At the Park

I took Nils and Annika and Buddy to the park the other day. We had a great time. The water fountain was a bigger hit than the playground! I was laughing so hard watching them play with the fountain. I'm glad I had my camera with me! Annika was pushing the button as hard as she could, and Nils was sticking his head in the water. I love seeing them laugh together!

A Visitor from Afar

My college friend Janna was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't seen her in 4 years, so it was nice to be able to have a short visit. She lives on the island of Guam with her husband Jay. This is the first time I had met him. I picked them up at the airport- we were there for a long time at the baggage claim, until we found out their luggage was not in Chicago. So we went to the apartment where they were staying. That also took a lot of time because we couldn't find it- even though the expedia map said it was only 8 miles from the airport. Whatever.........we finally found it, and then jumped on the Metra to go downtown and have dinner. We went to Foodlife and walked down Michigan Ave for a little while. We also experienced a scary taxi ride- I don't think I'll ever do that again. Janna grabbed my hand because the driver was going so fast! Being in Chicago traffic was a little scary for the island couple! I think Jay was scared of my driving- he kept making comments from the back seat!
Anyway, we had fun. It was nice to talk about college days and life since then. Pictures are fun too! In college Janna was a blond, so the dark hair really threw me off at first. Jay insisted that I take a picture with him- Janna says he is such a politician!

Just a house?

O.k. it's a big house- definitely not on my list of possible new homes. Perhaps I am just strange, but I think it is cool.......so cool that I had to take a picture of it. There are great houses in the Winnetka area- that's where I stay at an apartment with Nils near his school.

I know.... you are not really impressed. I do not usually take pictures of big houses just for the fun of it. So, I'll tell you the real reason I think it's cool- this is the "Home Alone" house. That's right. The house that little Macaulay Caulkin ran around screaming in- this is it. Thank you to Suzy for informing me of this very important fact. We drove around Winnetka for awhile looking for the right house. Then she called somebody and had them google it! We really wanted to ring the doorbell and ask the current residents if we could have a tour, but we restrained ourselves.

Field Trip

Nils and I went to the Kohl Children's Museum with Suzy. Suzy worked with Nils for almost a year, and we hadn't seen her for awhile. We had a lot of fun at the museum. They had a very cool grocery store- Nils just piled stuff into the cart-at least 7 bottles of syrup. The chocolate cake looks pretty good for fake cake, doesn't it?

This was a cool museum. They had a great waterworks section. In the last picture Nils is squirting water at the wall. He was supposed to be aiming for the bells and other tinkling things, but the wall was more fun, I guess.

Summertime!


Here are some beach pics from when I was with the kids in Chicago. Sand is super fun, and there was a playground on the beach- what could be better? Well, maybe another juice for Marta...

In Chicago

A few weeks ago, Joy and I went down to Navy Pier with Nils. We rode on the Metra and then took a bus. It was quite a busy field trip for the boy, but he had a great time, and he was so good! Miss Photographer Joy took lots of pictures- excellent pictures, I must say.