Hiking at the Palos Forest Preserve

We had a hard time passing up the opportunity to take advantage of the great weather we had today. To celebrate Easter weekend, the end of spring break, and the warmer temperatures, we set out to explore a forest preserve just outside the city.  There are entire networks of trails scattered throughout Chicagoland, and we definitely look forward to exploring some more, especially once the landscape looks a little more pretty and green. 

Jesse was a champion hiker.  I think the loop we chose was about 2 miles, and we think he hiked about 75% of that.  James carried him the rest of the way.  Of course, Jesse's pace is much slower than ours, so the short hike took up the entire morning, but it was fun to imagine everything from his perspective.

The first part of the trek (as well as some subsequent parts) was quite muddy from the snow melt, and we all came home with mud-caked shoes and muddy pants.  Jesse loved walking through the mud, though.

Disclaimer: As I looked through the pictures, I realized that in the majority of the pictures I took (most are not posted here), Jesse is playing with his belly button. We did not encourage this, and I guess I must be so used to his belly button fixation now, that I just don't even think about it.  I think it must be the equivalent of a pacifier for him.

Sweet Home Chicago

It's finally official! After months of writing applications (James, not me) and more months of waiting, we finally know where we will be next year, and we are thrilled to announce that it is Chicago!  I'm so proud of James and all the hard work he has put into his MA program here at U of C, and I have no doubt he will do wonderfully in the PhD program here as well.  I know it has not always been easy for him to balance school, work and family life, but he has done it so well. 

Not only are we happy to avoid another move, but we truly love Chicago.  There is so much to do here, even just right here in Hyde Park, and I was having a hard time imagining living anywhere else, although I'm sure I would have been able to get excited about the perks of living a more suburban life if I had to.  I think that the long, long winters are even a fair trade-off for all the things we love here (of course, I say that today when it is bright and sunny and "warm"--well, if the mid-40s count as warm).  Anyway, Chicago it is for the next many (7+) years!

 

Reunion at Wisconsin Dells

This past weekend we enjoyed a weekend spent in a cabin at the Wisconsin Dells with our dear friends and former teammates from our year in Bulgaria.  We hadn't seen them (except via Skype) since we left Bulgaria two and a half years ago.  It was so wonderful catching up with them and hearing about everything going on in their life and ministry now.  It was also great to see Samuel, who was just a baby when we left and is now nearly 4 years old, and also meet their youngest son, Joshua, who is 15 months old. 

Jesse and Samuel didn't take long to warm up to one another and were "best friends" by the end of the trip.  They loved chasing each other around the cabin, but their favorite activity was getting in the big jacuzzi tub together and pretending it was their boat.  At one point they had transferred all the legos from the living room into the tub.  Unfortunately, though, Jesse was in there by himself once and he accidentally turned on the motor, which frightened him pretty badly (he told me the tub was moving....poor guy, he probably thought the boat was going to take him away) and deterred him from more play in the tub.

I think the closet became a boat at one point, too, and they were taking a snooze.

The duplos and train set were a huge hit, too.

The boys liked to sit by each other at meals.  Samuel would say silly things and crack Jesse up.

 

Joshua was pretty busy running around from place to place, but I finally managed to get him in a picture here.

We did lots of eating on this trip, which included trying out some Wisconsin cheese (cranberry chipotle cheddar....yum!).  Here is James grilling burgers for lunch on Sunday.  As you can see, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground, and it was actually snowing a little when I took this picture.

We spent almost all of our time just hanging out at our cabin and letting the kids play with each other.  It was a very low-key, relaxing trip.  While it is sad that we don't get to see each other very often (and sad that our kids don't get to grow up together like we once thought they would), it is also encouraging to see the different paths God is leading us down and it is also fun to reminisce on the days we had together in Bulgaria.

Making Cookies

Jesse has been busy baking cookies in the bathtub.  Each foam letter is a cookie and it goes on its own tile in the tub.  He says they are sugar cookies and was very distraught about getting sugar all over his hands. He would exclaim, "Oh noooo! Sugar all over hands!"  Luckily the bath water was pretty good for washing all that off :)  I love the growing imagination that comes with this stage.  It's so fun to see the things he comes up with each day.

Hodge Podge

The last month and a half seems to have gotten away from me without a single blog post.  Life has been busy around here, and we are so looking forward to "spring" break next week so we can catch up on family time and just enjoy having some down time.  We have also been somewhat cooped up inside, as the temperatures have barely climbed out of the 20s and 30s (and currently the 10-day forecast doesn't look too promising!).  We are definitely looking forward to spring, but we have managed to keep plenty busy with trips to the library, music class, lots of play dates, and visits to the aquarium.

I have a bunch of random pictures from my camera, so I will just share a few.

Jesse loves the snow.  He is admiring it from his bedroom window. It happened to be falling very heavily when I took this picture, but you can't tell.

 

 

Jesse got to ride his first school bus several weeks ago.  Our church met downtown one Sunday, and anyone who wanted could opt to ride the bus in order to avoid having to find parking.  As James said, it was well worth the $4 we paid to ride, because Jesse loved it.  He was especially enamored with the emergency exits in the roof of the bus and talked about them for days.  In this picture below, he was pretending that these holes in his toy shelf were emergency exits and he was putting all his toys through them.

Lately I have been putting Jesse in his room with the gate up while I shower in the mornings.  I let him pick out a few toys to take in there, but 90% of the time he ends up dragging all the books off his shelf and looking at them.  Thus, the room looks like this:

One night James and Jesse were playing and Jesse all of the sudden said "Jesse be like Daddy" and plopped himself down on the floor in the same position as James.  So cute.

Legos are a daily activity here.  Jesse may have had some help with this creation :)

He has been really into wearing my boots lately, and he also thinks it is hilarious to fill them with blocks.

 

The past week he has been really into his ABC puzzle.  It is what he wants to do in most waking moments.  I found him in his room like this the other day.

At the end of February we (Tot Lot Committee) threw a big birthday party for all the Tot Lot kids.  The kids seemed to have a blast and still talk about it.  We had crafts, played pin the tail on the donkey (well, mainly the older kids), did some other fun party games like Ring Around the Rosie and London Bridge, and of course ate lots of cake and other goodies.

 

 

Jesse LOVED the cake, and I had to watch him like a hawk to make sure he didn't sneak bites before it was time.  He wouldn't focus on anything until he got a piece.

The craft table.  We decorated paper cupcakes and bags for the party favors.