Illinois

After troubleshooting with a guy from Verizon for 3 1/2 hours on Friday we finally have our internet hooked up!! It's good to be back :) I'm going to try to get caught up with recent events quickly.

Back in April/beginning of May Candy and I took a trip out to Illinois to visit family and friends. We were gone for a week, while David had finals. The girls were troopers. We had a few 15 hour long days in the car, including stops, but it was well worth it. Madeline left her mark in a few small towns along the way, thanks acid reflux :(

I know it's gross, but come on...it's a little funny right?

We definitely could not have done it without aunt Candy. She helped us in every way and as always, I owe her big!!

First we drove to St. Louis and stayed with Candy's old friend, Agota. She has a beautiful home. It was really fun admiring everything in it. The next day we spent some time seeing a few sights in St. Louis.

Gigi with Agota

When David and I were living in Illinois we would go to St. Louis almost every month to go to the temple, but we never had time to see anything so it was really fun to just drive around the city. I have to say that I was pretty impressed with St. Louis. Right in the middle of downtown they have a great big park, complete with a giant duck pond and quite a few museums. We met up with an old friend from work and her son and spent some time in the science museum. It was so fun seeing Shannon again and it was great to meet her son Owen. The museum was pretty cool and the best part was the price...free. You've gotta love a city that makes all of their greatest attractions free. Pretty cool!!

Gigi with Shannon and her son Owen after building "the arch"

While we were at the museum we noticed that they had a build a bear shop. I never really thought I would get Gigi one, but she was so excited about it I decided to give her an early birthday present. She LOVED it!!!! Right now her favorite thing is the color pink, so naturally she chose the only pink animal- a monkey and dressed her in more pink. It is a little blinding to look at the monkey for long periods of time :)
She loved giving the monkey his bath and carried her around everywhere in her little house.


Then we drove to Champaign/Urbana and stayed there for 4 days. The night we pulled into the complex Gigi got really excited and exclaimed, "Oh I remember this place!!" Candy stayed with Eph and Amy and their kids and I stayed with some of our really good friends, the Petersons. We didn't really do a lot in Illinois,other than visit with family/friends, but the time flew by. It was SOOO great seeing friends and family. We have really missed them. Gigi and I really missed living in Winfield Village. I walked by our old townhome and just felt a little sad. Gigi loved playing on the playground again and I was amazed at how well she remembered the place. She really loved seeing her friends/cousins again. It was awesome to see that they all remembered each other.
Here are a bunch of random shots:
Maddie with Candy
Quinn and Tiffany Peterson with Madeline. Our wonderful hosts!!!
Eph with Madeline
Gigi and Asher
Bethany with my kindred spirit, Boomhauer
Amy with her 2 cute girls, Hazel and Daphne
Alex, Katie and Gigi
Gigi and Daphne
Eph holding Madeline, Gigi and Hazel at a great mexican restaurant. Man I sure miss good mexican food!!
Jackie with Madeline. Maddie sure loved Jackie.
Gigi and Clarissa. Aren't they cute?
Bethany with Madeline

Gigi with Katie and their pets, Lola, Lucy and Reuben

Thank you everyone that took time out to visit with us. We loved our trip and already miss you all terribly!!!