Tent

When we were at Ikea a couple of weeks ago, we picked up a Koja for Anna. That's Inexpensive-Swedish-Furniture-Store language for tent. She loves it, but so does Ollie. He'll go in it whenever possible, and should Anna join him, he does everything to stay in the tent but as far away from her as possible. It's not that big and he's pretty fat, so eventually he gives up and leaves his beloved Koja.

I tried to get pictures of them in the tent together the other night, but Ollie scooted out too quickly, and as soon as Anna saw the camera, she started hamming it up.

Hangin' with the Schmids

Last weekend we met up with John and Cheri in Schaumburg. We did our usual circut of Ikea, Borders, etc, etc. To wrap it up, we tried a new restaurant for supper. I don't remember the name of it, but it started with a B and it was close to Woodfield Mall. Yum - it was some tasty eats.



I'm not sure if it took Anna all day to realize that John was with us, but she had a tough time taking her eyes off him while we were eating. Of course, maybe she just thought he was strange looking... ;)



As usual, the kids had a good time acting goofy after we ate.

Shiner

With greater mobility comes the occasional bump and or bruise. Anna's already had her first shiner.

Crawling

Anna's crawling now and getting into everything - quite literally. Here she is in her laundry basket.

Happy Birthday Lilly!

We recently went to Chicago to celebrate Lilly's first birthday. You might remember that Lilly was due to be born 10 days before Anna, but she couldn't wait to see her parents so she came 10 1/2 weeks early.

She went from this:


To this, in one quick year!


Anna had fun playing with toys that were new to her.


And when we headed back to the car, she enjoyed a leisurely stroller ride.

The best thing about Springfield

I can't believe I forgot about this! We found the most exciting thing in Springfield, IL when we were there...



Cheap parking! Maximum price was $6.50 - parking in Chicago doesn't even start at that rate!

Paducah, KY

We're currently in Paducah, where I'm attending a training class at CSI, our banking host provider. It's good stuff - today we talked about bank control records, balancing reports, Centerview reports, and service charge routines. I'm looking forward to the next couple of days when we delve into sweep accounts and multiple cash management accounts - but I digress.

Our trip started with a jaunt to Springfield, IL and some time at Lincoln's tomb; then it was off to the new Lincoln museum and a peek into the Lincoln library. They were beautiful!


















Then we went to the Lincoln Museum where they had replicas of Lincoln's boyhood home and his presidential home (the White House). They also had some pretty realistic looking wax statues - I thought I saw one breathing!













Tonight we went to Metropolis, IL, home of Superman! Not only do they have a giant statue of the man of steel, but they have a Super Store and Super Museum. And, their newspaper is the Daily Planet, of course.














On the way back to Paducah, we drove across a scary steel bridge. Since it was quite a way out of Metropolis, I don't think it was blue for Superman.

Happy Birthday America!!

Sights from the Fourth of July Parade, compliments of Crown Town...

Our corner:



The parade had it's usual line up of firetrucks and ambulances, all with their sirens blaring, then came the color guard and politicians. Everyone was tossing out candy. Kids brought their own bags to collect goodies.













After all that, it was time for the businesses and bagpipes. Wait, bagpipes? I guess no parade is complete without them.



















Now we wait for the fireworks tonight!