Chicago

My mom has been diagnosed with Uterine cancer and is currently going through chemo and radiation treatments. It has been hard on all of us (but especially her) that she is not near family during this rough time. So for her third round of chemo I flew out to Chicago to keep her company and help as much as I could. The first full day I was there we went on an adventure since it was going to be her best day during my visit.

It was really important for her to see some water so we headed up north to check out one of the Great Lakes. We found this tiny beach and they wanted to charge us just to get on the sand, so we decided to soak up the view from a distance instead. ;)

Then we walked around to see what else there was.

I don't know the story behind this mansion but it totally looked haunted. It probably would have been creepy at night, but during the day it looked awesome.

I couldn't get enough of the green. Oh, how I miss living surrounded by green!

While driving around we stumbled upon this beautiful building. Turns out it is the only Bahai temple on the entire North American continent. They had a visitors center which reminded me of a visitors center you would find next to an LDS temple. After briefly checking out the visitors center we headed inside the actual temple where no pictures are allowed to be taken. There wasn't a whole lot to see inside anyway, though. Just a super large room full of chairs for prayer and reflection. BUT the outside was pretty!

On our way home we stopped at Wendy's for old times sake. We went to Wendy's a lot growing up and we would always order the same thing: Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, small fries, and a frosty. That is still the only thing I ever order at Wendy's.

The next day was Chemo Day.

This is my mom's usual set up. 

After several hours she was all done!

Just as we were walking out of the Chemo center we found out that my mom's house in Indiana had officially closed. So to celebrate we met up with Gerry and went out to eat.

Apparently a couple in their ward owns this restaurant so they go here a lot. The food was delicious!

Saturday (the day after chemo) my mom was still feeling pretty good so we went for a walk in downtown West Chicago. It's a beautiful little town with a lot of history.

My mom's current house (for example) was built in the 1800s and used to be a school house.

She wanted to know more history about her house so we found this history museum. Turns out it wasn't history of the whole town just history about this one house. Once we found out it wasn't what we were looking for, they still insisted that we take a tour of the house.

The rooms were really fun to look at and learn about. BUT the tour was super long winded, even though we had told the guide that my mom had JUST had a chemo treatment the day before so she couldn't be on her feet for too long.

 I think we were in there for about a half hour with just the condensed version.

After walking around town for a little over an hour, my mom was pretty tired so we headed home and let her rest.

Sunday morning we headed to church.

Sunday happened to be Father's Day and my Dad just happens to live only one hour away from my mom so... after church Dad, Imy, and AA picked me up and we went out to eat to celebrate!

My dad apparently loves bread pudding and orders it any chance he can.

I tried my very first cannoli after getting my curiosity peaked watching so many episodes of Cake Boss. It was decent but I was expecting the filling to be more whipped and less like a frosting texture. I will probably stick with my usual cheesecake next time. But now I can say I have tried a cannoli!

It has been YEARS since I have been able to actually be with my dad on Father's Day. It was so good to see him. And since he didn't even know I was in Chicago until I called him the night before, it was a fun surprise as well. :)

After dinner with my dad I came back to the house to help Gerry put up some racks for my mom's new accessory collection.

Tada!

After church on Sunday my mom was pretty wiped out for the rest of my visit. So the next couple of days consisted of me cleaning and getting projects done for my mom while my mom took it easy and slept.

Fishing

Saturday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather to go fishing and a bike ride. Well, the boys only biked until Jason found a good fishing spot, then they stopped. But Tessa and I continued on the path for a while, then turned around and met up with the boys at their fishing spot.

Jason pulled off onto a dirt trail that was along the paved bike path. It was perfect for the kids to explore while Jason fished without them getting in the way of other bikers.

Of course each of the boys quickly found the best sticks and deemed them their "hooks" like Maui.

(Bennett about to throw a rock)

When Jason would get a bite, he would ask who wanted to reel it in. Bennett was first.

When the excitement was over the boys wandered off again.

Tessa's turn to reel in a fish. She was a little too slow and the fish was able to get free, but she still felt accomplished. (Can you see our bikes and trailers in the background? That is where the bike path is.)

Cooper's turn.

The fish he reeled in was super small, but he didn't care!

Tessa kept picking up rocks and declaring them "The Heart! [of Ta Fiti]" And then two seconds later saying they are just rocks and throwing them back down. 

Bennett found a super big hook.

Proof that I was there too.

Cooper teaching us how to properly catch a fish.

The kids and I went down the path a little bit further to see what there was to see. Not a whole lot, but still kind of fun. Hopefully we can take them on some hikes this summer.

It was a really fun day! The one downside is that Cooper got bit three times on his legs and we had to take him to the doctor on Monday to check them out. They were super swollen and oozing clear fluid (TMI? sorry). So now he is on antibiotics for the next 10 days.

Lesson learned: bring bug spray when going fishing, even if it's the middle of the day.

Family Pictures 2017

We are overdue for an updated family picture. Heather was awesome and willing to take them for us!

The kids were not very cooperative at all and the sun was pretty bright for our family of sensitive eyes. 

But Heather was still able to capture a few good ones for us!

Thank you, Heather!!

Pretty sure we haven't had a good picture taken of just Jason and me since our wedding nearly 6 years ago. Love this one!

And we were able to get the kids to smile and hold still just barely long enough for one good sibling shot.

Love these three!

After Heather ran out of memory on her camera card, we pulled out the phones for a few more pictures.

The kids were DONE at this point.

But still oh so cute!

Bennett waiting for Cooper and Tessa to cooperate.

...And this the best we got on the stairs.

Lagoon 2017

Jason's summer work party was at Lagoon again this year. It was so fun! Marie met us at Lagoon to drop Hunter off and pick up Tessa.

Hunter and Jason went to the big rides first thing so the lines would be shorter while I took the boys on some kiddie rides. Cooper is in the green shirt and Bennett is in the orange.

Spinning in the tea cups!

I wasn't sure how much the boys would like the scrambler since it spins so fast, but they loved it! They were very brave this year and actually asked to go on a lot of rides that they were too short for.

Jason and Hunter on the Tilt-a-Whirl

After enjoying some of the smaller rides, we decided to do Rattle Snake Rapids before the line got too long. Plus it was getting hot so we needed to cool off.

We ended up getting DRENCHED! Cooper was not happy getting soaked but Bennett didn't mind as much because he saw the people across from us laughing and having a good time. They both told me that they didn't want to do it again though.

We had some lunch then I let Hunter and Jason ride on some more big rides while the boys and I went to the other side of the park to try out some more kiddie rides. (Before you feel too bad for me, Jason offered to stay with the boys this time but I chose to stay because I truly enjoyed myself watching the boys have fun. I DID get to ride a couple of the big rides before we left.)

The boys love this ride because the car has TWO steering wheels. #simplepleasures

Bennett was cracking me up on this ride because he was taking that gun so seriously.

Cooper and me on the sky ride!

Hunter, Bennett, and Jason

Workfront had reserved a pavilion for dinner.

We got lucky with our table selection and chose the side where the line started so we didn't have a wait a million years like most other people. (We had no idea until they said dinner was served.)

Ferris wheel after dinner.

The boys wanted to go on the scrambler one more time with Hunter while Jason and I rode the Cannibal.

Bennett's second time on the Chinese dragon. He wanted to sit in the very front of the dragon but two girls cut the line in front of us and stole that car, so I convinced him the very end was awesome too because then it was like the dragon was chasing us.

Hunter lost his hat on one of the rides so at the end of the night we were kind of waiting around to see if it would turn up in the lost and found. (It never turned up even though we know the workers had FINALLY picked it up from the ride it was lost on.) While we were waiting the boys found the fountains. It started out innocently enough with Cooper just running through the tunnel of water and only getting his feet wet.

But then they decided it was fun to step on the water and spray people.

They ended up drenched and freezing cold. Luckily we were spending the night up in Brigham City so they had warm jammies waiting for them in the car.