Chicago Trip

We got back from Chicago a week ago but I've been too busy playing catch up to update with pictures of commentary from the trip. The girls did great! They are turning into great little travelers - especially Brynn. We pretty much got back from West Virginia, were home about 2 weeks, packed back up and headed out to Chicago. I think I was more frazzled than either of the girls were. Brynn has figured out how to sleep in a hotel room and in port-a-cribs better than Libby ever did. She's a major trooper.


Both girls loved looking out the window of our first hotel room. It was on the 44th floor and had these HUGE windows.



We went to the American Girl Store... 4 times... Libby LOVES it. She knows exactly what doll she wants when she's a little bigger. I still think she's a little young for one of the "big girl" dolls. She already has a Bitty Baby and loves her dearly. We did buy her Bitty Baby some new outfits while we were there. We also visited the Disney Store 3 or 4 times. I lost count. Libby is recently obsessed with Toy Story 3 and loves the cowgirl, Jessie and her horse Bulls Eye (which Libby pronounces Booz-eye). So we had to look at all the princess stuff and the Toy Story stuff. Libby was in Heaven.


This was in the window of our 2nd hotel. Mike had a conference the first 2 nights so we stayed at that hotel those nights but had to move the next 2. Anyway, this hotel had much smaller windows but the girls still liked to stand in them and look out even though we were only on the 10th floor.


We decided to take the girls to the Shedd Aquarium one day. It was raining so we wanted to do something inside. We just went for the most stripped down package they have and I think both of them thought it was still pretty cool. Brynn thought these BIG fish were neat. She kept saying "ish" which we're pretty sure was Brynnese for fish.


These rays were really cool. If you stood over them they would swim up towards you along the glass. You could see the underneath sides really well.

We also got to eat at a lot of fun places including two meals with my friend Jana (she was my college roommate and maid of honor in our wedding). It's always great to see her even if my kids are being a little twerpish because they have to behave while we eat out.


As you can see she was tired on our trip home.


So this was obviously not taken in Chicago but it was just yesterday. She's been sitting like this more and more lately and I just love it. She looks so big lounging around. Mike also commented yesterday that he can tell she's a big girl now because she's been picking her nose. HA!


Libby couldn't be left out of the picture taking.

Pretty Brynn

Brynn has been really interested in Libby's dress up stuff. So much so that this is what she has been doing lately.


She doesn't even care if she runs into things. She just falls down, laughs, and does it all over again.

So then we decided that maybe she'd like to wear her own dress up. We put Libby's dance recital costume on her. She was so happy that we couldn't get her to stand still for a picture so we just took another video.

West Virginia Pictures

I know these pictures are not very interesting for Mike's family as they have all lived in this town at some point (or still do) but I thought others might like to see small town West Virginia. Some of my pictures turned out better than others.


This is going into downtown Logan.


This is going into downtown from the neighborhood where Mike's family lives. Those cars are parked. There are always cars parked along this road and the road is as narrow as it looks.


This is part of the street that Mike's family lives on. This is another very narrow street and the sidewalks are also narrow (maybe wide enough for one person).


This is a bridge that the kids in the neighborhood have to walk across to get to school (on the island). You can drive to school also but it's a lot longer to go that way.


This is a shot from the street too. The house on the left belongs to Mike's grandmother and the house all the way on the right belongs to his cousin.




Downtown Logan, WV.

West Virginia Trip

We made our somewhat annual trip to West Virginia over the 4th of July again this year. We visited Mike's grandmother, aunts and uncle, and cousins. Libby had so much fun that she didn't want to leave and she said she'd be back in 13 days to visit them all again.




Libby did have a few not so great moments too. She threw the biggest fit in a restaurant and we're pretty sure they have our pictures up so that we won't be allowed to go back ever again.





Then the next day she told me she was going to go for a walk with "the girl in the white shirt" who I assumed was her cousin. But by the time Libby got outside to go with "the girl" (who turned out to be Aunt Becky), the girl had gone into her house (she didn't know Libby wanted to go with her) and Libby didn't know which house was hers so she just kept walking and ended up near some train tracks. Some older kids from down the street brought her back (thank God)! I didn't even know she was by herself. I thought she was with a family member the whole time since she told me that she was going to be with someone on a walk.

Brynn, however, did beautifully and is a pretty decent little traveler. Brynn did not want to be picked up much of the trip and wanted to walk all over Mama Helen's house and up and down Godby Street by herself.