Pilgrimage to Mecca

Well, I know that Jill usually is the one to run this blog, but on the off chance that there are some people that want to see what we do other than with Eden, I will tell of one such adventure... My friend, Micah, and I have been talking about making the trip down to Chicago to see a baseball game at Wrigley Field since we moved here almost four years ago. We finally buckled down and did it. (How can you live so close to such a historic place and not visit it at least once?) So, we found a nice afternoon game and went down for the day. It ended up being a great day even though there was a 50% of rain. I just wish that the ivy would have been growing so that the wall would have been green instead of a bunch of dead-looking twigs.

We had tons of fun. We had loud and abnoxious Met fans on our left and a couple that couldn't keep their hands off of each other the whole time on our right. Micah even got beer sloshed on him. The Cubs beat the Mets 8-1 much to the dismay of our fellow row mates. If any of you get the chance to catch a game at Wrigley, I would highly recommend it. It is a great experience, even if you don't like the Cubs!!

Here's Stinkerbell

Eden loves to eat spaghetti. She's really patient about it too (a trait she is severely lacking most of the time). She'll spend an hour picking up one noodle at a time and putting it in her mouth. The problem is, by the time she is almost done, she is getting tired and she rubs her eyes. And her cheeks. And sometimes she twirls her hair. This is the end result.

I've been doing patty-cake with her since she was just a baby and last week she started saying it all by herself. It was really cute so we had to get a video. Once again, the sound is pretty quiet and you have to turn it way up but it is fun to hear. What a smarty she can be.

We sure are going to miss being so close to the lake here. It is fun to go down during the summer because there is so much to do. We won't miss all of the snow that it brings in the winter though. This picture was taken this past week on one of the few nice days that we have had. We went to the art museum and then went to the lake so that Eden could "run around outside." This is currently her favorite thing to do and ask to do it every five minutes or so.

Weekend Fun

I know, it's been a whole week since my last post, but we've been busy doing things to blog about. We have been living in Wisconsin for almost 4 years now and we had never ventured to the Dells or to Madison so we decided to take a trip this past weekend with our friends the Browns. Our first stop was to Madison to look at the state capitol building and go to the zoo. Eden had a lot of fun looking at the otters and we all got rained on, which Eden also thought was fun.

After that we headed up to the Dells. If you've never heard of Wisconsin Dells, it is the Waterpark Capitol of the World. I'm probably not the only one who finds it strange that this title goes to a city in the middle of Wisconsin, but there you have it. They have probably at least 20 big resort/hotels with indoor and outdoor waterparks and some of them are pretty elaborate. We stayed at the Polynesian and had a good time. It took Eden a while to warm up to the water but she did eventually get in and play and splash. She loved the big toys that had steering wheels.

Andy and Matt had a lot of fun going down the waterslides and seeing how wet they could get the lifeguards. I think they may have regressed about 15 years, but they had a good time too. We put Alex and Eden's pack and plays next to each other at night and they stayed up past 10:00 playing together. Alex would get down low and then jump up and say 'Peek' to Eden and she would laugh and then Eden would hold out her hand and say 'Gimme Five' and Alex would give her five and laugh. It was so fun to see them playing together. They sure are going to miss each other when we move.

We also ate lunch one day at a really good place in the dells called Moosejaw Lodge. They have excellent pizza and homemade root beer. Also, they have lots of antlers.

We finished off the trip with a stop at Circus World, the original winter quarters of the Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey Circus. It was fun to look around at all the circus stuff they have. It would have been fun to go during 'the season' because they do circus performances but we still had a pretty good time. The weather was beautiful and warm. You can see Eden hollering in this picture. This is how Eden acted during most of the time we were at the museum. We were about ready to close the door on her and leave her in there. Well, not really....

Despite the way she looks, we all had a really fun weekend. It was fun to do a last hurrah with the Browns before we go to Omaha and they go to Houston. We're so glad we have them as our friends.

Butterflies!

Yesterday was a nice day outside (finally!) so we decided to go downtown to the Milwaukee Public Museum. We hadn't been there before and it was something we wanted to do before we moved. Eden was pretty good through most of the museum. She wasn't too thrilled with looking at pottery and armor but she did like the dioramas with animals. Our main problem was keeping her in the stroller or close to us. She kept trying to run away.

By far, Eden's favorite thing at the museum was the butterflies. They have a room filled with live butterflies that you can go in and walk around. There are tons of butterflies flying all over the room and landing on plants and fingers. She loved watching them fly around and she would hold out her finger for them and try to touch them. We stayed in the room until we were all sticky and sweaty (they keep the humidity at around 80%) and then we had to get some fresh air. Eden cried when we left so we told her we would go back after we saw the rest of the museum. We snapped lots of pictures and took a video too. She was just enthralled.

I love this picture of Eden. She is watching the butterflies and she just looks so sweet and happy. At her age, everything is interesting and new. Butterflies are something she had never encountered before and she was amazed. It was fun to see her discover something new. It's one of my favorite parts of being a parent.

Eden says, "Yay for butterflies!"

Some Pictures

We haven't been able to get very many pictures of Eden lately because she won't hold still long enough. It seems like the camera gives her extra energy. It's not that she runs away when we try to take her picture. She usually runs toward the camera and I end up taking a picture of her stomach. However, I know her adoring fans (aka relatives) are going through withdrawls so we've managed to get a couple of pictures of her. For those of you who have heard about her excited face but haven't seen it, this is a pretty good shot of it.

Eden wakes us up every morning by opening her door and yelling for us. I wake up to her sweet voice yelling (and I mean yelling) "Mama... Daddy....GIT UP!" And if we don't get up right away, she uses our first names. "Jiiillll..... GIT UP!" She means business. It's so funny to hear that I have to admit I occasionally stay in bed just to hear her yelling for a minute.

She's also been singing lots of songs lately and one of her favorite songs to sing is the alphabet. I managed to pin her down the other day and get her to sing the ABC's for me. You have to turn the sound up pretty loud to hear her because she prefers to whisper the song, but it's pretty cute. I think you can also hear me telling her I'll give her a treat if she sings. We're not above bribery in this house.

Calling All Super Readers

I just finished a book that was really good, which is something that doesn't happen as often as I wish it did. It was called 'The Eight' by Katherine Neville. It's a sort of Indiana Jones/Robert Langdon story except the main character is a woman (and overall I don't think it's quite as violent and gory). Anyway, the main reason I bring this up is because I finished it and now I need something else good to read. I have a book list a mile long but nothing on it sounds good at the moment or I can't find it at the library. So tell me what to read next! What do you like?

Oh, I also recently read a book called 'Portrait of an Unknown Woman' and that was really good too. So now you have two new books to read. Leave me a comment! What should I read?

Home Sweet Home

It's been a week since the last post but we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We were just in Omaha (close, but not the same). We figured if we are going to be living there, we should probably find a place to live. We had a good time and are thankful to the Vernons for letting us stay with them. House shopping in Omaha (Split-level Capitol of the World) was quite an adventure, especially for us ranch-style people. After 5 days of looking, we did find a house that we really love that actually has rooms at entry level. We were hoping to find a house that was fairly new and in good condition but we ended up getting a house that is brand new. It was just finished a few weeks ago and is ready and waiting for us to move in. It's a pretty two story house (they call the outside color 'Harvest Wheat' but I think 'Dead Grass' is more appropriate.). We're hoping it looks better when the grass is green...

The kitchen has a dishwasher, which I am really excited about and it also has a double garage which I'm sure Andy is excited about. We feel really blessed to find this house and we can't wait for six more weeks until we can move in! Some of you have already asked for pictures so here's a few. These pictures in no way excuse you from visiting us to see the rest of the house. We are up on a hill and will have beautiful sunsets from our deck so you need to come and see that. Also, I am decoration impared so those of you that have style are welcom to give me some tips on what to do with all these bare walls!