Playing catch up!

So I am failed in my attempts to keep up to date with my blogs...I will do better! Here's a brief catch up on the events of summer 2009!

Last weekend we decided to take an impromptu trip down to the South to take in some golfing and visit people from Jason's mission. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi about 10 years ago. Jason had 4 conditions on where we could go..1 - had to be somewhere warm. 2 - had to be at least 5 hours driving time away but we had to fly. 3 - he gets to drive a convertible while there. 4 - we spend the trip together!

Somehow we managed to meet all his conditions with our wonderful trip...

We started the trip in Nashville, Tennessee and drove down to Birmingham, Alabama. Our first morning there we played golf in beautiful weather! It was a perfect relaxing morning!


Then we headed down to Selma, Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama. Selma is where the Civil Rights movement got it's start as well as being extremely historical in regards to the Civil War. We took in the State Capital, the Confederate White House, and Vulcan Park. While in Selma, we went to the Old Live Oak Cemetary - now I know it's odd to put a picture of a cemetary on a blog posting but it was beautiful there...

Then we headed back up to Huntsville, Alabama with a little stop along the way to Birmingham & Gardendale. We went through the Civil Rights Institute and it was amazing! It was definitely eye-opening! Then we stopped in Gardendale, Alabama and visited with some people that Jason knew from when he lived there years ago. It was great to visit with everyone and they were so kind to us. We also got to see the new LDS temple that was built in Gardendale.


The first thing we did in Huntsville the next morning was take in another round of golfing! Jason was truly in heaven! Following a morning of golf we drove back into Tennessee to another one of Jason's areas that he lived in but unfortunately we didn't run into anyone that time. To finish off the day we went on a tour of the Jack Daniel's Distillery...now to make something very clear - we don't drink alcohol so you may be wondering why we went on a tour of a distillery...it was actually very historical and interesting! We learned a ton and at the end of the day neither of us had any desire to take a drink.


Our final day of touring the south was definitely directed toward Diana! I have always been a huge civil war buff - I think it started because I loved the big dresses the women wore and the huge antibellum homes. So our last day out we went on a tour of an antibellum home and saw some Civil War battlefields and museums. It was fascinating! We both love history and there is something so cool about seeing places you've learned about it school come alive in person!


Finally we headed back to the airport and back home to Chi town. It was a wonderful trip and just what we needed to relax and unwind from the daily stresses of life! In addition to seeing a ton of stuff we also got to eat some wonderful food, 'nana puddin', Cracker Barrel's Double Chocolate Fudge Coca Cola Cake (unbelievably good), grits, southern BBQ (although I think I like Jason's better), boiled peanuts (only Diana fully appreciated those) and enjoy good ole Southern Hospitality. We had a great deal on hotels through priceline and Jason was in heaven when the rental agency gave us a convertible to drive.

So as they say in the south...Y'all come back now!

Fourth of July Camping Trip

Every summer since we moved out here we have made it a point to camping with our buds Rob and Tiff. This last weekend for the fourth of July we decided to drive up to Michigan (add another state to our list of states we’ve stayed in) and try camping up there. Rob had been doing a rotation in Detroit, MI so he just met us at the campground. We looked for a rustic campground so it would be more like real camping from the West coast like we are used to. We lucked out and found a beautiful campground! It was surrounded by large Pine trees and we didn’t have people right on top of us like some campgrounds. Rob got there before we did and it was hilarious as we gave him directions on how to get there and he would respond in typical Rob manner about everything he was seeing. By the time we passed by those same things we were busting up as we realized just what Rob had been seeing. We did get a little worried when Rob saw a sign that said “Don’t pick up hitchhikers because the prison is nearby!” But we all survived and no escapees got us. We left after work on Thursday so we didn’t get there until 2 in the morning. We quietly set up our tent and went to bed.
Then next morning we were all so excited to be camping and out in nature again. It’s hard to describe how refreshing it can be. We decided to head into the nearest town and get some maps of the area and hiking trails. When we got into town we drove around and found lakes and maps but no maps about the hiking trails. Rob got a desire to go fishing and so the next thing we knew we were buying fishing poles, gear, and licenses. We got back to our campground and the boys went fishing in the river that runs through our campground. They caught NOTHING!
It was pretty disappointing. But an interesting dinner of Dutch Oven Pizza and a wonderful campfire made up for crappy fishing. Later that night after everyone else had fallen asleep I was reading a book because I couldn’t fall asleep when I started hearing noises outside the tent. I woke Jason up after a while and we found a raccoon trying to get into our stuff – we scared him away.

Saturday, the fourth of July, was a very busy and interesting day. We left in the morning to go into a town called Traverse City right on Lake Michigan. They were having the national Cherry Festival and I had heard about it in a magazine and really wanted to go. Luckily everyone took pity on me and my quirks and played along. We ate fresh cherries and then had a spitting contest into the lake (Jason won). We watched part of the air show, saw all the booths, tried some cherry foods – some things should not be made with cherries , saw some of the beach volleyball festival, and just enjoyed a wonderful day out and about.


Then we decided it was time to try fishing again. We headed toward a lake we found on the map and by the time we got there we realized that it was extremely resort like and not what we wanted. So Jason kept driving around hoping to find a section of the lake that wasn’t so popular. I had fallen asleep and when I woke up we were turning onto some dirt road. Jason had a blast four-wheeling in the Jeep in the middle of nowhere. He would back up and floor it through the mud puddles just to make sure the Jeep was thoroughly dirty (it was). Unfortunately our trip through the woods didn’t result in any lake – but a definitely interesting drive. We started back to our campground and found more little roads that we explored until we found a place that told us about another campground just a few miles away that had a lake with good fishing. So we headed off to Spring Lake. It was beautiful!!!

IT was extremely peaceful and just beautiful. The boys started fishing as Tiff and I sat and read and tried to get a little sun on our pasty white legs. Before even a few minutes had gone by Rob was yelling at Tiff to get over by him and catch her first fish. Tiff ran over there and sure enough he had a fish. She helped bring that one in and then she was got to catch one by herself. It was her first time fishing and she did a fabulous job!!! Then I wanted to try fishing so I made Jason share his pole with me. Rob caught the first fish of the day, Tiff caught her first fish period, Jason caught the biggest thing (more on that later), and I successfully caught the littlest fish ever! We were catching perch and bass. It was so much fun. At one point I rolled up my jeans and waded into the water to try fishing – it was great until Rob’s hook got caught on something and I went to get it and found myself in water all the way up to my butt…I was a little wet at that point. We were there for hours just relaxing, fishing, reading, and enjoying nature. Finally we headed back to the campground for a delicious dutch oven dinner and listened to fireworks.
The next morning Rob and Jason got up early to go out fishing one more time (Tiff and I stayed in bed and slept). When they got back they were wet, cold, and laughing a lot. Jason kept standing at the tent door waving and saying “hi” – he had his mischievous grin on his face and I knew he was up to something but I was just too tired to figure out what. They told us how Jason caught the biggest – I was so proud – until a few minutes later. Tiff and I were still in bed when Tiff overheard Jason and Rob talking. She asked them “Rob, why are talking like a doctor with Jason? Why do you have the medical kit out? WHAT HAPPENED?” I jumped up and said “Oh, no, what did Jason do?” Well the big fish that Jason caught was himself! He was taking the hook out of a little fish when somehow the hook wound up in his finger instead – and it was in there deep!

We couldn’t take it out because of the barbs and stuff. So luckily Tiff had a feeling to bring Rob’s medical kit and Dr. Rob performed a little surgery on my hubby. He cleaned it really well and then gave Jason a few shots of numbing stuff and then took out a scapel and sliced Jason’s finger right there at the campground. They finally were able to extract the hook and did more cleaning and disinfecting of Jason’s finger. Rob did a fantastic job and we figure from now on we have to take Rob with us on all trips just in case. He wrapped Jason’s finger up good and tight and we set about cleaning up the campground. We made it home that night after a wonderful, although exhausting, camping trip with our buddies!

Some Summer!!

Some Summer!! July 8, 2009
I love summer! The trees are in full bloom, there are flowers everywhere, it’s warm (although not too warm preferably), and there is SOOOOOO much to do! We are already filling our summer up with a ton of stuff – it feels like we have something going on every night. Once we got back from our fabulous vacation in Utah we jumped right back into life here in Chicago. We had a BBQ with a family that we have grown to love out here, the Billings, and it was a blast – the only sad thing was that it rained so we couldn’t go to the pool (we are going tonight instead). We have been golfing a few times and I love it! I honestly never thought I would be into golf but it is a sport that I find so relaxing and fun. Who would have ever thought?
Then last night we went to a Cubs game with Rob and Tiff and Rob caught a baseball! It was a foul ball and it was flying toward us and came down about 2 rows behind us but it ricocheted off the hand of the person going for it behind us and Rob jumped up and got it! It was great!!!! It was a night game which we haven’t done before. It was a little different dynamic then a Saturday afternoon game but it was still a blast! And although my cubbies lost by 1 we still had a great time.
We have also been having fun with lots of friends this summer. We had a BBQ with people Jason works with downtown, my work is having a picnic, we are both celebrating our birthdays this month, it’s just crazy busy and I love every minute of it!

That's what Friends are for!

So while in Utah we set aside some time to visit with friends. It is always so hard to squeeze everything in when we go out there that we never get to see everyone so we have to see certain people on certain trips. Then on the next trip out we visit with other people. It gets pretty crazy to say the least.
This time we spent our first day in Utah running errands and seeing whoever we could. Once we had dentists appointments, haircuts, and shopping done it was time to meet up with friends. Jason went out to lunch with one of his former bosses and had a great time! I took my little brother with me and met up with a great friend from my theater days. We caught up on all the gossip in our lives and then I went with her to the theater where she was holding call backs for the Scarlet Pimpernel. Anne (the friend I met up with) had originally musically directed me in that show and the theater was doing it again. When I saw the director of the show Bruce we both teared up as we hugged. He and I had worked together in many shows during my theater days and he had also directed me in Scarlet Pimpernel. It was so nice to see him again. In addition to catching up with Anne and Bruce I ran into about 3-4 other people that I haven’t seen for years that I used to perform with! It brought back so many memories!
Then I headed off with Bryan to see him perform in Desert Star Playhouse’s show American Fork Idol. Jason met me there with our friends Mike and Kim. And we all laughed and had such a great time as I watched my baby brother perform on the stage. He has turned into quick the performer! I was so proud of him! He did a great job. Then I ran into a couple of people that I had performed with at Desert Star Playhouse – Mary Williams & Scott Holman. It was great fun to catch up and see so many people that I had worked with in the past. It’s hard to explain the bond you make with people when you perform on stage with them night after night. They become like family and you always have these memories and experiences to keep you bonded!
After our return from Yellowstone we had a couple of other game nights with friends. We met with a group of Jason’s friends from High School. In junior high school Jason got to know a group of kids and they all became friends. They remained friends all through junior high and into high school. The amazing thing about this group is that they continued to be friends after high school. They remained in touch although they all moved on with their lives. Whenever someone got married their spouse was welcomed into the group and became part of this strong friendship. When Jason and I married I was amazed at how wonderful these friends were. While out in Utah on this trip they arranged to have as many people from the group get together as they could and it was a wonderful time! We saw all the new family members that had joined families and caught up on everyone’s lives. In addition we had to play a game for old times sake and it was a fun night had by all. We are very lucky to have such a great support group of friends that has lasted through such a long time.
Then the next night we met up with another group of friends. This time is was college friends. We would get together with Mike & Kim Palmer and Courtney & Andrew Gatherum all the time while Jason was still in College. Jason, Mike, and Andrew were all in the Business Program together at Weber State. In addition to working on many projects together we began hanging out a lot as couples. Now families are growing but it was just like we’d never been away once we all got together again. It was fun to joke and laugh and yes play more games 
We had such a wonderful time visiting with our friends – the only bad part was that we couldn’t get together with everyone. We have a lot of friends that we didn’t get to see this trip but will definitely try to see on the next one!

Family, Family, and more family!

So I accidently lost the pictures on my memory stick for the rest of our trip but luckily I saved it on my moms computer before we left so I will add pictures when she sends them.
Jason and I just returned from a fantastic trip out to Utah to visit our families! We flew in late Wednesday night, June 3, and the fun began. We had to make a quick run over to Diana’s parents home since her brother Marc, was unexpectedly there for one night. His flight to St. George got reroute and he had to spend a night in Salt Lake – lucky us! We had a fun time laughing and talking as a family.
On Friday, we spent the day with Jason’s family. We went and saw his nephew at his 6th Grade Graduation and then surprised the other kids at school. It was so much fun. We went out to lunch with all his siblings and their kids at Rumbi’s (super yummy food) and then went back to the house and enjoyed spending time together. Jason went golfing with Diana’s brother-in-law (which since it was golf Jason was in heaven). We ended the night by playing games with the family. We had 2 different tables of games being played and the nieces and nephews were loving every minute of it.
Saturday was another fun family day. Jason started the day off golfing with another brother-in-law (can I say this was turning into Jason’s dream vacation with all of the golf outings). Then we met up with Jason’s family and went to the Air Show up at Hill Air Force Base. It was fun – except that Jason and I missed the ThunderBirds because we went to the game store and bought a couple of new games to bring home to Chicago. We finished the night off by hanging out with the Bowler family and having a nice big dinner and of course played games 
After our Yellowstone trip we spent some more time together as family. On Friday night Jason’s parents took Jason and I out for our Birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Then we went over to his sister’s house to play Rock Band on the Game Cube. It was a lot of fun and eventually I got pretty good at being the drummer – what fun is being the singer when you can instead play the drums. Jason was rockin’ at the guitar! We had so much fun.
On Saturday morning we met up with both the Bowlers and the Dayleys (Diana’s Family) to drive down to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Before they dedicate a Mormon Temple they let anyone who wants to see it go through the temple. So we took all the kids and went through the temple. It was beautiful inside and out. It was also a great reminder that families are forever!
Sunday was bittersweet for us as we had to say goodbye to everyone. We went to church with Diana’s family and then visited with Jason’s grandmother again. We said goodbye to everyone and that is always a hard thing to do. Jason’s little nieces & nephews were all over him wanting to play with Uncle Jason one more time! It was the cutest thing ever! We are so lucky to have such wonderful families that love us and that we love so much!

What a Wonderful World!

We just had the most wonderful week up at my sister’s family cabin outside of West Yellowstone – in Island Park, Idaho. We’ve been going up there numerous times every summer for the last 16 years and every time has been wonderful! This summer was quieter than normal since we only had Jason and I, my parents, my little brother Bryan, and my sister Athena’s family. I drove up with my parents and brother-in-law on Sunday and Jason and Bryan came up the next day. It was so relaxing!!! That’s the best part about going to the cabin. It is right on Henry’s Fork River so you can go canoeing, kayaking, fishing (lots of fishes), or take walks by the river. We did a little of everything except the kayaking – it was only in the 50’s temperature so it was a bit chilly to try Kayaking.

On Tuesday everyone piled into the vehicles and we drove into Yellowstone Park. That is always one of my favorite things to do. We saw a bear, lots of Elk, a bald eagle, buffalo (they walked right next to the Jeep – I could have reached out and petted them), Antelope, a couple of Coyotes, but no Moose. The cabin Moose that I see every year didn’t even show up this time, although we saw his droppings and prints all around the cabin. We had a great time in the park!
Jason always complains that he is not the best fisherman so I was really hoping that this year would be different. My sister Athena and I had found a great little fishing hole that we were catching a ton of fishes at so I took Jason out to it. I caught the first couple of fishes but nothing for Jason. So we moved down a little and boom – he was catching them like crazy. We started having a little competition to see who could catch the most and ended up tying. It was pretty funny because one of us would catch a fish and then minutes later the other person caught one and it was tied again. We had a lot of fun. When we went out the next day Jason’s luck wasn’t as good and I ended up being the fishing champion – although his fish were bigger than mine. My 10 year old niece beat us all by catching the largest rainbow trout of the trip. It was a good 10 inches bigger than anyone else’s fish. She was so proud of her big fish – it was so cute to see. My nephew and sister also caught 2 big fishes but they were white fish which we don’t really like.


The hardest part of the time up at the cabin was seeing my dad not being able to fish. The high altitude affects his breathing and he really struggles to breathe while we are up there. But he really wanted to go up there with us and so he did it anyways. It broke my heart to see him up there and not able to fish as much as he wanted to. But the time we spent together while there was priceless! I was flooded of memories of my dad teaching me how to fish on that very river, my dad running into the house every year declaring that the Moose was outside the window or chasing him on the river. My 6 year old niece thinks that the best part is playing the game Pit with Papa while up at the cabin. The evenings at the cabin are filled with game playing and movies. We all laugh and play. That’s the best part of going up to the cabin every year – the memories with family that we make.

We also added a new memory this year while up there. We went over to Mesa Falls (only a few miles away from the cabin). It has a beautiful water fall and a very nice visitor’s center that has the furs/skins of about 20 animals that you can touch and feel. We had a good time looking at everything and taking a little hike down to the waterfall.
Overall it was a wonderful vacation with my wonderful family!

Nauvoo Weekend

Ahhh… yet again another wonderful Nauvoo Memorial Day weekend! Last year we were invited to go to Nauvoo with a few members of our church and it was a great experience. We were lucky enough to be invited to join again this year and it was a blast!
Jason and I left after work on Friday and picked up 3 of the teenage boys from our ward. I was a little curious to see how 3 teenage boys would be in a car for 4 ½ hours but they were great. We listened to music the whole way down with all of us singing along! We stopped for dinner and met up with the Billings family at Subway. One thing that did make me laugh was how much those boys send text messages I thought that was a girl thing – boy was I wrong!


We got to Nauvoo at about 10:30 and the kids immediately wanted to play games. We got unloaded and I tried to go to bed at midnight to no avail. Around 3 am I finally fell asleep – only to wake up at 6 am to help with breakfast. Jason went golfing with some of the other guys in the group and I worked on my dad’s history and took naps. The weather was gorgeous!!!! We ran into a member of our Stake Presidency and visited with him for a little while. Then Jason and I had the opportunity to do a session at the Nauvoo Temple.

That temple means so much to me – I don’t know if it’s because my ancestors helped build the original and went through the temple there themselves or because the saints sacrificed so much to have the temple built and then had to turn around and leave it. For whatever reason, I really love that temple and get such a great feeling every time I see it. We finished the night by going to see a group perform Polynesian dances (wow!!!!!) and then more games (of course). Rob and Tiff arrived later that night and Jason was in heaven to have his buddy back!
On Sunday it was another beautiful day. Jason and I went to church and then we explored and enjoyed nature with Rob and Tiffany. We went on a walk around Nauvoo so I could get some pictures and enjoyed watching the sun set on the Mississippi River. Nauvoo is so quiet and peaceful that I felt so relaxed the entire weekend.
Monday we headed home and Rob and Jason went golfing again. Tiff and I drove home together and the boys went home together. Before we left we took the two youngest Billings kids – Cameron and Kristin out on a “date” to get ice cream. We had promised them earlier in the week that we would take them out while we were in Nauvoo. They are great kids!


It was a fantastic weekend although I was completely exhausted when we got home. We got very little sleep because of all the games and fun! We tried some new games that I will have to buy – KuhHandel & Wacky Sixes. Those were a lot of fun!

What a weekend

What a weekend we’ve just had!! It was definitely packed with a lot of fun – some adventures – and many hours spent with each other and friends!
We went house hunting after taking a month and half break. We saw 10 houses and found one that we really liked. We are now in the big debate of “Do we make an offer?” and even more so of “If we make an offer, how much do we offer???” I hate that debate! While house hunting we had some interesting things happen. Our realtor Rose is the sweetest person ever (and super patient with us) she brought her 5 year old daughter Lexie and her husband Greg, who is a member of our church, with her and we all had a great time together followed by a yummy pizza lunch. One of the houses we went into started out really great – I had great possibilities for it and loved a lot of the things they had done to it. When we went downstairs to see the basement the lights going down the stairs didn’t work – but that can’t stop me…I was in the lead and started down the stairs and into the basement. A few steps into the basement I suddenly realized that I was now in water – up to my ankles!!!! We have had a lot of rain recently and apparently that particular house doesn’t handle water well. We quickly left – me with a wet foot!
I thought that would be the extent of our “Fun” for the house hunting expedition until we saw another house that raised a few eyebrows. The owner is an older gentleman that we discovered is originally from Germany. He loves Porsche’s and actually had a few on his property that his son was restoring. So we enter the house and I go into the master bedroom. I quickly came out with a shocked look on my face. Jason looks at me and all I could say was “Look at the picture hanging on the wall above his bed.” Jason bursts out laughing and comes back to me with an incredulous look on his face. This gentleman had a nicely framed picture of Adolf Hitler hanging in a place of honor in his room. WHAT?!#(%^#) That is insane!!!! Did he miss the whole WWII thing? Needless to say we didn’t put that house on our list of possible….I was in too much shock – we all were.
Some other great things for this weekend included a CUB’s baseball games. A friend of Jason’s from work has season tickets and invited us to join her and her husband for the game. It was incredible weather and we loved it! There is such a great feeling of excitement as you are sitting there surrounded by 40,455 other cub fans! In addition we saw Ron Santos and Jason and I saw our first Grand Slam. Bases loaded and POW! He hit one out of the ball field!! It was great!

And last but totally not least was our new acquisition – bikes! A couple that we have become friends with is preparing a move out to the Seattle area and decided that they were going to bring as little as possible back with them and offered us their Trek Bikes. We jumped on it and got an amazing deal (and no Tiffany we did not rip them off – they will be blessed)! We got 2 bikes one for me and one for Jason, a thing that attaches to the hitch on the jeep to transport the bikes, helmets, a computer thing to calculate speed and distance traveled, an indoor trainer for the bikes, and repair stuff. So on Saturday night we went on our first bike ride in ages! It has been so long since I rode a bike and I absolutely loved it – although my butt really hurt afterwards. We’ve made a goal to try to go bike riding every night. Along our bike ride we saw my second favorite spring thing next to tulips – baby geese and ducklings. They recently hatched and they are all around the ponds and are just so darn cute! I love spring!!!!

Ahhh....springtime!

Spring has arrived in Illinois and I love it! It is so wonderful to enjoy the beautiful weather even though out here we really do get those April showers. We have been enjoying the weather and the fun things that Chicago has to offer us lately. This past weekend we went to the driving range on Friday before going over to Rob and Tiff’s house to watch a movie. Jason corrected something I had been doing wrong in my golf swing and it made a huge improvement! What a difference the smallest correction can make. I quickly told Tiffany and on Saturday we made the change. Which of course leads to Saturday – out on the golf course. I never imagined that I would one day be a golfer but I love it. Maybe it’s because I am outside and enjoying the beautiful weather and nature. Maybe it’s because it’s a sport that I can actually do with my arthritis. Or maybe it’s because it’s something that both Jason and I love to do together. Whatever the reason I’m loving it! We all had a good time…well almost all of us…Rob played with a different group of people and discovered he didn’t like “hoighty-toighty golf” – which is where you play serious…we like to have fun while we play.

Last week was also great because Jason and I went on a wonderful date! We went downtown to see the musical “Mary Poppins”. It was fantastic! They had the original Broadway Mary Poppins & Bert and they were amazing! The special effects were incredible and the music was glorious! Have I used enough adverbs???? My favorite part was when Bert actually danced on the walls and the ceilings of the stage! It was also sooo cute to see all the little girls dressed up for their first professional show…how cute is that. I told Jason that when we have kids we are totally taking them to shows. What a great experience for these kids to have and they seemed to absolutely love it! During one part of the show a group of mom’s and daughter’s sitting by us all opened up parasols when Mary Poppins did – so cute! Before the show we went to a wonderful seafood restaurant McCormicks and Schmicks – they had a special “tax relief day special” where entrée’s were only 10.40 (normally $30) so of course we had to try it out. In all we had a lovely evening together – even with me having to drive downtown with all the crazy cab drivers!

The final thing about this last week that I loved was the nursery kids. Jason and I both serve in the nursery of our church. We spend about 2 hours with kids between the ages of 18 months and 3 years old. It can get pretty crazy in there, especially since we had 14 kids there. Every Sunday at the end of church we are completely exhausted from running around with the kids but totally worth it. We love spending time with those precious children. Since we don’t have kids of our own we forget how innocent and Christ-like these little ones can be so when we get the opportunity to spend two hours with them we are reminded of it. It also makes the ache of not having children yet a little easier to bear because we get all the love we want from those little ones. They are boundless with their hugs and smiles. I love it!!!! Yesterday especially was fun because the kids were so happy and just so loving. I almost got a little teary-eyed as I watched Jason helping one little girl pray – he is going to be such a great dad one day. Anyways…we love it there!

The Adventures keep on coming...

So this month marks 3 years since we moved out here – well Jason anyways. Last night Jason bought me tickets to go see the Broadway stage version of Mary Poppins and afterwards we were talking and he mentioned the fact that before we lived in Chicago he had never seen a professional theater production (other than my Pioneer Theater shows). That got me thinking that since we’ve moved out here we have had a lot of “firsts”.

•First time living apart from one another since we were married (never doing that again!)
•First time Jason had lived outside of the state of Utah other than his mission
•We have added a country to our list of places we’ve been– Canada
•Jason added a ton of states to his list and I added a few more to my list of states we’ve been to.
•First time going to a Cubs game – or any Major League baseball game
•First time seeing a river dyed florescent green for St. Patricks day
•Jason’s first time at an art museum (I loved it – him not so much)
•First time going to Bulls Basketball game in a suite.
•First time seeing the Nauvoo temple completed (I had seen it while it was being built)

•First time to the top of the Arch in St. Louis
•First time smoking our own meat
•First time living in a city that was participating in the Superbowl (talk about crazy – it was awesome!!!)
•First time watching a movie being filmed (They were filming Batman Dark Knight outside Jason’s work for a few days)
•First time going to a Posh Charity Event.
•Diana’s first time golfing – and Jason embracing his love of golf.

I could go on and on but that is good enough for now. We have loved living out here and can’t wait to see what other new “firsts” we get to add while we are in Chicago. Luckily we have had some wonderful friend’s to share these experiences with – not to mention each other. We are so lucky to live in a place that offers so much!

Not the Captain...

William Ernest Henley wrote “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” This past week I’ve decided that I am indeed not the master of my fate but I will leave that into the Lord’s hands instead. As many of you know we are trying to adopt. Since January we have been talking to a young woman about possibly adopting her child. Well we found out this past week that she lost the baby. It was definitely sad for Jason and I to learn the news but we both found ourselves at peace with the situation. We know that the right child will join our family at the right time and we have to be patient. The thing that was especially special through all of this was the amazing outpouring of love we received from so many people. Everyone sent their love and sympathy when we shared what had happened. My parents were so sweet and sent a bouquet of flowers to be delivered to us and told us how much they loved us (that made me cry).

Overall it was a good learning experience and reinforced to both of us that we will one day have a child of our own to raise and love. The mother of the birth mother that we had been talking is a good friend of mine and shared the following quote with me by Woody Allen “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” I know that I do that  I have no problem with patience in people but struggle with finding patience in my situation. I get so excited about something that I plan it all out in my head and then surprise it doesn’t happen. He knows the big picture and I am learning to trust in that. Thanks everyone for helping us through this experiencing and standing by our side!!!

Visits and Fun!

Visit!
So we had a spring break visit from Jason’s older sister Michelle and her family! It was so much fun!!!!! She has 2 wonderful daughters that we love to death and a great husband. It was such a great time together. They arrived on Saturday March 13 and brought with them some of Jason’s favorite ice cream – Blue Bell - from his mission days. You can only buy this ice cream in the south so we were super excited to have them bring this treat. On Sunday they went to church with us and then on Monday they started touring around the city.
Jason and I took half-days and full days off to spend time with them. We walked A LOT!!! We went to the American Girl Place (holy cow – all of that for a doll????), Navy Pier, Millenium Park, walked all over the city – and I do mean ALL over the city. The weather was unbelievably beautiful with temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s. We walked along the lake and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.
On Tuesday we got another visitor for the night – Diana’s brother Marc stopped over from Delaware. He was driving from Delaware to his new job in St. George, Utah and decided to stay the night with us. Hotel Bowler welcomes all! Since we were going to be having a full house we decided to make it complete and invited Rob and Tiff over and had a little party! Jason made his scrumptious hamburgers and brats and then we threw on some chicken for the healthy eaters. We played Apples to Apples and laughed and laughed all night. When Rob and Tiff left Madison immediately asked if they were going to come back the next night. I guess she loves them as much as we do .
Then on Wednesday my brother Marc took myself and the 2 girls out to breakfast while Jason’s sister and her husband went to the temple. While at Cracker Barrel for breakfast we bought the girls Webkinz animals and made their day. As we were leaving the restaurant Madison (the 9 year old) asked if Mr. Marc was also her uncle. I told her not really but he can be like an adopted uncle. Michelle, Morgan (her 12 year old daughter), and myself hit the stores for some shopping when they returned from the temple. They live in rural Kansas so it was exciting to hit some big stores.
Thursday was pretty quiet Jason’s sister was working on a unit plan and I got to help her. I had forgotten how much I enjoy writing lessons and brainstorming ideas to teach. It was a lot of fun. Then I made chocolates with the girls. We had so much fun. But the highlight of the night came when Jason got home and we finished dinner. We decided to go get some gelato for desert but couldn’t find any place open so instead we went and played with puppies! We played with 5 different dogs. It was great – until we played with with the Boggle and it bit everyone but me. But we all loved playing with.
It was a blast having them come visit. It is always wonderful to see family when you live so far away. We especially loved the time we would spend with the girls each night. They would come into our room and the four of us would pile on the bed and shoot nerf guns, tickle, or just joke around.
The house felt so empty after they all left! Thanks for coming to visit!

Chicago Premiere Night Charity Event

So it time to play catch up on my blogging! I didn't realize how long it had been since I last blogged but WOW! talk about being lazy. Actually it is more like being very busy recently.

I'll start from mid February when Jason, Rob, Tiff and myself went to the Chicago Auto Show Premiere Night First Look For Charity event. This was our third year going and it was as wonderful as ever! It is the night before the Auto Show opens to the public and is a black tie affair. There is catering from the hottests restaurants in Chicago and a spectacular event. Tickets are very expensive but I have an in and get them for free. Although I didn’t dress up as fancily as I have in past years it was still a blast! This year Tiff and I were speedy and got slippers before they started handing them out. Our feet truly appreciated it 



We arrived there before the gala even began so the boys could view all the cars they wanted to – even with that said they still didn’t see everything. The highlights of the night were the Transformer Bumble Bee, the Jeeps, Lambourghni’s, Range Rovers (they have a refrigerator built into the console!!!), and the Jaguars (talk about comfy leather seats). I also loved the Mini Cooper Convertible. Tiff and I had a blast going from food place to food place and sampling all the goodies while the boys drooled over car after car. By the time the night was over our poor feet were sore and the boys were still going strong. We ended up being one of the last people to leave.

It was so much fun to go there and mingle with the elite in Chicago Society and see such cool cars! The end of the night was especially funny when we had to literally pull the boys off the Jeeps to go home. They told us that they wanted to go look at the Porsche's before we left. So we let them go and followed slowly behind. We lost sight of them and asked someone working there where we would find the Porsche's and they said that their weren't any there this year. Immediately Tiff and I both said "Jeeps!" We knew where to find our boys - and sure enough - there they were playing with the Jeeps again. Ahhhh...to be young!

Happy Valentines Day!

So my goal to update this every week is quickly disappearing. The problem is that some weeks are so boring and nothing exciting is happening to us - or at least nothing that I think other people will find exciting. To me getting my house all clean is very exciting but I doubt other people will agree. But this week something exciting did happen - Valentine's Day! It was a great day!

The day started out wonderful with Jason letting me sleep in. Then we went out to lunch together at TGI Friday's (yummy)! Then we did a little shopping together and had a blast just spending time with one another. After that we went home and got some dinner ready for us and Rob and Tiff. We also got a phone call from a prospective birth mother (keep our fingers crossed)!

Rob and Tiff came over that night (we can't spend Saturday night without those two crazy kids)!!! We ate dinner and then went and did one of my all-time favorite things...played with puppies. That may sound a little strange but in our current apartment we can't have pets and we love dogs (especially cute little playful puppies). Last valentines day we fell in love with a Cockier Cavalier after playing with him on Valentine's Day and so we thought we'd keep the tradition going. This year we played with a fun Boggle (mix of a Beagle and a Boston Terrier) and a cute little Sheltie. The Sheltie was cute but sure did make me sneeze. The Boggle was adorable and so much fun. He grabbed my heart but not my wallet - over $1300 for that little guy. Maybe once we get a house we will adopt a dog but not right now.

Right before we went to bed Jason remembered that we hadn't given each other our Valentines Day cards. So even though we hadn't written anything in them we gave them to each other and had a quick laugh! Jason actually bought me 2 cards - what a sweetheart!

Welcome to Spamalot!

When we first moved out to Chicago Jason actually came alone. He moved out here and then I joined him after the summer. We tried to see each other every month at least. On one of my trips out to visit Jason I completely surprised him. He thought my brother was flying in to visit him and instead it was me. He was floored! It was a wonderful surprise. So on my next trip out he wanted to surprise me with something. He told me to dress nicely and that he had something planned. After he picked me up from the airport we went to a wonderful dinner and then he surprised me with tickets to the touring company show of Monty Python's Spamalot. It is a musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was hilarious. I had the CD but had never actually listened to it. Jason heard it before I did! We were both laughing hysterically throughout the whole show! That quickly became Jason's favorite Broadway musical.

Now almost 3 years later Spamalot is playing again in Chicago. As soon as Jason heard it was coming back he begged for us to get tickets and go see it again. I didn't think anything of it and went on with life...well last night Jason came home and said I found some cheap tickets for tomorrow night to see Spamalot. Soooooo....we are going to Spamalot tonight. We ended up with 4 tickets so we are going to try converting others to love the show as much as we do.

See you in Spamalot!

Happy "Wicked" Anniversary

7 years ago on January 4, 2002. Jason and I were married for time and all eternity. It was a great day but the best thing is that it gets better every day! I was reworking some of the adoption questions and one of them was “What is the best thing about being married?” I thought for a moment and found that there were so many things that I loved about being married to Jason. One thing I love is that I am always with my best friend. We have such an amazing friendship! I am so lucky to being married to such a kind, funny, loving, caring, and handsome husband!
This year for our anniversary we decided to take it easy (partly because it was on a Sunday). We decided not to do gifts for one another since we just had Christmas and got everything we wanted and needed then. Instead we just spent time with one another. It was wonderful! Then on Tuesday night we went downtown (Jason was already there so I just met him) to see the musical Wicked. They do a drawing every night before the show for $25 tickets on the front two rows. In addition they do a drawing for limited view tickets. So we put our names in the drawing and didn’t get pulled. Jason is such a friendly guy though that he talked to someone who had their name pulled and their friends name pulled and didn’t need 4 tickets so they let us use 2 of the tickets so we were able to see the show. It was wonderful! It was my second time watching the show but Jason’s first. We both loved it. Wicked has been playing in Chicago since before we moved out here and will finally end it’s run at the end of January and we were determined to see it together before it left. The only hard part about watching the show was that I got an itch to get back on stage. That always happens to me when I watch shows.
That was our anniversary in a nutshell!

Happy New Year

Ring in the New Year!

There is so much going on around New Years that we had a lot of decisions to make – such as “Where are we going to spend New Years Eve?” That was the major question and since we had just returned from a packed week of visiting family we decided to lay low and just have a few couples over for the night. Jason made some yummy chili and we ate them in bread bowls and then we had snacks galore! We played games, laughed, ate, laughed, celebrated and ended the night with a little more laughing. We had the Johnsons, Fergusons, and Steels over for the fun night. Some of the games had a twist to them and before long Rachel was sipping water like a cat, Andrea had to hold a spoon in her mouth and Rob was doing cheers for all of us. It was a relaxing yet fun night.
You would think that the story ends there but it doesn’t…we had a sleepover with the Johnsons! Rob and Tiff spent the night and we played until 5 in the morning. Then we slept in and had a wonderful breakfast. We spent 24 hours together and never got tired of one another. It was awesome. Tiff and Diana even had matching Christmas pajamas (thanks Tiff!). It was a full week of the Johnsons and we loved it.
Happy New Year!

Christmas Trip

A Christmas Trip

We had a special treat this Christmas – we were able to spend it with family members!!!! We flew out to Utah on Dec. 22 and came home on Dec. 27. It was a short visit but wonderful. It was the first time in 10 years that Jason’s parents had all their children and grandchildren together for Christmas – so it was pretty special. I was also able to see my sister’s family, my parents, and my little brother. To top it all off we were even able to see some of our friends from Utah and have a little party. It was a very busy week but absolutely wonderful.
We almost didn’t make it out of Chicago because of bad weather but with a little heavenly help we finally arrived in Salt Lake City at 12:30 am (our luggage got there sometime later that morning). The next morning we visited with family and did some last minute Christmas shopping. That night for Christmas Eve, Jason’s parents invited Diana’s family over for a big dinner of different types of soups. Of course we had to play a few games together. Then off to get ready for Santa’s big visit.
Christmas day was wonderful – we spent the morning with Diana’s family and had a big breakfast. Then we went to Jason’s parent’s home for a large lunch with a scrumptious smoked turkey. We visited with Jason’s grandma and enjoyed being with family all day long.
The next day Jason was able to go skiing! He loves to ski and can’t do much of it out in Chicago so he was thrilled to hit the slopes. Diana is not much of a skier so instead she went shopping with her mom and sister and had a blast. We finished the night off playing at Diana’s parent’s house with the whole family.
Our last full day soon approached and we had family pictures taken with all of Jason’s family. Jason’s niece Madison and I went to Home Depot to have our traditional Wrapping Paper Sword fight (it was a draw) and I bought her a hand buzzer (mistake!). Then we went out to lunch and finished the day off with a party with all of our Utah friends. So many of them came to say hi and catch up on old times. We played together until 3 in the morning! It was a blast – we miss our friends out there and it was great to see so many of them.
Sadly Sunday came too soon and it was time to go home. We went to church with both sets of parents and then said our goodbyes. Time flew by so fast and it was hard to leave those that we love so much. Our nieces and nephews are so adorable and so much fun to be with! It was wonderful to spend some one-on-one time with our parents and siblings also. We arrived home with no problems and had some wonderful memories to take with us.

Tis The Season

Tis the Season

I love Christmas time and the whole Christmas season. As a child I remember pulling out all the Christmas decorations as soon as Thanksgiving was over and decorating the whole house. It was wonderful! My mom loved to decorate for the season and I guess I learned that from her. I have boxes of Christmas decorations and I love it when I pull them out and start decorating the house. This year we were going to be spending Christmas in Utah and so I decided not to go all out on the decorations – I did a few but not the “normal” amount. I didn’t even put up a tree this year. We have a plant that is very tall and I put some bows and stuff on that and called it my tree. Although it wasn’t my normal decorating bonanza it was still beautiful and brought the Christmas spirit into our home.
Another tradition that I learned from my mom was making plates of treats to give to friends and neighbors. Every year I make some kind of treat to give around and of course this year was no different. A friend from work makes chocolates and said she would teach me the tricks of chocolate making. So I took a day and make all kinds of chocolate truffles, barks, and boxes. I used chocolate molds to make boxes and candies to put inside the edible boxes. Then we made Raspberry Truffles, Mint Dark Chocolate Truffles, Cinnamon Milk Chocolate Truffles (not Jason’s favorite!), Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Truffles, and Nutella Truffles. As well as White Chocolate Peppermint Bark and Milk Chocolate Smores Bark. It was so yummy, pretty, and easy. We put them in nice boxes to deliver and added a bow on top! I was so proud of myself. We made close to 100 boxes between the 2 of us. It was a lot of work but totally worth it.
Before we left for Utah we had one final tradition we had to fulfill – the Chicago Christkindl Market with our buddies Rob and Tiff. Every year since we moved here we have gone downtown to Daley Plaza for the Christkindl German Market. We always get a mug and sometimes an ornament. Then we walk around the city and look at all the lights and decorations. Of course we go to Macy’s (formerly Marshall Field) and see their window displays and huge trees. Play with the toys in FAO Schwartz and enjoy the perks of living in a big city. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun!