My little fish...

We have done lots of swimming here this summer.

 

 

His new goggles from Kiki made all the difference this year. Well, another year older helped too, I'm sure. ;) My favorite phrase from him was "When I look under the water with my goggles, I SEE WATER!!!"

 

Getting fancy with a backwards jump in.

 

The girls learned to dive this year. That's Emily in the pink/purple.

 

Allison in the blue.

 

And guess who's been paying attention? Near the end of his lessons he was finally able to jump in all by himself (instead of being lowered in by his teacher). This was also the year he fully submerged his head and now he can float on his back for a whole minute. So proud of this guy!

 

Super Sam!

 

Way to go kids, I can't wait to see what you learn next year!

Up at the Lake

Earlier this summer we got away for a week-end with David's mom and her husband, Grandpa Dale. They were married last Christmas and the two of them have been super busy ever since. It was fun to have them all to ourselves for a couple of days.

Digging worms to catch some fish in Lobster Lake.

These two don’t look like they are having any fun at all, do they?

Time for a boat ride!

Getting sprayed by the water.

 

Thanks for a fun week-end, Dale and Phyllis! 

Chicago for our 15th Anniversary

This was the first time David and I had made it to the Windy City together, since high school. Twenty-two years ago we (and about 20 other kids and chaperones) spent a week at Moody Bible Institute for something called S.E.M.P. It was fun to explore the city as adults this time and remember a few of the places we had been back in the day.

The catalyst for the trip, beside our anniversary of course, was that the Tall Ships would be there that week-end. They make the long trek through the Great Lakes every 3 years. We plan to take the kids to see them in Duluth next time.

 

But first we made a stop in Rockford Illinois to stop by Urban Farmgirl. I purchased a couple of chalkboard prints for the girls' room.

 

 

We ate at Gino's East for dinner that night which we laughed about the rest of our trip. Had I known the décor would be similar to walking into my high school bathroom, with graffiti all over the walls, I think we would have picked somewhere else. Live and learn...

 

The first day was all about the boats.

“Oh Hi!”

 

We also got to take in a bit of the Chicago Match Cup. David has a deep love for sailing so he was definitely in his element. I on the other hand get seasick at the drop of a hat.

While at Navy Pier David said "I know that voice! Where do I know that voice from?" I tell ya, my guy can't remember a name for his life, but voices he gets down pat. As soon as he figured it out we started looking and sure enough behind us was a guy that sits a few cubes over from him. They eat lunch at the same time every day too. Did he remember his name? Of course not! But we said "Hi" and found out that they also had tickets to see our Twins beat the White Sox that night.

Small world!

 

The next morning, after a dose of Dramamine, we were ready for the 8am Architecture Boat Cruise. Which we highly recommend! Though I’m sure having a good tour guide makes all the difference. Ours was a young guy that does these tours in the summer between teaching high school history. He's starting his 2nd year of teaching and I bet his students adore him. He was phenomenal. Later,  as we were walking along the river we heard another tour guide ask the people on his boat “So, what do you want to know?” followed by silence. Ummm…yeah, glad we weren’t on his boat.

"Hey, this sailboat is cheating!" 

I wish I could remember the name of this next building (the one in the middle), but I do know that the architect won some amazing awards and it’s designed to look like water is flowing down the side. And some of those curvy balconies jut out 13’ which is some sort of record. Very neat!

 

 

Of course we had to walk over to Millenium Park too. Where we were surprised to see they offer free aerobics in the park on Saturday mornings.  No, we did not join them.

The Bean!

I had to fight the urge to run to the nearest drugstore and purchase lots of Windex and paper towels.

Across the street we saw this. Starbucks was infinitely busier inside. Poor Caribou, we love you too.

We took an hour or so to hang out in this shady spot. It was a scorcher for sure.

The last big thing we did was get to a Chicago Fire game. These stadiums look so much bigger on t.v.  At lease at home they don’t come with kids smoking weed 2 seats down from you.

Oh I was SO mad when I figured that out!

 

I learned 3 things:

 

I'm not a Foody. Of course we ate at several restaurants throughout our 3 days there, but honestly the most enjoyable meals we had were at Chick-Fil-A for lunch both days.

When you come from having the Mall of America in your backyard, Michigan avenue just doesn't have the same appeal it might otherwise.

I also discovered that I’m not a big city kind of girl. Bettcha didn’t see that one coming. ;) The noise and the crowds really got to me and I couldn’t wait to leave.

 

We certainly enjoyed our time away, celebrating 15 years of marriage. And a big thanks to my mom for giving the kids their own mini-vacation at her house. Now we are just trying to eek all the fun we can out of the last few days of summer here. The leaves are already starting to change.

Bucilla Felt and Sequin Christmas Stockings

Whew! The hardest part is over! I'm so excited for us to finally get to use these this year. They have been a long time in the making. I'm practically giddy. I keep saying they are done. But reality is that there is still more to do. Names, choosing a fabric for the lining, adding hanging loops and final assembly. But in my mind they are
D O N E because this is the part I worried I would never get to.

 

For moi.

I think I'll use "Mother" and "Father" for our names. Or maybe just "Mom" and "Dad", not sure yet. But that way somewhere down the line we may have one child or grandchild who would like to use ours as their own. That would make me very happy.

 

 

For David.

I tweaked this one a lot. Adding sequins where they just wanted running stitches in the beard. And just more sequins in general. I also changed the boots and belt to black from brown and the tops of his boots from yellow to white. But now I think I want to go back to Sam's Santa and add white fir to the tops of his boots. OCD, much?

I've also decided that I should buy lots more Bucilla kits to have on hand for the day way, way, way, way off in the future when our family gains new members (think sons and daughter-in-law, and grandkids, yikes!). Even if I don't get to make them all myself, maybe one of my girls will carry it one. But I could start several now and get them to this point at least. One can dream, right?

 

For Emily.

This is the one where I swapped out the puppy to put a likeness of her in instead. She loves it and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 

When I was almost finished she asked if there could be a mouse climbing up the clock like in "Hickory Dickory Dock." How could I resist?

For Sam.

I can't even tell you how happy he is to see his done. But now he's hounding me for the "pocket" so Santa can fill it. Soon buddy, very soon.

Names, linings, and hanging loops are next. I just need to pick out a fun fabric for all the insides which is proving to be tougher than I thought. In my mind it's got to be perfect. Oh the pressure.

Any suggestions?

 

For Allison. 

This one is totally without a doubt, perfect for her.

Christmas will be bright and colorful in our house this year. I have a ton of Bucilla ornaments I want to get done for this year as well. But I really do need to fully finish these before I start anything else. Feels SO good to get things checked off my list.