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.