Fun with Family

Sophie and I took a trip to Illinois to visit my parents, family and friends over the July 4th holiday.  We had a nice baby shower as a part of the trip, you can check out more details about it in the previous post.  Or you can read about it by clicking here.  Sophie was so excited to see her Grandma and Grandpa.  She is especially fond of her Grandpa and found it hard to wait the length of the flight to see him.  Grandma was there at the airport to pick us up, so we began our adventure to the 'burbs.  The car ride is a bit long so we decided to entertain Grandma with a new song we learned.  Sophie learned "Blackbird" by the Beatles because I sing it to her at bedtime sometimes.  Grandma was so impressed she missed her turn and took us past O'Hare airport.  We had landed at Midway Airport...  Cue massive amounts of traffic and 30 minutes later we were back on track to get out to the 'burbs to see Grandpa.  Thanks for the fun detour Grandma!

 

Sophie thought she could fly to Illinois herself

Airplane nap!

Grandma and Grandpa worked long and hard to get all sorts of stuff to prepare for our visit.  Some of those things included toys and various items to entertain a busy 3 year old.  Luckily, their next door neighbor had a little girl who had outgrown plenty of things she used to play with.  Dress up clothes were included!  I think she spent a few hours changing into different outfits and modeling them for us.  She's definitely a girly girl!

A sassy pose

Who needs toys when you have an Uncle Brad!?

Pedicures are something I always make sure I'm in need of when visiting with my mom.  So we planned a girls morning to the salon to pretty our piggies!  Grandma Ardis, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Brad and Angie had all come to town to visit for a few days.  So we let the guys do their thing, and all of us girls headed out, including Sophie who was getting her very first pedicure!  Lucky little girl when Grandma is involved :)

Cute kiddie chairs

Not quite sure what's going on...

The gals!

 

Sophie and Mommy

A play house complete with a picnic table? Yes please!

We had a fun evening out for the July 4th festivities to see fireworks and enjoy a carnival.  We had some delicious fair food, I think Sophie's favorite thing was a corndog!  She is such a fan of hot dogs, it doesn't surprise me that she loved a breaded one on a stick!  We rode rides with Grandma and Grandpa and played some fun games to win some prizes.  The night was topped off with a great display of fireworks and Sophie loved every bit of it!

A yummy corndog

A carousel ride with Papa

A train ride with Grandma

While we were in Illinois, we had the pleasure of celebrating an 80th Birthday!  My dear friend Margie had a wonderful party celebrating the big event.  She used to babysit me when I was a lot younger, and we have kept in touch ever since.  She is more like a grandmother to me and a big part of our family.  Margie and her husband Rufus have always been big fans of all things Hawaii, including Luaus, hulas, leis and mai tai's.  So naturally she had a party with a Hawaiian theme!  We were entertained by a hula dancer that has been performing at Margie's parties for as long as I can remember, so probably 30 years or so!  She got the audience to participate and had some pretty great moves still after all these years.

Sophie danced with Grandma and Margie

Our entertainment



Margie performing a hula dance

Silly Grandpa did a hula dance too!

Sophie and Margie

Selfie time!

On the last day of our visit we visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  We have all been to this museum plenty of times, but this was Sophie's first visit.  She had a great time seeing all of the exhibits!

Jolly ball!  We love this thing!!

Watching chicks hatch



Hey, that's our name!

On a train engine with Grandma

Getting Sophie to go to bed is always a challenge these days.  She's three, it's to be expected I suppose.  Triple that challenge when we're having so much fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  So I put other people in charge occasionally.  Grandpa had his turn to tuck Sophie in and read her books before bed one night.  He thought he had conquered the task one evening when we saw Sophie come downstairs saying she had to go potty or needed a song sung to her.  Grandpa was immediately back on task and took her upstairs.  Her bedtime was quite late while we were visiting, but I chalked it up to being on vacation and having a good time.  This night was, however, getting pretty late, so I decided to go upstairs and call it quits on book and song time.  This is how I found Grandpa and Sophie...

Nice job Grandpa

We finished our trip with a visit to the old neighborhood where I grew up.  We drove past our two previous houses and pointed out all of the old landmarks around town while wondering how long others had been gone.  We finished the evening at an old hangout of mine, Happy Jacks.  They had started off as an ice cream store and added on with a restaurant.  Thank goodness it still stands because it is always delicious!

Finally, dinner at one of my favorite spots!  Happy Jacks

That concluded the adventures of our trip home.  We had a wonderful time with everyone!

 

Much Love,

 

The Yorks