Illinois

Our first stop in the Chicago area was to see my brother and his family. Little Ethan had grown so much since we last saw him at Christmas.

This year their house had plenty of toys for the boys to play with. What a difference a year and a baby make! ;)

It's great to have water play without worrying about a drought. Thanks Auntie Allison and Uncle Michael for the water guns and cars!

Ethan got his first pool experience.

I wonder what he's thinking. He is a sweetheart. :)

Then, Daddy flew in for the weekend and we met up with his side of the family. 

We got to meet our nephew, Elliot, for the first time. He was such a sweet, content baby! And adorably cute! We loved that he would snuggle up and let us hold him.

Loved watching Ben and Rachel as parents. So natural and fun. 

Gavie was "helping" Auntie Ray and sporting his daddy's former sweatpants from way back in the day.

GG love

Snuggle and book time with GG.

The next day, we were at Grandma Sally's house with more family/extended family. We went to the town's water park/pool area and had a lot of fun. 

Uncle Ryan's here!!

GG surprised Kyle with a family birthday party!!! His reaction was adorable!

Happy almost 6th birthday, Kyle! Why oh why did the year have to fly by so quickly?!

Cousins Donovan, Drake, Franklin, Leo and Uncle Ryan.

These cousins have a lot of fun together. :)

More cousin time back at Grandma Sally's house.

We woke up the next morning to an amazing thunder and lightening storm. Though this wasn't the biggest/loudest Midwestern storm I've heard, it made our recent thunder back home seem like a joke! The Midwest sure knows how to do a storm.

Thankfully, the storm passed quickly enough for us to still catch our long-awaited river boat adventure. Thanks to Auntie Ray and her mad deal skills, we got 2 hours to go up and down the Chicago River!!

But before we boarded, all the kids got their life jackets on and we got these precious pictures. Gavie is full of love for his little cousin, Baby El-li- IT. :)

I love Gavie's expression and Kyle's brotherly love.

Here we go...!

Sweet joy.

Rachel knows so much about the city and all the architecture as well as the people and politics behind the buildings, so she was a natural tour guide.

I love this huge Civic Opera Building sitting right on the river (as were a lot of the buildings).

Auntie Ray works in the tall bluish, silver building in the middle of this picture and we passed some of her outdoor lunch spots along the river.

The Sears

Gavie and his Auntie Ray

This is such a cool building though backing in my car with just a cable to stop me from going off the edge gives me the eeby geebees.

 

A first ever cousin picture. :) :) At Auntie Ray's house.

The chickens

Up the street a ways, we met up with our friends Doug and Claudiana to meet their brand new son, Marco. Another beautiful, sweet baby for us to love.

These two childhood friends are both dads. :)

The next day, Rudy boarded the plane to return home for work while my family and the boys and I got in the car for an all-day, 4 state drive to South Dakota.