A Visit from the Nichols

We had a great last week and all enjoyed the company of the Nichols family. James and Alec are literally two peas in a pod and couldn't have had more fun together. They provided all of us with constant entertainment and thoroughly enjoyed each others company. We also kept very busy, visiting places in Wheaton and down in the city. Highlights of the trip included a trip to the Cosley Zoo up the street from our house to feed the ducks, a trip to the Morten Arboretum to play in the river and hunt for tadpoles, taking the wagon to downtown Wheaton for pizza and ice cream, a trip to the Chicago Aquarium downtown, and our first ever Cubs Game!!! Alec and I also rode the train by ourselves in and out of the city and took our first taxi ride together. It was a busy few days, but SO much fun. Katy, Time and James are welcome anytime!!!! I have about 400 pics from the trip, so here is a little glimpse.

Going for ice cream - I LOVE this pic

On the run - there was a lot of running done by Alec - James takes the more leisurely approach and prefers to be carried while watching Alec burn through the calories.

Getting James in on the running

Watching trains

At the Cosley Zoo

Duck Feeding

At the Arboretum - this is the boys trying to lift huge rocks out of this fountain

Tadpole hunting

Arranging rocks in the river - I think the boys could have done this for 6 days and been content.

In the city

at the aquarium

site seeing

Alec telling James all about his "owie"

Having some sort of hilarious conversation

Getting filty...we had pizza on some outdoor tables up by the train tracks one night and Alec and James decided to throw sticks in the fountain and ended up covered from head to toe in mud - it was a sight.

The Cubs Game

Out little Cubs Fans

Katy and I and our chicago style foot long dogs

....and that's a wrap - here is Alec on our drive home from the game on Sat night. Thanks so much for making the trip guys!!!

Cubs Fans

We have had a busy last week with a visit from the Nichols family and the holiday weekend. I have a ton of pics to post, but thought I would add this for now. Here are James and Alec at their first Cubs game (Alec's first baseball game). As you can see - they loved it!

Looking adorable and gorwn-up

Happy Friday - thanks for the new clothes Grammy - we love them! And....what happend to my baby, could he look any more grown-up?

John Deere

Alec is completely enamored with the fact that the Home Dept tractors look just like his. Here he is riding on both a real one at Home Depot, and his mini-motorized version in the front yard.

Grammy and Papa Ross come to visit

My mom and Ross came to visit and celebrate Mother's Day with us this last weekend. Sadly, Alec started coughing on Friday afternoon and it turned into a nasty cold by Saturday morning. So, he was kind of down and out for their visit, and he managed to pass it on to me. However, we still kept busy and loved every minute of having my mom and Ross here. On Mother's Day we all went into the city for lunch and a trip to the Lincoln Park zoo. Alec spent a decent amount of time in his stroller, which tells you how sick he was b/c he never rides in the stroller, but it made the trip nice and relaxing for the rest of us. We also took the train over to Geneva, a town a few miles away that has darling shops and restaurants, we visited the small Cosley zoo that is right up the street from our house and met Matt for lunch and a tour of his new office. Despite the colds, we had a great time and were very sad to see Grammy go yesterday (Ross is still here, but is down in Champagne visiting his sister.) We love you guys - thanks for coming.

Our attempt at a Mother's Day pic with a very sick and uncooperative boy.

Doing some yard work - you can see the red nose and watery eyes.

Grammy's teach you so many things

On the train to Geneva

They have a Thomas the train store in Geneva (we did not know this before going,) and we were lucky to make it out with nothing more than a new conductor hat.

It was raining pretty hard on Tuesday, so they weren't set up to do the daily duck feeding that Alec loves, but they opened it up just for us, so Alec had duck feeding all to himself.

Oh what fun Grandparents are...

Keeping Busy

Just a few pics from the last week. We have changed grocery stores b/c we found one with these mini-carts and Alec can't get enough. I think when we checked out today he had more in his cart than I did.

The cememt turn-around that was a part of the driveway before we fenced it in has become the new home to Alec's sandbox. He loves playing in the sand in anticipation for our upcoming trip to Sanibel.

At swim lessons - he is doing great and has no problem being in the water w/o me.

with his instructor Cassidy

A Trip to Ohio

We took a rode trip this weekend to Ohio to visit Matt's family. It was his Grandma's 90th birthday, his Aunt's birthday and his counsin Courtney's baby shower - so we were busy. Alec was a champ - he was great in the car, slept a little and then pretty much entertained himself, and then he had a ball running around with Reid and getting attention from all of his extended family who he doesn't see all that often. We continue to be amazed at how well he travels and handles changes to his schedule - he was up super late both nights and aside from waking up a little scared during the night (we were in Matt's Grandma's basement and think he was a little freaked out about not knowing where he was,) I don't think he cried or fussed the entire weekend. We are super glad we made the trip and really enjoyed getting to spend time with everyone.

Aunt Paulette drawing for Alec on his new etcha-sketch

Double trouble

The boys with Papa Gene

Improvised bibs

Cake sampling

Giving soon-to-be baby Gile some pats

Grandma Sunshine with Matt and Alec - can you believe she is 90?

Collecting and breaking sticks at Jim and Paulette's house kept the boys entertained for quite awhile.

Always with the biggest of everything - Kat started calling him Bam-Bam, which we think is quite fitting.

Watching Thomas on the way home - he was pretty enamored with having his own "tv." He was being generally adorable on the car trip home and at one point Matt looked back at him and then said, "sometimes I feel like I love him so much it makes me hurt." I thought it was pretty sweet.