Busse Woods

Here are some pics of one of my new favorite places, Busse Woods. It is a forest preserve with 11 miles of bike/pedestrian trails. The trees are gorgeous--lots of oaks, elms, sugar maples and the like. I can't wait for fall--I'm looking forward to taking walks in the brisk fall air under a canopy of orange, red, and yellow. Maybe this is place won't be so bad after all....

A walk in the woods.

This is probably a weed, but I thought it looked pretty.

Oh yeah, there are elk.

#20

20. Drove an hour and 45 minutes each way to Wisconsin to see Coldplay in concert a day after Daniel got back from India. Took the baby. Got home at 1 a.m. Yes, we are insane.

In the past 6 months...

1. We moved from Kailua to the condo we bought in Salt Lake.
2. We put our condo on the market, and sold it two days later.
3. We played host to Brian, Maggie, Cassandra and Mena, putting 4 adults and three little people in our 500 square foot condo.
4. We went house hunting in Chicago for two days, and decided to wait to buy a house.
5. We returned and immediately house sat in Kailua with my parents for a week and a half.
6. A week and a half later, I went to the Philippines for two weeks.
7. Immediately after I got back, we started packing. Sold everything we could on craigslist. That weekend we sent our remaining stuff on two pallets to Chicago.
8. After that we spent our final two weeks with friends: one week with the Schoenwethers, one with the Allards.
9. We left our friends, and flew to California.
10. We bought a minivan.
11. We spent a week driving across the western United States.
12. We spent Father's Day in the urgent care clinic at the Grand Canyon after Ava and I got a doozy of a stomach bug.
13. I arrived in Dallas, and gave said stomach bug to Addy and my mom.
14. We went to Daniel's house for a couple of days, rolled hay bales, sat on the porch, ate Central Dairy, and gave the bug to Daniel's dad.
15. We drove on the Chicago, where we have (thus far) spent 4 weeks in an extended stay hotel.
16. Daniel found out he was going to India and a week later got on a plane.
17. I flew out of Chicago alone with Ava to stay with my parents while he was gone.
18. We bought a house.

Our fantasy right now is this:

That he'll come home from work one day, and I'll ask him how his day was. He will say, "Oh, normal." And he'll say, "How was your day, hon?" I'll say "Mmmm... normal." And we'll do a little jig.

Ava Update

Ava and I are keeping busy these days (or, I should say, she is keeping me busy). Here's some pics of our recent shenanigans.

Cleaning out the cabinets. I have found food items stashed all over our little apartment. Spices in the trash can. Tomato paste in the bathroom. Baby food under the couch.

Reading her toddler bible. She comes up to me about 20 times a day and demands: "book!" In toddler language, this means "read me the entire New Testament in rhyme." Thanks to Auntie Beth, who gave it to her. And to Auntie Kri-C, who gave her her other new favorite book--Baby Animals.

In my wallet. Stealing my identity.

Going out to hang with her peeps.

One of the benefits of living at the hotel is that they have a heated pool. We've been there four or five times already. Such a fun diversion, especially when it's cold and rainy outside.

Friday night...in the park...I think it was the third of July

Since Daniel and I are new in town, we decided we would have the quintessential Chicago Independence Day (or the quentessential Chicago July 3rd, anyway). We rode the train into downtown Chicago and joined the masses at Grant Park for Taste of Chicago and a free outdoor concert with fireworks afterward. We had a great time hanging out with the other hundreds of thousands of people (not joking). Daniel almost died trying to get us food. Really.

The river that runs through downtown.

Us picnicking and laughing at Ava's antics.

The show. Pretty spectacular.