Laui Life: Days 5-7... Chicago & beyond!

Well hello there! Good to be back! So first to recap and then onto future travel plans...

- Let me just start by saying: nope, we're not tired of the tin can yet! ;) In fact, I hear myself saying some of the same things I say at home.... put away your clothes NICELY! don't leave your pjs in the middle of the floor! brush your teeth, do your hair, put your blankets away! why did you mess up my bed? hang up your shirt! take the garbage out please. So it's all good, not much has changed in our family, just our transient location.

See this cute phone of mine? It wants to give you a little riddle to figure out...

- phone
- bathroom
- wet

What do these three things have in common? Yep! You guessed it! My phone went swimming, NOT in the sink, NOT in the bathtub/shower, you fill in the blank. :( So far it's recovery is going excellent, despite the lack of the secret potion (i.e.. rice). We'll keep you posted on the status of her restoration.

So I shared with you last time our current family verse.... "Do whatever He tells you." John 2.5 Yes, the boys were mulling over what that looked like to them and how they could give away their $20. However, it never ceases to amaze me how God meets us where we ask Him to and it's never how we expect. He made it abundantly clear to me how He wanted ME to do whatever He said in a particular instance. In this passage of scripture, Jesus is attending a wedding with His mother and disciples. They run out of wine and so His mother says to the servants "do whatever He tells you." And Jesus ends up carrying out His first miracle here on earth by turning water into wine so they would have more for the wedding festivities. And not only that, but as the passage describes, the wine they now had was even better than what they had run out of which was uncommon for those times. Normally they would drink the best first and save the less desirable wine for last. You can read the passage for yourself here.... John 2 (NIV). Jesus totally hit it out of the park! And I love how Ann Voscamp describes this verse in her post The 5 Words Guaranteed to Change Your Life: #DWHTY.

I'll try not to bore you with too many family photos, so here's a quick run down.

All the grandkids (minus one) enjoying a show at grandma & grandpas.

Aunt Christie with her mini-me.

So special for us all to be at church together at The Bridge Church in Des Plaines, IL.

This girl went in crying and came out a smiling champ! (please excuse the half blurry photo)

Then it was off to an after-church breakfast to fill all the starving stomachs. And on our way to be seated, Reed wanted to make sure that cousin Finley made it to the table with us okay.

First thing Tate found at his aunt & uncles house...... {YA - ggrrrrreat! ;) }

Aunt Christie & Uncle Mark's house has this sweet little nest that has returned again this year with a mama bird and three baby birdies. The dad stocks the yard for possible intruders with ill intentions and risks his life to scare them off, away from his babies.

A little bubble blowing is always a welcome site to little ones.

Cousin Piper sporting her fashionable shades with class and attitude!

A little park time was in order to get this Chicago party started so we headed down the street in the wagon....

Cousin Finley was very found of going UP the slide! ;)

Kevin & bro-in-law, Uncle Mark.

Kevin and his sister, Christie.

Now wouldn't it be too cool to live on THIS street!?!? lol

Okay, now that's funny..... lol

And of course a dinner at grandma and grandpas was definitely on the agenda and the weather proved to be wonderful for our outside meal.

And to all the kids' grand delight, we took an afternoon to go to a trampoline place called Sky High Sports

And of course, a crazy trip with 6 kids, 4 of which are all under the age of 5, to downtown Chicago, was definitely in order. Chicago is a cool city to walk around, learn the history of, and take in all the sights.

But not all dragged along were crazy about the "L" we took into the city. And it did include some 'unusual' characters in their estimation, so being the small town inhabitants that they are, it was a bit to be expected. ;)

By the way..... how do you identify small town inhabitants? they are thrilled at the site of an escalator! lol ;P

Others were THRILLED to ride the L!

Cousin Finley enjoying the front seat to the downtown show tour.

And in the middle (ok I have no idea), is this incredible city park called Millennium Park. It has what we call the giant bean (I'm sure that's not the official name), an amphitheater and two multi-story structures that are giant water features showing different faces and then squirting out water periodically.

ACT 1) So Aunt Christie, being the Aunt of the Year, pulled Reed & Esther's shoes off and helped them escape their stroller captivity to walk across the watery ground that goes between the two water structures. And yes, being mom, I was totally against the idea knowing, that if one of them fell (almost a 90% chance) then they'd be wet and miserable the rest of the day. And THAT would just make for a glorious afternoon galavanting around downtown Chicago. But being that she took over, I left her with one warning.... 'if they fall, you are taking care of them.' I am sooooo nice to my sis-in-law, aren't I!?! Mind you, I forgot to include one little detail, the city kids that are used to this fabulous urban sprinkler system and frequent the hang out often are zooming, no running, no sprinting from end to end, oblivious of what little munchkin might be in their way. ;) Now are the getting the full picture????

Thus, here are R & E testing the water and trying to figure out what all this is about.

ACT 2) action shot of Aunt Christie standing next to her daughter, Piper, and completely ignorant of the fact that her second daughter, Finley, just got side swiped by above mentioned passer-byer and is now on her way to the watery ground. So as long as it was her daughter and not mine, we are good, right!?! lol ;P Just kidding! Actually, it was a pretty nasty fall and poor sweet Finley ended up with a flint stone bump in the middle of her forehead. And her adorable dress was now a drenched smock.

And as you'll see below, this is the 'bean.' It's a large structure that looks like the shape of a kidney bean and is a mirrored surface.

Here's a photo of grandma, Grant, Tate, Reed, cousin Piper & Aunt Christie.

And here's a final version of all of us, excluding Grandpa Jim & Uncle Mark (who graciously acted as photographer), as we stand in front of the 'bean.' Now let me show you what it actually took to get to this point...

THIS. Please note a few things...

- Aunt Christie: in the process of finding little girl sunglasses but our encouragement to her probably went something like this... "Christie, come on let's take a photo altogether. Christie we are waiting. Come on just stand up and smile with us. Did you find them yet? Come on Christie!"

- Comedian Kevin, in the background, making good use of the photographer that is ready and waiting. Seriously, Kevin???? lol ;P