Downtown Chicago

We didn't have a car this year in Chicago, so we spent pretty much everyday at the Lake.
On Tuesday, July 7, my dad was going downtown, so we got to tag along with him.
It was Kasen's first trip to the city, so we stopped by all of our favorite tourist spots :)
This is a garden art exhibit that we came across. It was so fun to see how it was arranged.
Next year, I want my garden to look like this.
Even the flowers in this garden were edible.

We had to take Kasen by Buckingham Fountain.
It claims to be the largest fountain in the world and has huge seahorses representing each of the great lakes.
It is also on the introduction to every "Married with Children" episode.

Here's Kasen walking along the edge of Lake Michigan.

We decided this year to go to the Field Museum of Natural Science.
Here we are standing in front of Sue, the famous T-Rex.
She is famous for being the most complete dinosaur skeleton.

This is Saxon in front of the Man-eaters of Tsavo.
Have you ever seen "The Ghost in the Darkness?"
These are the lions...

Saxon loves museums, and this one had everything he could ask for.
In the animal wing, he ran from exhibit to exhibit yelling for everyone to "Look at this!"
He could hardly control himself he was so excited.
They also had an evolution exhibit that showed all of the major extinctions.
Saxon loved the dinosaur part of it.
Here he is standing in front of the "Lucy" exhibit.
She is the oldest human skeleton ever discovered.

We also went through the pirate exhibit, but they didn't allow pictures because it was a special temporary exhibit.
After the museum, we went to eat at GINO'S EAST.

My dad ordered us a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.
Saxon was so excited about being able to write on the walls that he hardly ate anything.

After pizza, Deanna and I went to Lincoln Park to find Oprah's favorite cupcake bakery called
Sweet Mandy B's.
It was REALLY good.
Here are the boy's with their famous cupcakes :)

The Holy Trinity

The boys stared a tradition in Chicago that every year we have to have a
"Holy Trinity Day".
The Holy Trinity is:
McDonalds for breakfast
Johnny K's for lunch
Rosatti's for dinner
Yum Yum Shoppe for dessert.
Megan re-named it "The Chicago 15" because that's about how much bigger you feel by the end of the day. I've never fully done the Holy Trinity, but Saxon and Kasen and Nathan did this year. I was so proud!!!

Saxon can't believe we're letting him eat this much junk!

Johnny K's is Chicago-style hot dogs and fries.
Saxon and Kasen opted out of the "Chicago-style" part of it though...

Even Bubby had some.

I didn't get pictures of Rosatti's pizza and Yum Yum Shoppe, but we really did it. We got to the Yum Yum Shoppe about 5 minutes before they closed...I'm sure they were thrilled.

Another Chicago favorite is:
Buffalo Wild Wings!
The boys dared everyone to try the "Blazin'" wings.
They come with a warning sticker that says to keep away children, pets, and if it comes in contact with eyes or skin to rinse with water for 10 mintues.
Does that sound like something you would try?
Well, Nathan, Mandy, and my Dad did. Deanna already proved herself last year, and even Grandma tried one :)
Saxon LOVED the sweet BBQ wings!

Bridger stuck with french fries and some of Saxon's Mac & Cheese.

They have a list of sauces that you can choose that range from Sweet BBQ to Blazin'.
Kasen is bringing Gregg the Mango Habanero. It's 3 from the top, so it should be REALLY HOT!

Fishing at the dam

One of the kids (and Jeff's) favorite things to do at Lake Holiday is go fishing at the dam. This was Saxon's first time fishing, so my dad helped him out.

Saxon kept reeling his line in, so he never caught anything.

He loved wading out into the water like the big boys.

Nathan and Kasen decided to give it a try too.

Jeff caught a couple of carp, and a couple of catfish and that was fun for the kids to see.
Jeff told me that as kids, they always had a specific pair of old shoes that they would wear to go fishing at the dam...(dam shoes). You don't want to wear good ones. He said that adults were always horrified when these little kids were saying things like, "I need to get my dam shoes on." I'm sure it won't take Saxon long to be saying that. He already learned the phrase "Holy Crap!" on this trip (thank you Kasen) and used it at all the right moments.

Lake Holiday

We made it back from Chicago, and we miss it already!!!

We spent the week at my Grandpa's lake house at
LAKE HOLIDAY.

We spent most of our time at the Lake House.
We went wakeboarding, skiing, and tubing
(thanks to Mike and Jeff).
Saxon loved tubing!
He did not love wakeboarding though.
We tried to get up with Jeff on the wakeboard, and me holding Saxon in front.
We almost got up the first time, but on the second try we submarined, and Saxon was done.
Every time we asked him if he wanted to try again, he would say:
"No, maybe later."
That was his way out of it. Smart boy :)

On the 4th of July, it rained all day.
That didn't stop Saxon from wanting to be outside.
He sat at this little picnic table on the deck, in the rain, just to be outside.
The picture of Bridger shows what a disaster he was every time on the beach.

Despite the rain, the boys all went fishing down at the dam.
Luckily my cousin Bruce had his little girls Barbie fishing pole in the car and he let Saxon borrow it. My dad helped him try to catch a fish.
After trying out fishing for a while, he decided instead to set all of the minnows from the bait bucket free. He would run up the hill, grab a minnow, and run down to the water and set it free. I'm not sure how many minnows survived being squeezed in his little hands on the way to the water, but it was a valiant effort.

Right before we got on the boat to see the fireworks,
Uncle Scott helped Saxon catch his first fish. Saxon kept with the
"Kiss your first fish"
rule and smooched his little yellow bass.
Then he made Nate kiss his fish also.
Those pictures are on my dad's camera...

Luckily, the rain let up just in time, and we got to see the most amazing fireworks display ever! They set off the fireworks right across the lake from us. It is so close that the sound vibrates through your whole body, and the sparks sizzle in the water around us. A few times, Mike and Jeff had to jump up to catch the sparks before they hit the boat. Saxon, of course, fell asleep just before the big show. Kasen and Nathan just had to lay on the back of the boat and look up.

Bridger had a blast trying to keep up with the big boys.

He kept getting frustrated that we wouldn't let him do everything that the big boys did.

Kasen had fun building sand castles which Bridger would immediately crawl all over.

Kasen took Saxon on his first trip tubing.
Saxon though it was so exciting that he fell asleep.

On the left is Kasen catching some air on the wakeboard,
and on the right is me, Bridger, Kasen, and Saxon all on the tube.

The boys LOVED the boat.
Bridger was so wiggly because he wanted to see everything at once.
Saxon kept sitting in the driver's seat and telling Mike to "move!"

I took a million pictures, but these are some of them.
I'll post more later... :)

Welcome to the Lake

Well...Mike was nice enough to drive me into town, but we couldn't get the pictures to come up on his computer. Anyway, this is what we have been up to:

Yesterday was a little chilly, but Kasen was brave enough to go wakeboarding anyway. We ordered Rosatti's pizza for dinner (YUM) and the kids played in the water. Saxon loved jumping off the end of the pier. At bedtime he kept begging Mike to drive him home so he could sleep in "Saxy's bed." Kasen has been AWESOME! He helped me bake coconut cupcakes and he even did the dishes after. He has been so helpful. He plays with the kids and kept Saxon entertained the whole plane ride here.

Today the weather was better. Saxon and Kasen went tubing together. Saxon LOVED it! He didn't want to get back in the boat. He held Kasen's had the whole time and was almost asleep by the time we pulled back up to the pier. I took Bridger tubing on my lap, but he was too wiggly so he didn't ride for very long. Mike took me skiing just so I could make sure I could still do it :) My dad comes in to town tonight and Saxon keeps calling him "Big Pop" and calling Nathan "little pop." He came up with those names himself? Uncle Scott took the kids fishing. Saxon latched on to Uncle Scott right away. He had the dog and the fishing pole, so he must be fun. Later, my grandparents took just Kasen to Uncle Jim's farm. Uncle Jim took him horseback riding (bareback) and took him on a tour of the farm on the dune buggy. Kasen loved it and my grandparents said that he was such a pleasure to be around that they could spend all day with him. They couldn't believe how smart he is and how much fun he was to be around. They took him to McDonalds after. We picked him up from McDonalds and we all got upsidedown banana spilts from the Yum Yum Shoppe.

Anyway, Mom, this is mostly for you so you know that I'm taking care of Kasen and he's having fun. Don't worry, I'll remind him to wear his 4th of July shirt tomorrow. My grandpa is going to email you the pictures from the trip to the farm.