Chicago - while we were out

Since we didn’t go home over Christmas, it had been ~a year since we were last in Chicago.  What a difference a year makes!

YEAH for bikes!

Bike lanes have been springing up all over & while 5 years ago, the bikers were mostly the hard-core messenger type, now you see people in dresses.

The city even installed tons of shared bike stations 

And thanks to the double-tandem, we were able to get the whole family out for several spins

Outgrowing old haunts

The bad news with being away is suddenly realizing our old haunts are no longer 'age appropriate'

Climbing structure at the zoo.  We LOVED this - used to go all the time & now Q has aged out of it....

A neighborhood park the kids spent endless days at - Adam's - was deemed 'baby-ish'  - and Q aged out of their water feature

Luckily you are never too old / big for this park feature...

Gorging on favorites

Another risk with being away, is the gorge fest we feel is justified during visits.....

Chipotle is such a favorite, we stopped there on the way home from the airport

Q loves the crunchy tacos, X a carnitas burrito, Z a large bowl of white rice...

After going 4 times in the first 5 days, I discovered one can burn out on a good thing.  (Sissy is smiling as it was the first of ~4 times we made her dine there with us!)

Clarke's for omelets, pancakes & free WIFI

Mandy B's for cupcakes...

And 7-11 for Slurpees & donuts....

Is it shocking that our pants seem to have all shrunk while we were away?

Packing in the Play dates

We also attempted to make up for lost time with friends - with as many play dates & get togethers as possible...

(the best/only shot I could get of these 5 kids together!)

Including day trips to the horse races...

And 6 Flags...

Cramming in the annuals

Unfortunately, not all of the loading up is on friends & frosting.  We also get the joy of cramming a year's worth of doctor and car registration etc. into the short time in town...

Bittersweet farewell

Leaving a good vacation is hard, but leaving our constantly improving Sweet Home Chicago is even harder.   

Here's to home & celebrating your favorites!

California – friends, family, sunshine & the wheels starting to fall off

We spent the past 2 weeks in California – first in Lake Tahoe, then in Sunnyvale – visiting friends & family and continuing our vacation buffet of summer.  

Highlights included:

Floating the Truckee river - with Bernauer cousins (pictured) + Welsh & family - SOOOO fun!

(It cost me my iPhone – turns out an empty Dorito’s bag is not water-pfoof - but well worth it!)

Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is simply gorgeous

And Northstar makes the living easy...houses right on the golf course

A Village with restaurants & skating...

Organized crafts at the pool...

Playing with cousins...

International Birthday Day
EJAM held a group birthday celebration for us - with a trip to the movies...

And a 'pick your own gift' at Target

Zoe picked a pillow pet, the boys pooled their budget for Lego's

Topped with dinner of the group faves...

Ethic cuisine
Living in Kiev leaves us craving variety.  Northern California is a great place to load up
Middle Eastern fast food @ Dish N Dash....

Fish Tacos @ Rubio's...

BUT....
While we enjoyed nothing but blue skies and sunshine, 6+ weeks after leaving home, morale among our troops deteriorated....

Xavier alternated between saying he hates me & fighting his siblings to sit next to me

(shown in San Jose refusing to walk down the street with me)

Quincy holds firm that life would be better as an only child....

(shown ripping Zoe's decorations off the robot the 3 built together at the museum)

Thanks Bart & Nancy & EJAM for hosing our California adventures!  As always, the time went too fast.

Here's to fab summer vacations AND looking forward to our own beds.

Magic of Minnesota

While many Americans have never been & it is not a top destination people cross the ocean for, Minnesota is one of the gems of the USA (in my somewhat biased opinion)

Fab water fun

With more than 10,000 lakes, the state IS water fun – we tube, ski, kayak & swim till the sun goes down

Quincy was reunited with his past love - the Paddle boat – but also took to driving the fishing boat - it petrified me to sit there while he drove – scary foreshadowing for car driving to come

Xavier and Zoe LOVE tubing – constantly flashing the thumb up signal to go faster

(Xavier took safety to the next level)

Comfort of deeply rooted traditions

We’ve been vacationing on Blanche my entire life – same for my Dad whose parents bought the cabin in 1944.  In addition to the water play, we have a very long list of 'must dos' while we are there...

Walks to Madsen's to buy treats...

Pin ball & slot machine fun...

Puzzle making...

Snacks & Taste offs... 

(Top the Tater added a Taco version - YUM!) 

Dinner at Stubs...

Festive family & friends

Minnesotans are ultra friendly, down to earth, frugal & crafty.   They’ll bring you a coffee cake to say hello (thanks Joean!) or share a coupon for a free ice cream (thanks JP!).  They’ll gather peat moss & miniature lanterns to make fairy-scapes & take the time to make homemade donuts (thanks Nana!) 

But best of all, they are fun & quick to get in the spirit!

This year we celebrated the 70^th anniversary of the July 1943 Full Moon Over Blanche – aka - my Dad’s conception.

Guests were greeted by the ‘Moon Fairy’ & a friendly sperm….

All enjoyed party games like egg & tadpole races…

(now you know what to do with those rain gutters laying around!)

And find the fertile egg…

(Xavier hid sperms in 4 of the ~80 eggs hours before resulting in quite the challenge to find 1 fertilized egg that hadn't fallen out) 

Treated with thematically appropriate cupcakes

Zoe surprised many a guest by asking "would you like a spermy cupcake?"

As well as a late night full moon & wine cruise for the stragglers

Clearly not a state that takes itself too seriously!

(Happy 70th year Gramps!)

NO SALES TAX ON CLOTHES + one huge mall = fab shopping  

For the past 3 years we’ve added the mission of building my niece Maggie’s back to school wardrobe while in Minnesota.....

At one of the nation’s largest malls – ‘The Mall of America”, we had shopping bags full & the credit card smoking after just 2 hours.

  

(With a 10-12% sales tax savings, you ‘gotta spend to save’!)

We headed out into the ~10 hour, 600 mile drive to Chicago with loads of fun memories, nice tans and sad to leave heavy hearts.

I guess being sad at the end of a vacation is like being sad when you have a big tax bill to pay – if only everyone was so lucky

So as the saying goes at the lake -

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think!