More silliness

These are from a few days ago when it was colder. The second one of Sam is Camper giving him a "lick and run".
Yuck!!

I don't think I need to comment on this...

Impromptu trip to Chicago

Ben got two days off so we decided to leave Lilly with Bob and Marsha and head for Chicago with Sam. Here he is, all ready for the trip.

We started at the Shedd Aquarium and it was amazing! For those of you who don't know, Sam is really interested in sharks and sea life so this was really exciting for him. He thought Lake Michigan was great, it's the biggest body of water he has ever seen.

I have over 70 pictures of Sam at the Shedd but most of them are blurry. They don't allow flash photography there and Sam can't sit still so it was a small problem. It took us a long time to convince him to stick his finger in this fishes' mouth. Ben pinching him the first time he got colse didn't help.....

Trip to Chicago part 2

After the Shedd, we checked into the hotel and then walked around Michigan Avenue. We hung out, got a smoothie and then deicide to go to the top of the John Hancock building. What a view! It was cloudy and totally worth the trip, I can't imagine what it would be like on a clear day.

This is the next morning, we had breakfast outside and looked at all the tall buildings again. Sam thought they looked like they were going to fall over. He met another little kid and they chased pidgeons for a while, instant friends.

Trip to Chicago, part 3

On Friday morning we packed up and went to the Museum of Sience and Industry. It was totally incredible! The train in the first picture was Sam's favorite because it looks just like his favorite toy train.

There is a model train exhibit with 3200 feet of track and over 30 trains running all at the same time. It is built to look like a train trip from Chicago to Seattle. It was awesome to watch. Sam really liked this too.

Sam made it about an hour into the trip home before he fell asleep.

Where is Aunt Fish and Uncle Moose??

There has been a lot of talk in the Hartley house lately about Uncle Bret and Aunt Chris going to Australia! Sam has been very interested to learn where they are and what the country is like. This is a picture of Austraila that Sam drew and he is pointing to where Uncle Bret and Aunt Chris' hotel room is....

Aunt Chris was swimming in the 2008 FINA World Masters Championships! This is the big dealio swimming championship where she earned the opportunity to compete with swimmers from all over the world! We are SUPER proud of her and can't wait to hear all the news from the competetion and their 2 weeks of travel afterwards!! GO FISH!!

A morning outside

It was such a nasty winter that we are all so excited to spend time outside!!! It's beautiful here! Lots of birds singing and lovely sunshine. Here are some pics from this morning.

Random pics from the last month...

So, big lesson this week,... never tell your 5 year old he can't do something. I told Sam that building a train track up the stairs woulnd't work. This is try number five or six...

He showed me! Big smile!

Lilly managed to do this all by herself. She came to Ben crying all tangled up, it was pitiful.

Last, but not least, how cute is this????

Just getting to these

So these are a few weeks old, sorry. We had a weird day when it got warm enough to wear shorts, it was about 65 outside. All the snow melted and the kids had a great time in the alley playing in the water and breaking up the ice. It was the first time in 4 months we had seen our neighbors!

Yippie!!!!!

So, the reason that I haven't been keeping up with the blog is that I am absolutely obsessed with knitting socks. It's a sickness, I'm tellin' ya. I actually have what they call a "stash" of sock yarn now. So, these are my first completed pair and I am so excited I can't stand it. I'm getting a pair of Birkenstocks just to show off my new socks!! Seriously, how great are these????

A little miracle

So this afternoon while I was making lunch, which is usually a hellish half hour filled with whining, crying and complaining (and the kids are really hungry and bratty too...), Lilly and Sam sat together and actually co-existed peacefully. I, very quietly, got my camera out and silently documented the event. Yes, yes, yes, the recliner is horrible but it was a gift and the kids love it so what can you do???