Young's Dairy Farm

This was Marc's last day with us, so for something fun to do we headed out to Young's Dairy Farm.   We started out by seeing all of the animals and tractors.  After that, we headed over to the game area.  Since it was the week of the 4th, their all-around passes were half-off so Jackson and Bennett got one and ended up playing mini-golf, going down this big slide thing, and doing the driving range (which they surprisingly liked and were good at).  We ate a packed lunch and then wrapped up the day by getting some of their homemade ice cream!

King's Island

The Rasmussen's drove up from Florida to visit us from June 29th- July 7th.  Unfortunately, Marc had to fly back after just a couple days to get back to school, but Michelle and the kids got to stay for a while and keep us company, which was so fun!!

The first day they got here happened to be the Saturday that Ryan's work had an activity at King's
Island, so they met us at the theme park and we hit up some rides with them (mostly kid rides in Snoopy Land).  It was great weather that day!  Not too hot, not cold at all, and it rained just a little bit here and there, which helped with the crowds.  Perfect!

 Checking out the dinosaur exhibit, where the dinosaurs move and make noise.  Lucy slept at the beginning of this and when she woke up halfway through, she was scared to death of the dinosaurs when they'd make noises.

 Ryan and Jackson are high fiving each other while Marc is soaring.  The kids behind Marc started copying him on the ride.  It was funny.

Even though she's not smiling, Lucy loved this little car ride and Bennet was the perfect person to ride it with.

Before:

 During (this thing was crazy high!!):

After:

In case you can't tell, this is Ryan and Michelle with Lucy and Stella peeking out the window.

We all finally convinced (bribed) Jackson to ride the big yellow roller coaster, and he liked it so much that he rode it twice in a row- here he is with Ryan.

She was a little tired at this point...

 

This was the saddest/funniest part of the day.  Stella and Lucy were begging to get on rides and loving the few they got to go on, so we passed this little ladybug ride and there was no line, so we hurried and just threw all 4 kids on.  It seemed cute and innocent and no one above a certain height could go on, so you know, we thought it was harmless.  Then, as the ride started, we quickly realized that it really whipped the kids around the corners (like a little kid version of the scrambler ride).  Jackson, Bennet, and Stella loved it, but it shocked the heck out of Lucy and the poor thing bawled the whole time and yelled for mama.  It was hilarious, yet broke my heart at the same time.  I felt really bad.

Here she is, already a little unsure of it.  And Stella's just biting the bar out of excitement. :)

 The ride barely started moving and she's already not doing so hot.

...and the first corner whip....

 Yep, she's done.  And the ride just started.  The one problem though was that Lucy was SO tired before she even got on the ride, which didn't help.  Also, Stella was still somewhat of a stranger to her at this point, and she doesn't do well with new people.  A minute after we took her off the ride, she was asking to go back on, so I'm sure it was just a combination of those things that made it so bad the first time.  Another funny part about this ride is that Jackson hated that we made him go on and then ended up declaring it as his second favorite ride. :)

We ended the day by grabbing some taco bell and then going home and getting everyone to bed.  It was a fun day!

Chicago

Ryan attended the annual SHRM conference this last week to get his final recertification credits for his SPHR and it just happened to be in Chicago this year.  Of course Lucy and I tagged along yet again because, well, why not?  I absolutely love Chicago and every time I go there I remind myself how much more I love that place!  I've decided it's definitely my favorite big city (of the ones I've been to).  That being said, of all the time I've spent there, it's only ever been in the summer, so I'm sure if I was there one winter, it would be a whole different story. :)

Anyway, we stayed in a Marriott right there in the middle of Chicago, just a block over from the Magnificent Mile.  It really was an awesome location for us during the day, but I now believe that downtown hotels, when traveling with kids, is not always your best option.  We had sirens blaring out of our window at all hours of the night, and they actually paved the intersection right outside of our window at 2am.  Oh well, we still had a blast!

We ate some Chicago hot dogs and a lot of chocolate cake and chocolate cake shakes and some ribs from Portillos, walked the Mag Mile a few times and along the waterfront in the city, visited Buckingham fountain, the bean statue (a.k.a. Cloud Gate), Millenium Park and Grant Park, and went to Navy Pier a couple of times.  So yeah, we had fun!

 This was Lucy's first carosel ride.  She begged to go on it, then was so serious and not loving it while riding, and then clung as tight as she could afterwards because she didn't want to get off.  Make up your mind, silly girl!

Family pic (kind of, not really) at the bean statue.  Lucy loved this place.

That's Buckingham Fountain in the background.  The big tall part only goes off for 10 or 15 minutes each hour, so we hit it at the right time.

I don't know what Lucy loved more, the fountains or hanging from the fence around it. :)  Probably the fence because she was mad when we kept telling her she couldn't actually go swim in the water.

The splash pad statue thing at Millenium Park:

 Lake Michigan in the background (one million times prettier than Lake Erie, that's for sure!), and Lucy was not happy to be taking this picture.

Lucy was totally over riding in her stroller by the end of each day and so Ryan sometimes carried her like this.  She thought it was hilarious when she would have to duck under low trees.

 There was a little space between this counter thing and the window (that is not the kind that opens, so don't worry) and Lucy loved to sit there and watch everyone way below her.  It kept her busy while I got things ready to go for the day.

 Ryan had his fair share of Chicago hot dogs while there, but I think he loved his ribs the most, since he took a picture of them.  It was a really, really good meal though!

And these are just a few of the things we love about Chicago.  The end.

I forgot to mention...

It's a GIRL!!!

That's right, Lucy will have a little sister around to play with.  Ryan and I are excited although given how different this pregnancy has been to my last one, we were certain it was a boy and shocked when we learned the gender.

I was also excited to learn that they moved up my due date to October 6th.  So yeah, it's only 2 days earlier, but I'll take it!  Lucy always measured way small and was a week or more behind where she should have been given the due date (although she still came a couple days early), and so I always had to have extra tests and exams done each appointment, which was not very fun (although it did mean a little extra time away from work)... so I was happy to hear that this one was definitely bigger and that my due date was, in fact, a few days earlier.

People keep asking me if I've got everything ready now and I don't quite get what they mean?!  I mean, sure, I still need to pull out our baby swing, a few toys, and old girl clothes, from the basement but besides that, all I can think of is a crib?  So hopefully I'm not missing something... :)  October is coming way quicker than I imagined this time around but I'm getting really excited!

Happy Father's Day!

Ryan sure set the bar high at Mother's Day and I certainly didn't rise up to this Father's Day, but we still love Ryan just as much!  This particular day, we drove Mark and Janae to the airport to go back to Utah and then immediately headed to Chicago ourselves.  So needless to day, it was a busy day and we weren't home much.

Anyway, Lucy and I are pretty darn lucky girls to have Ryan.  He takes good care of us, keeps us calm in crazy moments, is always stirring up fun with Lucy, and works so hard in every area of his life.  What would we do without him?  So, happy father's day, Ryan!  You're the best dad!  I'm also grateful for such a wonderful dad and father-in-law.  Ryan and I are lucky to have such strong, good examples in our lives.

 Lucy made these for Ryan.  She LOVED using the paint and had so much fun with this project.

Yogurt face and applesauce

I know it's important and all to let kids use utensils, but do I have to, really?  I don't enjoy giving multiple baths in one day. You might not be able to tell real well, but that is definitely a layer of yogurt over her entire face and all over her entire head of hair, not to mention the usual places like hands, arms, and clothes.  Ay, ay, ay.....

And another thing.  Those squeeze pouches of food.  They seem all convenient because you don't need a spoon or bowl or anything, and kids love them, but they also want to hold them and therefore squeeze it all over everything.  Lucy was laying on our hotel bed last week eating a squeeze pouch of applesauce and I heard her go "oh-oh."  haha.  I turned around to see it on her nose and shirt.  She just laid there as still as could be until I cleaned it up though.  It was pretty funny.  I think she felt like she couldn't move at all because she really wouldn't move hardly at all.  It was also funny to see her go cross eyed as she tried to look at the blob that landed on her nose.  Silly girl.