Family Vaca

Although I'm posting the majority of our summer happenings month by month, I think our mini vacation we took in June warrants its own posting.  Seeing that we remodeled our kitchen and bathrooms in the spring (perhaps some pictures later?) and Luke has about a 3 hour limit in the car, we decided to stay close to home for our vacation this year.  We headed up to Gurnee, IL to Key Lime Cove, which is a hotel with an indoor water park. 

While we waited for our hotel room to be ready, we killed some time at Gurnee Mills Mall.  Evan was so excited to see the Hudson Hornet from the Cars movies.  We also had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, however I was not able to take any pictures since Evan was terrified of the whole concept. 

 Like a kid in a candy store...

 in the hotel lobby area, where they also had Starbucks coffee (thank you!)

 Not the greatest picture, but a view of the whole water park from the lobby

 The slides in the kiddie areas were perfect for Evan, my super-cautious child.  They also supplied the life jackets for "free".

 Luke had fun splashing around in the mini fountains.

 At the hotel restaurant - ARRGGH!

 Hanging out in our room

 

On our way home we visited Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview.  It's one of the nicest ones we have visited, with a great selection of activities for Evan and Luke.  However, it was VERY crowded, probably since it was a rainy day.  

Playing in the infant area

 Who is that adorable baby in the mirror?

Building and painting a house

 Grocery shopping in Dominic's

Reliving mommy's college days as a cashier at Super WalMart

Making a sandwich at Potbelly's

June 2011

 Everyday Fun
These pictures depict what most of our summer consisted of - having fun playing and being silly at home.

You can see Luke's bottom 2 teeth, and at this point his top 2 teeth were also coming in.

 

 White Fence Farm Outing
Our summer is not complete without our yearly pilgrimage to White Fence Farm for THE BEST fried chicken and corn fritters. 

 Picnic in the Park
I bought an awesome picnic blanket, which we were able to use several times over the summer for picnics and other random occasions. 

Our 1st picnic with yiayia

 T-Ball
I've posted a few times about Evan playing t-ball.  This was him after his last game very proudly holding his trophy. 

 Major Milestones
Summer was filled with many firsts for Luke.  I'll do a separate posting on that later, but here he is pulled to a stand "helping" load the dishwasher.   

 Visiting with our Friends
My friend, Carrie, and her family visited with us for a few days.  We all had a blast!

 Speaking of Milestones, here is Luke's 1st haircut. 

Before

 After

So stinkin cute!

Camping
Evan really wanted to go camping in the backyard this summer.  He and Rick had a night all planned out, until it started to rain.  He was just as happy to sleep in the tent in our family room instead!
 

A Whole Lotta Bloggin

Maybe I'm a slacker, or maybe I'm just a busy mom, but I obviously have gotten away from blogging over the past few months.  Summer just flew by, and here we are already in the midst of a new school year.  My goal this year is to be uber-organized so we'll see how this goes.  I just can't seem to find enough time to squeeze everything in - between work, 2 kids and a husband, a house, plus taking a college course each semester is there any room to breathe?  While we're at it let's throw blogging into that mix.  But hey, if I don't blog about Luke, down the road he'll have 2nd child syndrome and wonder why I doted over Evan about every accomplishment and milestone in my blog and failed to mention all of his major life steps!  Really, though, the main reasons I haven't blogged are: a) what I already stated about not being able to find the time b) Facebook - it seems like most people who read my blog (am I down to about 3 readers now?) are also on Facebook and I do update on there frequently with posts and pictures about our life and c) I hate Blogger.  It is a pain to post pictures and takes FOREVER to do anything on here.

Anyways, I'm rambling.  So here we go, a month by month update to catch you up on life and all the places we've been...

May 2011

T-ball Games
Evan had his first t-ball games starting in May.  We had a few rough games where he was hesitant or flat out refused to play.  He slowly became more comfortable and did a pretty good job batting off the tee. Overall the games were quite entertaining!!

 His 1st hit!

 Getting advice from the 3rd base coach

Acting as pitcher for the 1st inning

Luke's Baptism
This event could easily have a posting of its own, so here's just a few pictures from this special occasion.

Evan and Luke before leaving for church

 Luke and his proud godparents

 An exhausting day!

7 Months Old

Here is Luke's 7 month picture:


He is still a happy baby who loves cuddle time, especially with mommy. He's been tasting lots of new foods and loving all of them. So far he has tried cereals, avocados, sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, peas, green beans, squash, pears and prunes. He is really babbling now and is saying "dadadada". Luke's 1st tooth also popped through today. We've been expecting its arrival for a while now, and I'm sure many others will be following very soon.



Evan recently started t-ball and so far really loves it. He's been going stir crazy with the horrible weather we've had this spring. Hopefully all this rain slows down soon and he can get outside and play! He loves preschool and his teachers and is really coming out of his shell (finally). He's really going to be upset when it ends in a few weeks!

Ready for his 1st t-ball practice

Cheering on Butler in the Championship game for the 2nd year in a row