Anniversary Getaway in Chicago!

Ru and I celebrated 11 years of marriage. We so appreciate the chance we get each year that we are in Chicago to get away and spend a night in my favorite city. It was awesome!

We didn't make it in time before they started tearing down this little village, but the tree and the Chicago Picasso (scultpture) were worth the visit.

We walked through the beautiful, chilly night to have dinner and stopped to take this picture. I love the river that winds its way through the city. 

We stayed at the beautiful and swanky Hard Rock Hotel. This was the view we enjoyed from our room.

After sleeping in for a blissfully long time, we did something I've always wanted to do and walked along the river out to the lake. It was so nice. I love how clean the city is and how much architecture and variety there is to look at. I also love how alive it is and the convenient public transportation system.

While we were out enjoying our time, Kyle and Gavin had a great time with GG and the family.

 Uncle Randy

 Uncle Ryan

The boys had fun playing with cousin Donovan and cousin Aito.

 

A fun time was had by all! ;)

Christmas in Chicago

Well, it wasn't white, but it was cold! We loved the change in weather and the excitement of being with Rudy's family. We had already celebrated Christmas twice before, and since we had flown in after midnight and were distracted by the fact that we were in Chicago and at GG's house, I think I forgot to mention that the following morning would be the actual Christmas. That, along with the time change and all, made for a unique Christmas morning. After a little while the boys finally realized that GG's tree was decorated with gifts for them!

Gavie took to this helicopter and a truck he could put together with his drill.

Both boys loved playing their guitars and singing together. 

Gavie had a lot of fun helping GG make muffins. He kept mentioning it even as we were leaving. Sweetheart.

After a little while, Uncle Ben and Auntie Ray came over for a late breakfast. I just loved seeing Rachel so beautifully pregnant! The quality of the picture is poor, but the subject is breathtaking and I couldn't resist posting it...she's due any day now and we are so excited to welcome this little nephew/cousin into the world!

In between lots of noise and happenings with all the family, I caught Gavie looking so angelic in his own little world. He's such a precious little bug.

Later in the afternoon we went over to Aunt Donna's house for a big family Christmas party. This family is a lot of fun. ;) Kyle hammed it up with Uncle Ryan...

...caught Uncle Randy and Great-Grandma Sally by surprise...

... and snapped a pic with his Auntie Ray.

Back at the house the following morning, the boys enjoyed playing with a plethora of amazing toys. "Break the Ice" was a hit.

Also fun, was this little slot machine.

Gavin was well-entertained. :)

Later that night, Aunt Donna and Cousin Donovan came over and the boys had an ultimate pillow fight. There were many squeals and giggles. I love this picture because Kyle is all in, and Gavin is just in total delight over this new game.

Donovan graciously let the little guys gang up and win. :) Martin brothers unite!

Thanks to Donna and Gina, we enjoyed watching the boys roller skate for the first time ever! They were so adorable and Donovan is a great, older cousin to them.

Gavin totally has the same physical sense of humor like his daddy. He just loved falling and I snapped this picture of his adorable face just after falling for the umpteenth time. :)

With GG

A fun Christmas for sure!

Bound for Chicago!!

Are you ready for a Chicago marathon of posts? I've got 6 comin' at ya and my goal will be one per night. (It's taken me over a week to get this one out, so this might actually be too lofty of a goal, but heck, I'll try for it.)

So, the day finally arrived when we'd be getting on a plane (a 737, red-bellied Southwest, actually). This flight experience has to go down in the books as the easiest standby flying trip we've ever taken, especially considering we were headed out of our smaller, local airport and we needed four tickets during the prime holiday season. I couldn't have been more shocked. In the past, I've watched flight availability for days and felt confident about our chances only to have a tour group or sports club at the very last minute come snatch all 60 some seats we thought were just waiting wide open for us. Flights can look promising and then be sold out the very next day. So, with cautious opimism I'd peek at our desired flight's availability and continue to pinch myself everytime I saw that it still looked good. And by Christmas Eve, we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast and strolled over to the airport just after lunch. (Incredible, since we are used to waking up at 3am to catch eeearly morning flights out of LAX, which adds so many variables including traffic.) We waltzed onto the plane and settled in. Badda bing. :) 

Just before we boarded, we heard the amazing news that Uncle Randy was finally, finally able to get on a plane from Portland and would actually be meeting us in Las Vegas for our connecting flight to Chicago!!! We were sooo happy!!!! The poor guy had waited in an airport for 3 days trying to get a single fight out. Sheesh. Here are the boys just after we greeted Randy in Vegas. All smiles, I tell you. What could be more thrilling than airplanes and seeing family? Not much.

Randy was awesome and helped entertain the boys during our 2 hour layover.

At one point, during a long wait for a pilot, one of the Southwest staff members asked if we wanted to go and see the flight deck inside the plane. Boy, did we!!!

The boys were given the royal treatment by a fellow pilot named Kyle. They were adorable and won the heart of at least one flight attendant. That forward woman kept asking my little guy for winks! :)

Then we all got to have a seat and look around. :) It's so facinating to think about how all that weight gets up in the air. Amazing.

Some more waiting. This picture cracks me up because Gavie just loves wearing his hats super low. Don't know why.

Kyle, we are almost to Chicago!!!!!! He was perfectly happy to eat his snacks and look out the window. No need for any other entertainment. 

 

GG!!!!!!!! It was so fun to be greeted at the gate, just like the old days. She can, obviously, because she is an employee. Love your job, GG!!

Sweet!

Happy New Year, 2015!!

We just got back from our Christmas in Chicago! While I get all those pictures organized, I wanted to share some pics of how we enjoyed our time leading up to the holidays. 

Kyle got to be Daddy's big helper putting up our Christmas lights. We were so happy to have a chimney this year to decorate. Now Santa has the real thing to slide down.

Stringing popcorn for our tree! Precious, huh?

During one of the weeks at school, Kyle's class learned all about the Gingerbread Boy. So, my mom got out her "Gingerbread Boy Box" from her many years in Kindergarten and we went to town with all things Gingerbread. Thanks, mom!

Retelling the story with magnets.

I tried something new this year - instead of an advent calendar with some piece of chocolate, I borrowed an idea from a friend and wrapped up 25 Christmas books with the idea that the boys could open one up each night and we'd read it together before bed. They loved it! They'd get so excited to get home to unwrap a book each afternoon and would often read it to each other. I used some classics, some old ones from Rudy's childhood, some fun ones GG had gotten them over the years, and bought some new ones, too. It's a great way to spend quality time together and get into the spirit of Christmas. This will definitely be a new tradition for us with some of the books changing out as they age. 

We visited a popular, local group of residential streets lit up for the season. The boys enjoyed all the lights, hot cocoa, and fake snow! ;)

We all loved this home-made train. Each car was made differently and with a different purpose. There was one for the kids to sit in and Gavin was all about that.

GG sent us a little care package with Captain's hats for the boys. So of course, we played airplane a ton. Here is Kyle flying Gavin to Chicago. G has his carry on and his ticket!

We had a total of 3 Christmases. The first one was at night with my parents. It was so fun to see them enjoy their toys.This is a classic shot of my boys: Rudy figuring out how to build one of their toys, Kyle helping his Dad, and Gavie in his own little world, on his tummy and his butt sticking up.

Their second Christmas was with just our family.

They were just too cute opening everything and sharing their toys. Little angels, I tell you.

Ru and I got to open our first ever Christmas gift from Kyle. He decorated a ruler with his picture at school and wrote a special card we will save forever! So fun to be able to read what he writes. ;)

I've got another post coming (if I can get to it) about how these boys play with their trash trucks. It literally warms my heart to watch them play "Trash Truck." I stop whatever I'm doing to just stare and remember these moments.

So that was a snapshot (or two) of our December. :)