA one year & then we spent a week together in Hawaii. Best time ever.

Fortunately, they both have family here so they do come here on occasion. This year we got to see them twice which was such a treat.

The 1st time, my boys were too shy & didn’t warm up to their girls until the end of their stay.

The 2nd visit was much better & they were all instant friends. It was awesome to see the instant bond they all had to one another. All 6 were in their own little special world (minus Morgan cause she’s always in her own little world!).

Dani 9, JaJa 8, Lexi 7, Combi 6, Jordan 6, KB 4, Morgan 3