illinois trip - day 2 :: little traveler, zachary, geneva, grandpa

thursday, september 25

when i was a kid, i used to go to the little traveler in geneva practically every thursday morning with my mom, my brother, my grandma, my aunt, my cousin and my mom's aunts. i don't know the history of the building, but i think it was originally a house and they made it into a shop. each room is a different department and there's a little restaurant inside. it's very quaint. very geneva.

so to carry on the tradition we took a trip down to the little traveler on thursday morning. i love the comment i got from my friend brian when i twittered that we were going there...

"people our age go to little traveler?" ha!

i remember when i was a kid how excited i'd always be to get to look around in the toy room. and sometimes we'd get to pick something out in the candy room. i still remember the giant bins of jelly bellies. oh the sugary coated potential!

jonah loved this little squeeking pig. well you can't really tell since he's aiming his squirt gun at it, but he did love it. you'll just have to take my word for it. he was like a kid in a toy department. 10 second attention span, had to touch everything and go go go.

when we'd sit with our little group, we'd always sit at the same table in the corner. i should have gotten a picture of the waiter. he's the same too. small town charm or twilight zone?

that used to be a real working fountain. when i was a kid we'd throw pennies in and make wishes. i always used to wish for a sister. now i have two. so i'd say that officially makes it a wishing pond.

it was so cool. my cousin shannon came along and thursday was zachary's 1st birthday! happy birthday, cute little man!

since most of the rooms in the little traveler are filled with glass, china or things with signs that say "you'd be crazy to bring a toddler into this room", we headed outside and let the boys run around in the yard a little.

hey! get back here! for a one year old zachary can really move!


hay!

silly jonah! he is so funny! no one even prompted him to make this face. what a personality this kid has.

awwww... i love this picture! in the midst of running around like a crazy boy jonah ran up and just nuzzled in between my legs. i quickly pointed the camera down and fired in the hopes of catching something good before he ran off again. this was perfect! i couldn't have gotten a better shot if i had looked through the viewfinder.

this was a rare moment in the life of a photographer mama. i asked two year old jonah to go stand by his cousin so i could take their picture... and he did it!

come here, zachary! i need to give you a hug!

peek-a-boo! this was right after jonah knocked zachary down with a big hug. thankfully zachary didn't do a face plant on the sidewalk! what a great first birthday present that would have been.


here's how jonah counts: one. two. weeeee!

it's fall in illinois.

after the traveler we walked down to see my aunt martha at state street jewelers. i worked there for a little while too, so i knew some of the gang there. but aunt martha wasn't there so we headed out to track her down.

who's got dirty feet?

bribery to get jonah back in his stroller.

here we are reflected in my mom's shades as we got ready to cross the street.

guess where we stopped?

aunt martha, are you here?

we found aunt martha, but she was in the middle of getting her nails done, so we decided to head back our cars since it was approaching nap time. then grandpa met us on the way out! his office is just up the road. is this an episode of the gilmore girls, or what?

as we headed back toward our cars aunt martha passed us as she was driving back to work so she stopped for a quick hug and a picture.

my sweet sweet boy... ready for his nap.

tony and dave shared a moment over a movie on dave's zune during dinner at grandma & grandpa's.

after dinner we got on our pajama's and played. oh aunt molly, you're fun! it's "bob ayo".

a big smooch from grandpa!

ah ha ha ha! no more!

good times.

illinois trip - day 1 :: airport, grandparents' house, coasters, noes

wednesday, september 24 ~ day 1 of our illinois adventure

we got up bright and early and headed to austin-bergstrom airport for our 10:00am flight to chicago.

ok, we found our gate. now i just need to run off some of this excess energy before we have to sit in our seats for two and a half hours.

whoops. i ran off too much energy. i need a quick break with my brand new cars cup.

that belly looks like it could use some tickles!

i dressed my boys alike in case i lost one of them. i could just point to the one i had and say the other one looks just like him only bigger (or smaller depending on which one i lost).

here's jonah and daddy checking out the very exciting airplanes. jonah was very enthusiastic about getting to ride on a plane. he kept saying "fwy" and pointing up in the sky and flapping his hands like bird wings.


we made it safe and sound to chicago o'hare. jonah did great on the flight. we ate teddy grahams, fruit snacks and crackers with cheese dip and watched movies on daddy's laptop. jonah didn't make a peep until we were taxi'ing into our gate when he decided to scream at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason. "use your airplane voice, jonah."

my bestest friend rachael picked us up from the airport! sooooo good to see her!!!

classic rachael.

grandma was very excited to see jonah boy. here he is playing with his new obnoxious ninja frog. it is pretty funny... and loud.

daddy working on mastering the tower. this toy is from my grandma's house when i was a kid. it's awesome.

cute cousin kylee!

we had ice cream for dessert.

jonah found the mini ice cream scoop magnet on grandma's fridge and an empty bowl and served himself some imaginary ice cream. mmm... low cal.

playin' with uncle jeff


kylee and jonah finding stuff in i spy with grandpa.


now this is a classic gurbal past time... coaster spinning. i am a pro. it takes skill. let me tell ya. it's fun to see how many you can get going at once without a toddler stopping them. that's the challenging part.

ooohhh... whirley...

ooh, there goes one now.

hey, get back here with that! you crazy silly coaster stealing monkey!

rachael and the boys arrive!

i love this girl!

i am so happy i finally captured jonah's surprise face. he's so silly!

playing slinky with jaycob. they would look through each end at each other and then jonah would fall down laughing... over and over again. hee hee.

"tackle him!" don't worry. no 7 year olds were harmed in the taking of this photograph.

zack zack, the lego maniac. there's that smile!

aw! jonah's pals! we've missed you!

two years in the making...

finally! we have family photos! my dear and lovely photographer friend laura met my whole crazy giant family at island park last weekend when dave and jonah and i were in illinois for a visit and helped us get some family photos. i'm just putting up a quick sneak peek. i still have to do some editing, but i was just so excited about the amazing and beautiful images she got of us that i wanted to share a few of them right away.

i will have lots and lots and lots more pics from our trip up soon. i took almost 3,000 pictures during our trip so it might take me just a little while to sort through them all.

here we are!










i love you, laura! thank you so much for capturing me and my boys on a beautiful fall morning in september.