Chicago Baby!!

So here's some pics from our Chi-town trip. It's been 4 years since we were back. We lived there for six years (total) and we LOVE it there. We have great friends there and even though the humidity was TERRIBLE, the nostalgia was more powerful. We were there a Thursday through Tuesday and were going and going every second! We stayed with Kevin's parents and it was so nice to spend time with them. The boys love being at Nama/Papa's house.

This was Cameron's first plane ride, Nathan got to see his old friends who are now HUGE, they hit it off just fine even though they were in 4th grade when they saw each other last, they're all going into ninth now. (Crazy!) I wish I got a pic of them, darn it! One of them (Matt) was as tall as me!

Cameron on the plane, looking around

I look forward to studying this pic every time I'm there....Kevin is SO cute! The Senior pic is how he looked when we met folks! I think Nathan looks more like Deborah and JaNae than Kevin, Cameron looks just like Nathan when he was little but looks more like me now.....hum...

I love walking the neighborhoods around Kevin's parent's house, the homes, the green, the smells of vegetation, the humidity even!

Thursday:We went to Culver's to eat (butter burgers, custard and crinkle fries!) we spent some time at CJ & Christopher's house and Kevin went to a LAN party at an old buddy's house.

CJ making us dinner

CJ made this...I had to show you, it has mango, raspberries, blueberries, nectarines, lemon rind, cherries, cut up so small and cute, it was tart, sweet, creamy and heavenly

Friday: We hit Portillo's, we went downtown to the Field Museum and met John at his work on Michigan Ave, we went out to dinner with Mike and Carol and to see John's place.

Kevin's happy! He's got to order his very favorite Chicago food....Portillo's Italian Beef

Field Museum

John's and Cameron at John's desk at work

Saturday we went to the Highland Games with CJ and Christopher, we went to Steak and Shake, then to John's for a fun party!

I'm so glad Kevin was there to do carry Cameron and not me

Craft Booth

Walking to the festival, we kept dousing them with our water bottles to kept them happy...

The boys were so cute sharing Toe's sword this way....Cameron has one at home that we bought at our Highland Festival in Utah, so he knew all about it.....The boys got along great, they were fun to watch.

Steak and Shake, we love it!

Sunday we had a great Father's day we went to church and saw so many friends there, I made dinner for Kevin and Dad (and Mom :) Happy Mothers day!) in Mom and Dad's beautiful newly remodeled kitchen. - (Insert pic I missed here.)

Monday we went to Brookfield Zoo and Carol came with us, then Kevin and I went out with John and CJ to "Heaven on Seven" for dinner - this is one of our favorite places.

Not too worried about the Dinosaurs here....

Hot on the Merry-Go-Round

Cameron doesn't look very little here....

We had a great time, thanks a TON to my mom who gave us the airplane tickets for our Birthdays!!

The Scottish Festival

The Scottish Festival was held at Thanksgiving Point this weekend. We love the Highland Games, the bagpipes that never shut up, the food, the kilts :), the fun!

But first we had some time to kill before the gates opened so we went over to the petting zoo. Cameron rode his first horse, it was quite exciting going round and round like that. Wow.:



Then he went to jail:



Between that, the Turkey's, Horses, Cows, Goats, Emperor Kuzco and the other animals, we had a great time. But now on to the main event:

I thought the guy in the baseball hat was cute.

My brother Dave plays the bagpipes, well, he's working towards it, you have to start with a smaller version before you move on to the pipes, and before you can usually afford them.

His instructor was at the fair (of course!)

We watched the Barrel Toss, the Atlas Stone lifts etc. They were tossing candy to the audience every once in awhile so Cameron was happy:

Oh, okay, it was the new wooden swords that kept Cameron happy.

I don't think I will EVER tell Nathan he has a certain amount of money to spend in any of the shops....He took FOREVER deciding what he wanted. Next time I'll decide for him. He ran into some friends from school there too, that was fun for him.


Here is Nathan's Choice.....

And of course the most important thing about the Festival is......

the TURKEY LEGS!! And the meat pies....and the corn on the cob....and the homemade ice cream.....the popcorn.....wait. Those last three are at most festivals.... Anyway, we had a great time!