Chicago

Thanks to our husbands being willing to watch all the kids and God working out all the details for us, three of my dearest friends, Rachel, Krista, Erin and I met up in Chicago two weeks ago and had a girls weekend together! We all flew in on Friday and had the rest of that day, Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday together before we were all supposed to fly out (unfortunately, my flight home got cancelled so I didn't make it out until Tuesday).

We were able to stay right on Michigan Avenue and had a wonderful weekend doing lots of talking, giggling (had to add that for Jake's sake! Ha!), shopping, good eating, site seeing and exploring. Just having the uninterrupted time together was heavenly for all of us who are chasing around toddlers and babies every day!

None of us got a lot of pictures from the weekend...too busy enjoying time together...but we did get a few between all of us.

On Saturday, after a Garrett's popcorn stop, we made our way down to Navy Pier and took a boat ride. We could tell the sky was getting pretty dark and were hoping that we would get the boat ride in before the storm hit. Here are the 4 of us at the beginning of the boat ride...nice and dry.

And here we were at the end of the boat ride...trying to stay under the limited roof the boat had (which honestly was somewhat pointless since the wind was blowing the downpour right on us!)...totally soaked! Well...I shouldn't say totally soaked since after this we had to make our way off the boat and across Navy Pier to get inside...in a complete Midwest downpour. By the time we got inside, we were totally soaked and looked absolutely like drowned rats!! Great memories though! Ha!

I will say though that I think we were all glad we did the boat ride when we did because the clouds we saw were spectacular. Honestly some of the most incredible clouds I've ever seen...ones that really couldn't be fully captured on film, but Rachel at least got a couple to give you a taste...

On Saturday night, we went up the Hancock tower to the lounge and ended up getting a table right by the window. The view was amazing! We were hoping to get to see the fireworks at Navy Pier from the Hancock, but really heavy clouds rolled in about 5 minutes before it was supposed to start so all we saw were a couple sparkles, but we were just so thankful for such an incredible view the rest of the time!

One night we went to a fondue restaurant that had been recommended to us. It was great fun to do with girls and really good food! This picture made us all die laughing though when we saw it. We asked the waitress if she would take a picture of us and after trying to get it by our table without success, she said she was going to get a "long distance" picture of us...by going behind another table and taking it from there....and this is what we got...

We couldn't stop laughing...Erin barely made it into the picture and this poor lady on the right may still be blinded from the flash...and we all instantly decided there was no way this picture could be cropped! Ha!

So thankful for lifetime friends and for such a refreshing weekend together now that we are spread out across the country. Thanks to all our husbands and family who were willing to help make it possible watching the kiddos back home. We all decided that this is most definitely not a 1 time trip...now we just have to work on convincing the husbands...ha!

No More Paci!

Though Addysen didn't take to her paci right away after she was born, as soon as she started teething, paci (along with B!) became her comfort. Though she has only used it for nap and bedtime for a long time, as soon as her paci would go in her mouth, she would instantly calm down and be ready for bed.

However, we decided that 3 was the magic age that paci was going to go away. I was dreading it a bit, knowing that she would probably struggle, but knew it had to happen!

It took her 2 naps (where she didn't sleep at all and cried quite a bit) and one nighttime of struggling to go to sleep without it and waking up during the night crying for paci, but after that she went back to her normal naps and night time sleep. She would tell me "But paci will help me relax!" or "But paci will help me sleep!" But after that day and a half, she went back to her normal naps and night time sleep.

Addysen has always been a GREAT sleeper since she was a baby so having her struggle to sleep was hard to watch, but I'm thankful it didn't last any longer! And now not having paci is one of the reasons she considers herself such a big girl!

Last Day of 2

Jeff always insists on getting pics the night before the girls turn the next age. Here's the last day our Addysen was TWO!

3 Year Stats

Prior to her birthday, when you'd ask Addysen about turning 3, she'd be all excited about her birthday and then proceed to say "and then I'm going to go to the doctor and he's going to check me out and then I'm going to pre-school!" It was funny because going to the doctor was directly connected with both turning 3 and going to pre-school in her mind so she was actually looking forward to it. :-)

We took her to the doctor the day after her birthday and she did great. As is typical Addysen in a new environment, she wouldn't say one word to the doctor despite his valiant attempts to get her to talk, but she also didn't get upset at all and did a great job with all he asked her to do.

Addysen's 3 year stats are:

Height: 38 1/4 inches (75th percentile)
Weight: 35.6 pounds (75-95th percentile)

Ice cream and berries

A couple more various things from Sarasota that didn't fit with the other posts, but wanted to include....

There is a popular ice cream parlor in Sarasota that we went to several nights. Addysen was thrilled to get ice cream and even more thrilled when she found out they had "blue" ice cream...her favorite color!

Every time we got ice cream, Addysen would share her cone with Haven. I honestly think Addysen like sharing her cone as much as Haven liked eating it!


Such a mess, but so worth it for such cuteness!! :-)

Addysen wasn't the only one who shared! Haven had never had ice cream before...but I'm pretty sure she's sold!

And had to post a picture of this because Addysen spent so much time doing it while we were in Sarasota. Addysen loves picking flowers, leaves, etc., but in Sarasota, there were these bushes all over the place that had little "berries" on them (not sure what they are so for lack of a better word, we called them berries). She was constantly pulling them off the bushes and then would set them down in piles all over.

Auntie Jess Visit

It ended up working out while we were in Sarasota for Jeff's sister, Jessica, to come down to the condo for a day. The girls were so excited to have her there and we're so thankful she was willing to make the effort to see us even for a short time!

This pic was at a restaurant the night Jessica got in...probably a good thing we had an extra set of hands because Haven was pretty excited about seeing the bay right out of the patio (some spaces being just big enough she probably could have gotten through...yikes!).

Not a bad view we had while we ate! :-)


Pool time!

Haven crawled up on the table and tried to get a drink during lunch...

Thanks for making the effort to come see us, Jess! We loved the time with you as did the girls!

Siesta Key

Siesta Key beach is always in the top 10 beaches in the country every year and it is only about 10-15 minutes away from where we were staying in Sarasota so of course we had to go! The beach there is amazing...huge amount of space, sand that feels like baby powder and that literally never gets hot (honestly feels cool all the time) and there is a large amount of flat beach where the waves come up before it dips down deeper (great for little ones to play in the water without getting in deep!).

Haven started out on the chair again...thinking it's just another beach with sand she didn't like...


But then got down into the sand...

...and ended up LOVING it!!

She literally rolled around in it...

...and moved her arms and legs like she was swimming in it!

For a child who did not like the beach at all, this beach totally changed her mind...she loved this sand!!

Addysen had a "project" while we were there one of the times - she was taking water bucket by bucket and filling up a big hole we had made. She went back and forth, back and forth with a very determined look that she was going to accomplish this goal!

The fact that the water would sink into the sand was no deterrent....she was going to figure this out!

Jungle Gardens

Sarasota had a place called Jungle Gardens which has primarily exotic birds (like parrots, flamingos, etc.) and reptiles (like crocodiles, lizards, turtles, etc.). Addysen loves parrots so we went to Jungle Gardens one morning we were there. It was extremely hot so we only stayed a couple hours, but Addysen did really enjoy it!

One of the many crocodiles they had

They even had an area where you could hold the birds. Addysen got really excited about getting to hold one of the little birds!

And then somehow I got wrangled into holding a parrot. No chance in the world I would have done this had Addysen not been right there (and didn't want her to think I was a complete coward...even though I was truly terrified that this thing was going to bite my nose off!). Not my favorite moment, but Addysen was pretty excited that Mommy got to hold a parrot!

Addysen got to feed these enormous fish they had in a little pond

They had some really beautiful walkways getting between the animals

They had an area where the flamingos were free and could wander all over. From what I understand, they typically come right up to people and eat out of your hand - they're almost too friendly sometimes not exactly being patient for you to get the food out of the machines! However, when we were there, they all just stood in the middle of this pond and came no where near us.

Bummer they didn't get any closer to us, though I'm not sure how I would have felt about them eating out of my hand anyway! Ha!

And Addysen took advantage of the food we bought by feeding the ducks...and had a ball doing it!

There were even some baby ducks with their Mama