CHICAGO

In my opinion, Chicago has to be one of the most beatiful cities in the world in the summer. Lake Michigan up against the enormous skyscrapers is a sight to behold. We really love going downtown. There is always so much to see and do. You could spend all day just people watching on Michigan Avenue, if you had the time.

Over the last few months, we have known there was some change coming but we didn't know exactly what that change would mean for our family, until a few weeks ago. Rick was offered a really exciting opporunity with his company to open a new market in Florida. Which means, that we will be putting the house on the market in the spring and moving when the kids get out of school.

I'm excited for Rick and I know that he will do a wonderful job but, we are all a little sad. It's hard to believe that someone (the someone is me) who was very sure that they would never really 'like' Chicago, is sad to be leaving. Sad to leave dear friends, sad to leave our ward, sad to leave our house, sad to leave the kids school, sad to leave this beautiful city that has been our home. I'm not sad about leaving the snow, but I feel as though I need to make the most of this last winter here.

We had a family meeting to tell the kids. We told them that daddy's job would be changing and that they wanted us to move. I told them we wanted to play a game to see if they could guess where we would be moving. First, I showed them a picture of downtown Orlando. No one knew where it was. Second, I showed them a picture of the Orlando temple. No one knew where it was, although Ben did notice that there were palm trees. Third, I showed them a picture of Universal. Ben started jumping and saying "There is one in Florida, and one in California. Are there any more? Fourth, I showed them a beautiful picture of DisneyWorld. Complete pandemonium broke lose is our house. Screaming, running, chearing, jumping! To say the least, they were very excited. I think Ben thinks there won't be any chores, school, or homework once we live close to the 'happiest place on earth'. We will just go to Disney everyday in his mind but I was very relieved that they were happy. I had this vision of crying children saying "how could you ruin my life like this!"

That night we asked the kids individually if they were sad or nervous about leaving and both Ben and Olivia teared up. Both said the same thing, "We are going to miss our friends". Which is exactly how Rick and I feel too.

My Nana sent me this poem she wrote, with a note that read "I felt inspired to write this because of all the kindess shown to each of you." I can't agree more!

People of Chicago!
You are really tops,
And so impressive
Your kindness never stops.

We are so grateful
For your friendship to our kin.
How do we thank you
Where so we begin?

With our sweet southern charm
We thought we were surely best,
But your kindess surpasses us
With each and every test.

Therefore, we concede.
You are the perfect friend.
You have loved our children.
You are definately a "Ten".

So thank you, thank you
For all that you do.
You are super in our minds,
And in our hearts too.

Love from Florida

Barns & Corn

After we came home from Georgia we had a week back in Illinois before we left for 10 days for California. During that week, we celebrated Olivia's birthday party at the local splash park. We then jetted off to California. We had such a great time and we came back totally exhausted!! While on vacation though, I lost my camera!!! To be exact, on the 9th day of our 10 day vacation, I lost the camera at Disneyland (If anyone is keeping track, I lost my purse and camera in a space of 2 1/2 weeks)!! It still brings tears to my eyes, that it hasn't yet turned up. I feel like I lost my kids memories of such a fun trip that we had been planning for a year. The pictures for Olivia's birthday party were on the camera too. It makes me just sick to my stomach.
Although I did get some perspective, when I was talking to my Nana the week after we got home. I was wallowing in how horrible it was that I don't have any of our pictures from the trip and how I can't replace them and she said "It could be worse, I don't have any pictures of my girls from when they were little at all." I had totally forgotten that when my mom was a teenager their house burned down and they lost everything, including their pictures. I can't even imagine.
Rick's family are trying to piece together pictures, that his family took while we were with them, we have a very few on our phones and my friend is getting pictures she took of the birthday party. So I hope that we will have some. The rest I will have to unfortuanetly record by writting everything down that we did. I'm not a writer.
I borrowed a camera from a friend after returning home and took some summer family pictures of the town we live in. When we moved to Chicago, I didn't really know what the landscape here was. When I had come in January and February for house hunting trips, everything was piled high with snow. So when we had our first summer here, I couldn't believe there was so many corn fields. Everywhere in fact and barns too...the big red kind with silos. We actually have an old barn in the front of our neighborhood with a playground nearby that we can walk to.