Trip to the store..

It's started to hit me that we could very well have less than a year here and I'm starting to randomly take photos of the common things around here. In 10 years, when the girls are older, I want to be able to show them things like street signs, the restaurant we always ate at, and so forth. I realize now I usually only take photos of our big trips so I am starting to practice and make it a habit. Obviously there is nothing artistic or special about these photos but I thought I'd share what 'real' Sicily looks like. These were taken on my drive up the hill to Castorama to buy a few flowers for my flower boxes this afternoon.

This is the closest town to us, Motta. It's about 20 mins up- It sits high on a hill and has an old castle, which I believe you can't go in. As you can see the fields of green flowers are now dead, dry grasses and weeds. Such a difference a month makes.
Cacti everywhere. Sort of like our old home in good old Texas.

This is Motta Hill. Or atleast that's what all of the American's call it.. it's the steep hill in Motta that if you're in a manual car is very scary for the passengers.

My favorite store- Castorama. It's basically like a Home Depot or Lowes in the US. I go there for flowers, paint, and any time I'm extremely bored. It's in the country basically but randomly next to a huge mall that is very modern (will have to show you pics of that place too soon.) It opened just shortly before we moved here.

sad, warming, inspiring story- new blog to check out

http://www.mattlogelin.com/

This blog is written by a new daddy, Matt, to a 9 week old baby girl, Madeline. He lives in LA (I believe) and writes daily about learning to be a new father after his wife died in the hospital, a day or so after giving birth. If you haven't checked this blog out before- do so.. but click on the links on the right that explain the original story/post. (I think it says something like, "If you haven't been here before.. read this.")
His blog has become famous after some write ups in famous papers and he gets gifts from all over the country, and posts pictures of every single one. It's so touching. My heart breaks for this guy and I cry all the time reading it but it's something worth taking a look at--

Last one.. Brookfield Zoo

I only took a few pics as it was a day or two before we left and after several zoos, I just wanted to relax. We went on Memorial Day weekend and let me tell you, that is not the time to go to Brookfield Zoo. It was crazy busy but it's very open and sprawled out so we ended up not noticing the crowds too much, aside from the parking lot! FYI Military gets in free!

Right next to the elephant habitat, there's a large elephant sprinkler that my water girlie loved.

BTW.. see a resemblance? We all think Eleanor looks exactly like D (which she does) however I think Grandma is in there a bit too. There is a photo of my mom around age 2 in her family room and Ellie was holding on to it. We realized they looked SO much alike!!!

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

It was a freezing day, yet so crystal clear you could see the entire Chicago skyline. The girls loved running in the sand though and Valerie has been asking to go 'back to beach' ever since. The wind was so nuts that it was hard to get any shots without hair in front of Val's and Grandma's faces so we did the best we could. I just wanted one great picture of the four of them.. but I think I got a few! We went for a decent hike in the woods afterwords and stopped at Coldstone on the way home. Can't tell a two year old that ice cream when it's cold out isn't fun, right? (or me) :)

haha.. look at mom's face

Fun in the City

One day during our trip, Grandma and Grandpa took us to Chicago to Millenium Park! Poor Grandpa survived 45 mins smashed between two car seats in the backseat (sucks to have the smallest booty, huh?) :) We had a great time--

Sprinkler Pics!

First off, Happy 30th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

Today has been so beautiful. We needed to get some things taken care of outside so I washed the dogs, washed the cars, and the girls played in the water! Valerie washed her play car and tricycle and the girls LOVE to run through the sprinkler. Judging from the expressions on their little faces, we will definitely be doing this all summer long!!!

P.S. Thank you Grandma Shirl for the Dora suit for Val. It's quite big, but she wears it at home with pride!!

Water fun with the Lough's!

Sarah and I have been chatting through a parenting site for a couple years and finally got the chance to meet in St. Louis. We have so much in common and was so happy she came to meet us before we met up with the Monahan's! Her kids are super adorable and they all got along so well. We ate lunch at the park and the kids took it upon themselves to run in the fountain. Val got down to her underwear by the end! Poor Valerie came down with the flu that morning so Sarah actually had to meet us at Target where I was cleaning out the puked-in car and buying new clothes for Val. What good sports they were. We figured, atleast if we are outside and she throws up, we're good to go. ;) Afterwards we took a stroll through the botanical gardens before it was time to say goodbye! There are a lot of photos, these are my favorites. We spent the entire day taking pictures so it was pretty hard to narrow it down!!