Chicago Trip

We finally went to see Danielle. I've been meaning to go up and see her apartment for months and have just never taken the time to do it. We finally just picked a weekend and the girls and I went up there. Our goal was to be up there by the time Danielle got off work. I didn't plan on getting stuck in traffic though. It ended up taking us an extra hour, but the girls did great. They were so entertained by the buildings, traffic, and people. Once we got there, we ate supper and then the girls played for a while before going to bed. On Saturday, they got up around 6:30 a.m., which was ridiculously early considering they didn't go to sleep until after 10:00 p.m. We got ready for our day and headed out of the house around 9:30 a.m. Our plan was to be at the Lincoln Park Zoo by 10:00 a.m. when they opened. We made it and spent the next two hours walking around the zoo. The girls loved it! Aubrey's favorite animals were the camels, while Chloe loved the ostrich. After the zoo, we walked to the farmer's market that Dani sometimes goes too. While there was a lot of stuff, there were so many people and it was hard to get the umbrella strollers pushed around on the grass, so we didn't stay long. We then tried to get on a bus to take us downtown, but had to wait 20 minutes before one finally came. We had to cram on the bus, which was full of people, and try to hold on to the girls and the strollers. Luckily, some people gave up their seats so I could sit down and hold the girls. Once we got downtown, we tried to find somewhere to eat, but everywhere had a really long wait, so we just went to Watertower Place and ate in the food court. We then walked around the mall, walked by the place where Danielle works, and got some Garrett's popcorn, before heading to the El. We then took the El back to Dani's place. The girls loved the train, even though there were some interesting people on it. We got back to Dani's around 4:00 p.m. We were all exhausted, so we just collapsed and let the girls play for a while before making supper. After supper, the girls got a bath and went straight to bed. The poor things were asleep within five minutes and slept until after 7 a.m. on Sunday. After showering and eating breakfast, we were off to church and then brunch. On the way back to Dani's, we stopped at a park and let the girls play. Once we got back to Dani's, I finished packing and then we headed home. The drive home was much quicker - no traffic.

Looking at the animals at the zoo

Aubrey's favorite animal - the camel
Chloe's favorite animal - the ostrich

Aunt Dani and the girls

Riding on the carousel

Me and the girls on the El

Looking out the window on the El

Dani didn't have many toys so the girls had to come up with their own fun. :)

The girls slept on an air mattress on the floor and did great!

Elliott and the Park

We finally made it down to see Drew, Vanessa, and Elliott the middle of September. We hadn't seen them in quite a while and decided that a picnic at the park would be fun. They live pretty close to a park, so I took Aubrey's bike so she could ride it there. She's not used to riding far distances, so she got tired, but she made it. We ate and then the kids played for a while. The girls had fun playing somewhere new, and it was nice to see them.

Best Buds

The girls lately have been playing so well together. While they do fight some, they are such good buddies. I love watching them together - it's so sweet watching them hold each other's hands or do nice things for one another. Chloe is a little lost without Aubrey when she's at school. I'm pretty sure I'm a poor substitute for her. Their favorite thing to play continues to be "house" where Aubrey is almost always the mom. I'm usually the dad. It gets a little confusing occasionally when Chloe is calling for mommy but she doesn't want me - she's talking to Aubrey. I usually have to decide if I'm the mommy or the daddy at the moment.

Both girls have been going to Sunday School. Chloe's the youngest in her class, but I decided to send her anyway, seeing as how Aubrey is in the same class. Her teachers tell me that she does fine and listens well. I'm really enjoying going to Bible class without taking any children with me.

Mom and Dad came over Labor Day and helped me close the pool. They picked up Jenna on their way by Lafayette so she could come too. While it was a very windy weekend, we were able to get the cover on and everything cleaned up and put away. I could never have done it by myself. They also helped me put edging and river rock around the outside of the pool, which was a huge project in itself. It definitely makes it look nicer though.

Calvin continues to work on things around the house. This past weekend he took down one of our small bulk bins and hauled some more junk to the junkyard. He then rearranged some of the stuff outside so it wouldn't be so cluttered. He also cut down the three big pine trees that were to the west of the house. The one was dead, and the other two were filled with suckers and just looked out of place. It definitely looks different without them - you can see more. He promised Aubrey that we would roast hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire once we burn it. She's excited about it even though she doesn't really like hot dogs or marshmallows.

Chloe also recently decided that she wanted to start wearing panties to bed for nap and night time. I was a little weary at first because she's always been so wet in the morning. But she's been wearing panties for almost a week and has only had two accidents. We are pretty excited about it!

Coloring with Grandma

Chloe and her baby
My new nephew - Edwin David - was born September 9th. He's so adorable and the girls fell in love with him! They, of course, had to hold him.

Watching TV together

I love my sissy!

The Girls' Terminology

The girls continue to grow and change. I've had several people comment on how tall they've both gotten over the summer. It's hard for me to see it as I see them every day, but I have noticed that their pants don't seem to fit as well in the length. They continue to love to play house and babies. I'd say they play that almost 95% of the time. I'm usually either the big sister or the grandma. They are constantly going to the hospital to "have" their babies. Thank goodness neither one of them has asked how that happens yet. Although I have told Aubrey that when she was born they cut my tummy open to get her out, so maybe that has satisfied her curiousity so far. They really do play very well together. On Thursday, they played together by themselves for over two hours with no fighting. It was awesome and I was able to catch up on some paperwork I was majorly behind on! Chloe continues to talk non-stop. Sometimes I wish that girl had a mute button. She constantly wants to know what or why and asks me every night where we are going the next day. For the most part, she talks like a little adult except for a few things like calling the computer a "mickpooter" and calling the fly swatter a "shooflyper". Not really sure where she came up with those. Aubrey is the typical older, bossy sister who loves to be in charge and tell Chloe what to do. Most of the conflict comes when Chloe refuses. Lately I've been trying to let them work it out, unless one of them is hurt of course. Aubrey's cute phrase right now is when she asks you, "Can you do me a favorite?" instead of a favor. She says it all the time and it's so cute I hate to correct her. They are both such good helpers with the baby I babsit two to three afternoon/evenings a week. They love Logan and genuinely miss him when he's not around. They love to "babysit" him and keep him entertained. They are so good! Chloe gets his food out every time for me and will get diapers and wipes too when a diaper needs to be changed. They definitely make life a little easier, that's for sure.

They were both up really early one morning, so I made them read books in my bed while I finished getting ready.

They love to play church and demo derby on the steps. Not really sure which one this is - Aubrey took the picture.
Chloe read books to Logan one day.

First Day of School

Aubrey started school on August 25th. She was so excited and couldn't wait to go. She'd been missing her friends during the summer and was anxious to get back into a routine. I was a little nervous about how Chloe would react, because all summer they'd been pretty good buddies and spent most of their days playing together. After we dropped Aubrey off and got into the car, she did say, "I want Aubrey to come home with me." in a pretty pitiful way. Once we got home though, she was fine.

This year Aubrey is in four year old preschool, which means she goes three mornings a week. She had been logically trying to figure out the whole school thing and decided that she would go to school three days a week now, five days a week in kindergarten, and then six days a week the next year. She was actually really excited by that fact until I informed her that you only ever go five days a week. I think she was a little bummed. She loves school!

First day of school - she looks so big!

My niece Sophia gave Chloe her old bookbag, because Chloe was crying about not having one. The day before school started, we packed Aubrey's bookbag with all of her school supplies. Chloe, of course, needed some supplies too. We put in Aubrey's old folder, some crayons, scissors, and a glue stick. She then proceeded to bring her bookbag with her on Aubrey's first day of school. She even wore it into the school!

Ready to go

By her hook

Trying out her paints the first day

First Family Vacation

In the beginning of August, we took our first family vacation to Lake Sara in Effingham. Calvin borrowed a bass boat from his friend so that we could go out on the boat and fish. I was a little worried about how the girls would do being cooped up on a boat out on the water. Calvin had high hopes that they would absolutely love it - he has dreams of buying a boat some day. We left on Friday after lunch, did a little shopping, and made it to our resort a little before dinner. We got unpacked, I made dinner, and then we went out on the lake to drive around for a little bit before bed. Our room had two bedrooms, so the girls had to sleep together. I wasn't sure how they would do, considering they've never slept together before. The first night they did pretty good. Chloe woke up once in the middle of the night and got up earlier than Aubrey, but Aubrey never got up. Calvin got up early to go fishing. After we ate breakfast, we went back out on the boat to do some fishing. It was really hot in the direct sunlight, and the girls got hot and bored after about an hour. We came back, ate some lunch, and then took the girls to the small beach that they had. They played in the sand, swam in the lake, and then jumped off the dock. After getting cleaned up, we went back out on the lake. This time we took umbrellas so we wouldn't be hot in the sun. Chloe fell asleep on the way out to the fishing spot and ended up sleeping for the next hour or so. Aubrey was awesome and played in the shade with the fishing lures and then did a little fishing too. When we got back, I made supper while Calvin and the girls practiced casting off the dock. That night they slept great and woke up a little later. They got dressed, ate breakfast, and played while I packed everything up. When Calvin got back from fishing, we packed up the car and then headed for home. We stopped and got Aubrey some new school shoes and ate some lunch. Once we got home, we unpacked and then went swimming. We all had a lot of fun just spending time together. I know the girls loved spending some quality time with their daddy.

Getting ready to go out on the boat for the first time

The back of our unit

Mommy and Chloe

Cheese!

Cooling down

Keeping busy while Daddy fishes

Fishing with Daddy on the boat

Chloe spent at least fifteen minutes putting stickers on the water bottle.

Getting ready to go to the beach

Playing at the beach

Playing in the lake with Daddy

Aubrey buried in the sand

She can be such a ham!

Watching Aubrey jump off the dock

Aubrey jumping off the dock - the first time she's ever done something like that!

Cuddle time with Daddy

Aubrey and Chloe's bed

Last day of vacation

Helping Daddy get packed up to go home

Pool

Okay, I know. I've been terrible this summer about keeping up with my blog. There's always just something else that needs to get done that I never end up sitting down and doing it. So my goal is to try and get some pictures up from the past couple months that have been sitting on my computer for forever and let you know what we've been up to this summer.

Last year, over Labor Day weekend, we went to my parents' and helped them take down their pool. They were giving it to us, so we needed to get it all loaded and brought home. Once the weather started warming up, I began to drop hints to Calvin about setting up the pool. He finally agreed, only for us to have to wait three weeks for a part we needed to come in. This meant that instead of putting up the pool in June, we were now looking at July. I still wanted to get it done, but had pretty much lost hope that it would get up this summer. Calvin finally made up his mind to put it up and started digging out the sod, leveling the dirt, and then putting in sand. The weekend we put it up ended up being the weekend mom and dad were on vacation and the wind was blowing pretty strong. Calvin's parents and aunt came and helped us put it up. It was pretty stressful. I thought for sure several times that the wind was going to knock the whole wall in, but we made it and got it filled. Mom and Jenna came over the next day to help me set up the pump, filter, and add chemicals. It didn't take long for the water to go from brown to clear - maybe three days. We were swimming within a week of putting it up.

The pool has been amazing to have. During July, we swam just about every day. The girls, even Chloe, will swim by themselves around the pool. Aubrey will even go under water - though it's not her favorite thing. They've gotten so much more comfortable in the water and have become little fishies. :) I'm so thankful to mom and dad for giving it to us.

Aubrey swimming

Aunt Dani with Aubrey and Chloe
Getting ready to go swimming for the first time

Aunt Dani and Chloe

Swimming with Grandma and Grandpa
The pool

Aubrey swimming