#27

Closed on our house! Moved in!


Had a lot of help from this lovely couple:

(I promise I will post pictures of the inside in a few days. I want to be pretty much unpacked when I do).

#22-#26

22. Went to Daniel's little sister Amy's graduation in Dallas:


23. Went from there to Hawaii for two weeks. Stayed with these dear friends:

24. Watched while Ava played with this cutie:


25. Went to Kauai to visit our friends the Schoenwethers for a weekend:

26. Had an anniversary. Took exactly one photo of all three of us in which it actually appears that we are in Hawaii.

Five.

So... two weeks ago we celebrated 5 years together. And I didn't even get you a card. Life's just been like that.

But you understand, and it's great. We did get a chance to reminisce on Saturday night over tacos. It's been a great five years. Lately, I've seen just how great. I see so many people my age who are still partying it up, and then I look at you and Ava and think, "Wow. This is the good stuff." God has given me so much grace. I don't credit this joy to anything but His hand in my life.

I am so thankful for you, and here are a few reason why: your strength, your godliness, your wisdom, your faithfulness, your steadiness, your humor, your willingness to take care of me, your sense of adventure. I love our life together. I love the memories we've made, and I look forward to those we will make in this new season.

Here's to us, love.

#21

Drove nearly 14 hours round trip to go to Daniel's 10 year reunion. Got thankful for everything we have.

BOOK.

This is a bit ridiculous. Really.

Ava is enthralled with books. Or perhaps obsessed is a better way of describing it.

Multiple times daily, this is what I see:


As long as she's been sitting up, she has loved to spend large amounts of time flipping through all the books in her book basket. More recently, she has been demanding that I read to her. "BOOK!" she insists. Sometimes she is so eager that she will take a book away from me and shove it back in my face. "BOOK!"

I read her the entire toddler rhyme bible (some 250 pages) at least two times a day. She would insist on more if I would do it. She has incredible patience and focus.

Last weekend, Daniel and I were at his parents house, and she was sleeping in the adjacent room. The first thing I heard when I woke up were these words through paci plugged lips: "Book. Book."

If I need to lure her somewhere, all I have to do is say "Ava. Book." She stops in her tracks, repeats, "book" and toddles my direction.

I'm so glad that she loves books, that she loves to be read to. But her appetite is so voracious that it wears me out sometimes.

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.