my favorite city in the world...chicago!

ed surprised me and took me to chicago for the weekend. who says marriage gets boring? we had a wonderful time-the weather was beautiful so we walked all over the place (he even bought me a new pair of shoes because my feet hurt...actually he sat while i wandered around the shoe dept at nordstrom-i almost needed new shoes just for that, it's so big.) we did some touristy things-things that we never did when we lived here. and we talked and talked and talked.

thanks honey, i needed that!

6 adults + 11 kids = 1 happy household

this past week was so great! we had my dad & mom here-what a treat!! we did a lot of just hanging out and relaxing...oh yea, mom and i and laura and barb went to a taping of

the martha stewart show-front row seats!!!

then on friday the ottens came with their gang. we had a blast-mom & dad got to meet them too and shared in our fun...until they (dad & mom) had to go home on sat :(.....

what a good-looking bunch, huh?

as always, there were lots of laughs, building our friendships and just plain fun.

the hike up to the old castle up cannonball trail:
the injured...

calvin fell (hiking) and both of his knees were bleeding-down his legs! it looked pretty bad!

liv sprained her ankle-again...hiking

shanyn fell too-ouch! :(

are we seeing a pattern here? THAT's why you shouldn't exercise-plus, a big bowl of ice cream makes me feel better than any treadmill ever could.

along the trail...

really roughing it up in the mountains, huh jake?

the beautiful nyc skyline

tawnya broke her arm before she came here and uncle ed took her cast off...what a mess those canadian casts are!

how many dutchmen can you fit in one treatment room?...

shanyn's birthday. happy birthday sweetie!

and just hanging out...

FOOD!!!

wow, christine, what form-glad to see you've still got it at your age!

phase 10 & settlers-watch out~this is serious competition!