So we're up and running. House on the market this very day. Click here for the online tour.
I know only 11 people read this blog, but if any of you want to live here, it's for sale! Tell your friends!
And, yeah, I forgot to move the ironing board from behind the armoire in the bedroom. And the green walls look even greener, esp in Wyatt's room and the bathroom. But overall I think the tour looks really nice (thanks Merilee and the Obeo lady who came and took pictures!). At least there's not a vaguely stunned looking 4 year old Middle Eastern child laying in the middle of the room with his legs in the air, as I just saw in a picture from a house in MN I was looking at online.
Seriously. No children in the photos, oh ye who want to sell a house. Or cereal bowls with milk in them. Or turned over chairs in the middle of the kitchen. (Saw all those things.) So I suppose a glimpse of an ironing board isn't gonna kill me.
But I might have to repaint the bathroom and Wyatt's bedroom. Or not.
1. I cleaned by hind end off. Literally. Lost it somewhere in the bags of junk I hauled out of the basement.
2. Stayed home while Forrest ran Ragnar with his awesome team. His group consisted of a bunch of Iron Men, a former BYU Quarterback, my favorite almost-not-a-Western-Region-Sales-Manager-anymore, and a half dozen women who DO NOT THREATEN ME. :-) See for yourself:
They came in 16th out of 659 coed teams. Pretty darn impressive! And then Forrest came home and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned right along w/ me. Who knew so much messiness lurks inside these four walls? Seriously, though, once you start looking at your light switches, they're ALL SMUDGED. All of them.
Entropy!
3. Got the house all tricked out for our photo tour. Once it's up I'll have to post a link to the listing so you can see my house more gloriously cleansed than it has ever been in, lo, its 4 years of existence.
And why don't I have a link to my photo tour, you ask? Because we STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN THE APPRAISALS BACK. We were told we'd get them back by Friday (definitely!), but of course, no dice. So I got an email this morning saying that they'd received them, but needed to "review them" before they could call us and give us the number. So, you know, I'm blogging while I wait. It is now 12:29, so 1:29 in Relo Company Land. How long does it take to review an appraisal? How should I interpret this? For those of you not in the know: the relo company will buy our house if it doesn't sell in the next two months, but they will buy it for the averaged price of two appraisals, and in this market, all the distressed properties are really bringing me down! Also, we can only list our house for a certain percentage above the appraised price. Once we get the number we know what we can list our house for. And once we know the number, we know if I need to have terrible-housing-market-induced panic attacks for the next two months if our house doesn't sell and we need to take the relo offer. So, c'mon appraisal! I have enough to worry about.
Seriously. Call me.**
4. Finished and submitted my final grades for the final creative writing class I'll teach at the BYU SL Center. Man, I'm going to miss that job. It was a privilege. Perfect job for me. Ah, well.
5. Attended the Segullah staff retreat and writers' conference. Had a blast. Talked and talked and talked and cried and laughed my head off and learned and grew and felt really, really grateful that I get to be a part of such a fabulous community. So, yes, we did stay up WAAAAYYY to late on Friday night, which I knew was going to happen, because with so many interesting people to talk to, who wants to go to sleep? I got about 4 hours, but some folks (you know who you are) got NONE. Then we put on our first ever community writing conference on Saturday. Over sixty attendees, awesome sessions, great food, good times. Puts the AML conferences to shame. Our posters alone--pure gorgeousness! Little gourmet cupcakes with lunch. Handouts with information from each session given to each attendee in a lovely folder with a colorful Segullah sticker on the front, complete with notebook and pen. Not to mention the intelligence and passion of the presenters and all the great learning that occurred. That's what happens when you have a few dozen committed, creative, take charge women. (At our staff retreat we asked how many of us were oldest kids, and I swear 70% of the hands went up. Hilarious.) Anyway, I loved it. Only drawback was the A/C being on the fritz (thought I might pass out while I taught my session), but everything else went super-smooth. So thanks, my friends!
5. Came home late Saturday night. Dragged my sorry, tired behind out of bed and went to church. Came home and crashed, sleeping like a rock for 3 1/2 hours before heading to my mom's for dinner (thanks mom!). Then (sigh) could NOT fall asleep. Tossed and turned. That's what happens when one takes a 3 1/2 hour nap, even if one only got 4 hours of sleep the night before.
6. Looked at houses online. Prepped for our house hunting trip. Both stressed and excited, about all of it. Let's see what July brings us!
**Appraisals in. We're going to be okay. Not the best best BEST appraisal we could have received, but good good GOOD enough that we're not faced with the prospect of coming up with $20,000 to cover our behinds. So I'm truly grateful and relieved. Now I just have to get in house-showing mode, which means get the house clean by 10 a.m. then LEAVE for the day!
Mainly because it's been a whirwindy couple of weeks: Forrest received a job offer, we thought and prayed and talked and cried and worried and finally found a measure of peace and assurance, and then decided to accept it. This means that Fuller is going to be moving us back to the Land of 10,000 Lakes sometime in mid-August, and that we've all been spending the last few days frantically readying our house to put on the market and dealing with all the conflicting emotions that such a life change brings about.
So, in a nutshell: yes, we feel strongly this is the right thing to do, but it's still going to be challenging for lots of reasons, and we're going to miss so many things about Utah that it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it, so I try not to. And yes, there's a lot to look forward to in MN--we did really love it there--and this move will allow Forrest some new opportunities for growth, and we have faith that it will allow the rest of us new opportunities for growth as well. The kids are doing quite well with the news, all things considered.
And me? I alternate between panicked and peaceful, at least a dozen times a day. Stay tuned.
First: The picture above and the picture below are a couple of shots I took in our back yard on May 24th. Yes--MAY 24th! I wanted to post them for posterity, just in case we forget that it can snow like gangbusters in Utah a few days before Memorial Day.
Today it's officially beautiful outside, blue sky and seventies. Isn't weather weird?
And speaking of Memorial Day, I figured I'd give a general update of the members of the fam, illustrated by photos taken during a Memorial Day baseball game at the park by Grandma and Grandpa's house. (And a few other pictures thrown in for good measure, too. I know you all like my pictures. Yes?)
So here we go. Kids first. How about Jonas first? He never gets to go first!
Jonas:
First big piece of Jonas news: He got glasses! They just arrived today, and he's been excited. Who'd have thought that a child of mine--me, the girl who hid in the equipment closet in 6th grade rather than get her eyes tested in order to avoid the dreaded "studious look"--would be so thrilled about nearsightedness! He looks handsome, though, don't you think? A few weeks back, he mentioned that he couldn't read some captions on television, and I thought, "Uh oh!" And, yep, his vision was 20/100. But now he can see the leaves on the trees! So exciting. And maybe he'll get even awesomer (yes, I'm saying that's a word) at baseball.
(Jonas going for the catch at our family baseball game on Memorial Day).
And speaking of baseball, his team has had a rough season. Only one win, and that was when we were in St. George. But Jonas has been able to play some fun positions--shortstop and second base--and, as his father is wont to say, he "has learned a lot from the experience." His soccer team, alas, has only won one game, too . . . so, yes, this has been the season of learning a lot. Jonas almost always has a good attitude about it, though. And he's a kickin' goalie.
Elise
(Now that's the face of a girl who's dead serious about getting a hit.)
Elise has had a fun couple of weeks. She got to go to SPACE CAMP, a really cool activity for 6th graders. She applied to be the ambassador and was so excited to get that job. (I'm not really sure what an ambassador does--it had something to do with negotiating with aliens--but it was one of the "important" jobs, I've been told, so she was pretty psyched.) I hear she did a great job and avoided most alien-related catastrophes.
The other cool event in Elise's life is her new calling as first counselor in the Beehive presidency. Elise has really loved Young Womens, and I know she'll do a great job in her new calling. Oh, and she got tickets to the Justin Bieber concert that's coming to SLC (screeeeeeeeeeaaaaammm!) Her first real concert. I know I say this a lot, but it IS hard to believe how fast she's growing, both inside and out.
Wyatt
The Wy-man had a big milestone event last week, too. First trip to the dentist!
(Isn't it nice to have a handy cell-phone camera for shots such as this?)
He was pretty happy about the whole thing until the nice lady started cleaning his teeth and using the sucky thing to get all the spit, and I felt bad as the poor guy looked up at me with panic in his eyes and mumbled (cause who can talk with a sucky thing in your mouth), "Mom! What IS this?" The dentist gave him a clean bill of dental health, and he was pretty eager to hop out of that chair and go pick a prize from the prize basket for his trouble.
He also plays a pretty mean game of baseball, too:
Ethan
(He was batting left-handed against the girls, for fairness' sake. So hard to be so manly.)
Ethan had a really big day today. Last day of 8th grade! (Okay, well, tomorrow is officially the last day, but apparently "no one" is going.) I'm happy to say that Ethan's finishing up his 8th grade year with a 4.0--which is all the more impressive considering he's done homework like, I don't know, four times? Either South Jordan Middle School is way too easy, or Ethan is a super speed demon student. Eh, it's probably a combination of the two. But he's had a great year and I'm proud of him. He's also getting his Life Scout on Sunday (the last step before his Eagle). Good kid? Yes, good kid.
He also just wrapped up his flag football season and had a great time. I love how laid back and fun flag football is--none of the crazy competitive stuff that gives me a stomach ache. Ethan got to play quarterback a few times, and he had a number of killer interceptions. Fun all around.
Forrest
(Forrest & Wyatt, ready to run to second base.)
Over the last few weeks, Forrest has been blessedly home. The fact that he had a few weeks without traveling was a lifesaver for me while I was in the throes of my ridiculous pneumonia, and his help around the house was invaluable. He's back on the road again this week, though, and has been super busy w/ work, even when he HAS been home. It's a hard job, keeping all of us clothed and fed and adorned with glasses and braces and whatnot. He works his tushie off, and I'm grateful. (Figuratively. If he literally worked his tushie off, that would be cause for great distress, obviously.)
In the midst of work-work-working and helping me take care of the house and kids while my immune system limped along, he also did a 20 mile trail race up in the mountains at Camp Williams last weekend. No pictures of this one since he did it all on his own (there's not really a good place to see him on the trail, and the dang thing started at 6 a.m.) For the first time in a long time, he was wicked sore the day after. Usually he's like Megatron (or as I would assume Megatron would be) and runs miles and miles with nary a physical complaint. But he felt this one. He's all set to to Ragnar (a 170-mile team relay race from Logan to Park City) in a couple of weeks, and his team, which includes a former BYU quarterback (who I forget his name) is going to be awesome. Forrest is one of the weaker runners on the team--and he won't mind me saying that, readily admits it himself--so I'm sure it will be fun to run with so many great athletes.
Moi
I'm finally, FINALLY, feeling better, but I'm still not 100%. Still have the occasional coughing fit, especially when I laugh, and still can't sing. I've been surprised how much I've missed singing. I do most of my singing in the car, of course, but come to find out that I sing in the car A LOT, and when I can't, well, it bums me out. I suppose I have been able to better approach the gravelly sultriness of Adele, whose song "Hometown Glory" never fails to make my heart jump with happiness every time it comes up on my CD mix. (Heck, here's a video, just so you can listen to it and agree with me. And since there aren't any pictures of me playing baseball, nor will there ever be.)
Along with mom-stuff, I've been busy teaching my Tues/Thurs class. Only four students, but they're all great. Really, it's such a privilege to teach creative writing, especially in a smaller classroom setting like this. You do get to know each other in a really meaningful way--something that I doubt can happen in a biology or statistics class. And teaching creative writing has also made it starkly clear how hard life is for so many people. For all of us, really. People start telling their stories, and time and time again I'm reminded of the power and sadness and triumph and goodness of individual lives.
I've also been having fun with my Webelos boys. They're a good group and I truly do like our activities (surprise surprise?), and while doing Webelos doesn't exactly remind me of the power and sadness and triumph and goodness of individual lives, it IS a lot better than I thought it would be. Mostly cause the kids are so goofy and cute. What I don't like is all the paperwork and headache-inducing tracking in order to make sure the boys get their rank advancements. Five boys got their Arrows of Light in May, though, and while I'll miss them, it is a relief to have all that work done and to have the den down to a more manageable size.
I've also been doing a lot of reading. I read Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist so I could interview him for the upcoming issue of Irreantum. It's quite a novel--not for everybody, though, content-wise, so don't say I didn't tell you. I interviewed him via email and I think it went well. It will be published in my co-editor, Jack Harrell's, upcoming issue, which is cool. I also finished an advance copy of my friend Ally Condie's new YA novel, Matched, which is going to be HUGE, and loved that as well. (I'm interviewing Ally for my Fall/Winter issue of Irreantum, and reading Matched during the St. George vacation gave me much solace as I coughed my guts out.) I also read Jack Harrell's (my aforementioned co-editor) new collection of short stories, soon to be published by Signature, and it knocked my socks clean off. They asked me to give a back of the cover blurb . . . and why is it that writing a back of the cover blurb can be harder than writing a full on review? But I finally got one finished, and look forward to seeing Jack's book blow the collective socks off of the dozens and dozens of people who read Mormon literary fiction. (Really, I hope it gets as wide a readership as is humanly possible for a literary short story collection for a Mormon audience, because it's excellent.) Add to that a few books for fun--both audiobooks and regularbooks--and I've enjoyed some really great reads lately.
And, finally, the Irreantum fiction and essay contests' submission windows have just closed, and we've had our biggest response yet. Over 90 fiction pieces, over 40 essays. Although I know that means a ton of reading ahead of me, there's a strange little literary demon inside me that gets truly excited when all the submissions come pouring in. I guess it makes me feel like I'm doing all this work for something; that there are people out there who are writing the kind of stuff Irreantum publishes, and these people really really really want to get published, and Irreantum is one of the only places where it can happen. So it makes me glad.
Oh! And the Segullah Writers Conference is coming up too! I've been helping out w/ publicity on the conference and it's been stressing me out some. I'm not sure we're publicizing it like we should be, but I suppose there's only so much we can do. I hope people come. Come! If you live here and you want to come, COME! It's going to be awesome.
And Oh again! An essay of mine was published in Segullah's most recent anthology, Dance With Them. It's a companion anthology to The Mother in Me and focuses on parenting school age and teenage children. I haven't seen it yet, but the book is on its way and I'm looking forward to reading all the other essays in the collection.
And that's about it from here. Quite enough from me, I'm sure. Now I gotta go clean up the corn dogs I've left moldering on the counter after our highly nutritious dinner. Corn dogs and bananas. Mmmm . . . makes your mouth water, doesn't it?
So as anyone who has spoken to me--either via telephone or in person--over the last two weeks is aware: I've been sick. Sick-sick-sicky-sick. Embarrassingly sick. Hacking like an emphysema-ridden octogenarian. I started feeling weird in Chicago, like I had a ball of gunk in my lung, but I was otherwise okay. But the day after I got home I started going downhill, then, by Wednesday, I could barely talk and was coughing like a maniac. But I sucked up as much oxygen as my lungs would let me and did Webelos, taught class twice, and got everybody ready to leave on our family trip to St. George on Friday morning (this was all last week, not this week, just to clarify). The whole time I figured I just had a cold and needed to woman-up and will myself to get over it. I was also feeling guilty and sheepish about being sick AGAIN, since my 3-week-long sore throat had only ended a few weeks before. I'm ashamed to admit I'd always felt a weird kind of pride about rarely getting sick--like it was evidence of my excellent character--so perhaps the last few months have served to teach me a lesson.
Lesson received.
So I hacked my way to St. George and back, and my family and Mindy and Peter's family were exceedingly patient with me the whole time (thanks--and sorry if I bummed everybody out). I was still convinced I only had a cold, though, so did my very best to be a trouper and join in all the activities, like hauling kids & blankets & chairs all over the triathlon site and hiking Zions, etc. It wasn't until I'd been home a day and was exhausted from lack of sleep (coughing all night) and wasn't breathing well and sounded terrible, that Forrest talked me into going to the doctor, which I resist at all costs. I was particularly resistant because I'd gone to the doctor the month before in response to my 3-week-long sore throat (strep test, negative). Anyway . . . turns out this time the doctor was a good idea, because one chest x-ray later, it was confirmed that I have bacterial pneumonia. In a way it was good news because 1. it meant I wasn't being a giant baby over a little cold and 2. antibiotics! I've been on the antibiotics since Monday and have been trying to take it easy, and today (Sat.) I'm finally starting to feel more like myself. Still coughing, but otherwise operational. Anyway, very grateful for modern medicine, a body's ability to heal itself, and a patient family for seeing me through this icky gunk. And luckily so far nobody else has gotten sick.
And now that we have all THAT out of the way, let's look at some pictures from our St. George trip!
First, swimming at the condo pictures:
Brotherly love.
Sisterly cuteness
Pure hunk
Pure fun
Pure form
Not-quite-as-pure form
Mindy and Lily as examples of the human form (or: "one of these bellies is not like the other . . ." :-)
Everybody had a ball at the pool, and the weather was perfect. 80s. Thank you, St. George. Now, onto the triathlon! Forrest and Peter both ran the tri on Saturday morning and did GREAT. The water was calm and things went very well for both guys. In fact, they blew through the swim so fast that I MISSED them coming out of the water (too busy trying to keep the kids off the rocks by the lake.) They came in 5th and 6th place, respectively, in the 35-39 age range, with Peter running a 1:22:14 and Forrest running a 1:22:26, just 12 seconds apart. So, even though I wasn't feeling great, it was a fun race to watch. Always like seeing Forrest earlier than I expect to, rather than later.
The kids-waiting-on-a-blanket shot
The Forrest-on-his-bike shot
The Forrest-coming-in-for-the-finish shot. When Forrest was looking at the times of the 60-year-olds he wondered if he might still be doing these when he's 60, and I told him that if he was, we'd sure have a heck of a lot of pictures of him riding his bike and crossing a finish line. But hey, I don't mind being the documentarian, and it's still a lot of fun to go cheer him on, no matter how many races he does.
And now, to finish up, random cute single shots of the kids:
Cute Ethan
Cute Leesee
Cute Joe-bear (I wonder when I have to stop calling him Joe-bear?)
Cute Wy-dog. (I'm never going to have to stop calling him Wy-dog.)
And a random smattering of Zions pics:
"Hey kids! Sit here and smile!"
"Now sit there and smile!"
Caterpillars!
Backlit silhouettes of my family + scenery!
And the only picture taken with me in it the whole entire trip. (Actually, I don't mind being the designated photographer. Photo-avoidance is one of my highly skilled, ninja-mom behaviors. Do I look like I have bacterial pneumonia? No? See what a trouper I was?)
And that's it for now. I'm looking forward to a less-hectic, more normal week with Forrest home and me healthy and the kids all in school. Nothing like sickness to make you appreciate health.
(Chicago at night from our hotel room window. Lovely, no?)
So I spent my Mother's Day weekend in Chicago . . . and not in the bosom of my loving family (felt a little guilty about that, but got over it, and now wonder if I ought to feel guilty about getting over it?). Instead, my family gave me the gift of taking off with Sally and Michelle--dearest of dear friends from way back in my mom-of-little-kids days in Minnesota. In the past we've gone to Vegas (how many years ago was that? Sally would know. She has a filing cabinet for a brain. I think it was 8 years ago??), to Los Angeles (that was in 2004?), and twice now, Michelle has come from Minnesota to Utah to visit me and Sally, since Sally's living in Zion again as well.
But I've got to say, I think Chicago was our best trip yet. Vegas is so Vegas-y. Didn't help that when we went we stayed at the IMPERIAL PALACE (why was no one advising us of such things?). L.A. was fun, but it's a sprawling city, and we spent a lot of time running from place to place. I felt like we had a great pace in Chicago, though--the right amount of stuff to do to keep us entertained, but leisurely enough that we could kick back and watch movies in our hotel room all night if we wanted. Which we did do, Sunday night.
But I'm getting ahead of myself! Let me begin at the beginning:
First, photos, to remind you of the players in this narrative:
Michelle and Sally
Michelle and Me
Sally and Me. The yellow vests will be explained shortly. Just you wait!
On Friday I woke up early, drove to the airport, nervously used the off-site parking Forrest uses all the time but managed to make it through the process myself without looking like a noob. I think. Met Sally at the gate, then proceeded to talk talk talk the entire way to Chicago. It was a small commuter plane and I think we were the only people talking the whole entire flight. We tried to keep our voices at a low conversational murmur, though. Tried.
Went to the hotel--Embassy Suites near Navy Pier. Really nice place, hilarious check in lady who noticed that we had one king bed then debated whether or not it would be offensive to ask us if we would prefer two doubles, then decided that we "looked like the kinds of girls who would prefer two doubles. Ha, ha, ha!!!" What, was it our wedding rings that looked to have been purchased in the early 90s even though we're both in our mid-to-late 30s? My poofy Utah hair? (I try not to have poofy Utah hair, but can't seem to help it. Especially in Chicago. I kept saying that I had Lion Hair. I think it was the humidity. Oh, and my hair's not dark anymore. Went blonde again. Anyway.)
Michelle finally joined us--she'd been driving from MN--and we decided to embark on our first culinary adventure. Now, we'd intended to eat GREAT in Chicago. I mean, if you can't find good restaurants in Chicago then you're a sorry fan of Bravo's Top Chef indeed. So the first recommendation was for a place that makes the "best" deep dish Chicago style pizza around. Gino's East "the Original" it was called. So Michelle googled it and we traipsed off to find a taxi. When we told the driver the address he looked at us like we were mildly bonkers, but then took off anyway. After a while, it became clear that the Gino's East location was not all that close to our hotel, and after a $20 cab ride he deposited us in front of a tiny little hole in the wall with maybe six or seven tables. Salad was iceberg lettuce with a plastic container full of ranch dressing. The Diet Coke was delivered warm, in the can, with a styrofoam cup full of ice. And the pizza was kinda ick. Too gloppy. Although I've got to say that I probably wouldn't like Chicago style pizza much no matter where I got it: I'm more a thin crust, sun-dried-tomatoes-and-artichokes kind of girl. So we finished our meal, took our $20 cab ride home, and had a good laugh in the mean time, especially once we learned that Michelle had received the recommendation from her son's 13-year-old Facebook friend and that there were scads of Original Gino's East the Originals all over Chicago.
We also went and saw a really good movie. City Island. None of us had heard anything about it, but it had a pretty good score on Rotten Tomatoes so we thought we'd give it a chance. And it was so good! Nothing like walking into a movie with low expectations and being pleasantly surprised. Juliana Margeulise (how the heck do you spell that???/), Andy Garcia, some hottie young actor guy (forget his name, but Michelle googled him when we got home, so I'm sure she remembers :-). Michelle was our resident googler.)
For Saturday night, our plan was to go to Rick Bayless's restaurant Frontera Grill. As any big fan of Top Chef knows, Bayless is AWESOME, so I really really really wanted to go to his restaurant. It has weird hours, though, and very limited reservations. I tried about a month out but they were already taken. So since it opened at 5:00 for dinner, we got there right at 5 on the spot, but by the time we got to the front of the line, the wait time was already two and a half hours! So, with great sadness, we left Frontera Grill and went searching for another restaurant that was near the Oriental Theater, since we had tickets to see the musical Billy Elliot.
We finally agreed on a seafood restaurant (can't remember the name), and it was okay, nothing great. Harumph. But then! Then we got to go see Billy Elliot!
Outside the theater, looking a little bit gussified. The guy who we asked to this picture looked completely discombobulated. It was like we'd asked him to name the capitols of a bunch of Eastern European countries. No stress, dude! Just point and click! The photo turned out pretty good, actually, so I suppose I'm glad for his intense concern over the process.
Sally and Michelle inside the theater. Isn't it purdy? And aren't they purdy too?
Billy Elliot is a new-ish musical based on the movie of the same name that came out a few years ago. Elton John wrote the music. I didn't know much about the plot, other than it involved a working class British boy who just "wanted to dance!!!"--and I knew that Chicago's production had received strong reviews. So I went in without knowing quite what to expect--but it was fabulous. The story was strong, the acting was top-notch, but best of all, there was DANCING. And I love dancing. Even better, there was dancing by adolescent dancing prodigies, and it's always fun to watch kids who are amazingly talented, isn't it? It reaffirms your faith in the world, the potential of the individual human being. Or something. The kid who played Billy was the original Billy on Broadway, and it showed. Loved every minute of it.
So the next morning, after another leisurely bout of sleeping in (ah, bliss), we had our Embassy Suites Cooked to Order Breakfast then headed out for Navy Pier. We'd decided on the spur of the moment to book a Segway tour of the city, even though we KNEW we were paying good money to look like total dorks. But if three almost-middle-aged mothers of teenagers can't look like dorks, then who can? So, we rose to the occasion. Here's some photographic proof:
Helmeted up, ready to go. Lovely, aren't we?
Our first big photo op. The Segway itself took a little getting used to, and we were all a tiny bit nervous at first. Don't want to topple into Lake Michigan, after all. And isn't Lake Michigan lovely? The color of the water isn't even photoshopped.
After a while I got the hang of operating the Segway and started doing dare-devilish things like taking pictures WHILE I was driving (probably a no no, but I count it as evidence of my athletic skill.)
Yes, here we are, Segwaying through million dollar neighborhoods
And again, Segwaying in the midst of Chicago traffic. I'm sure everybody was honking at us because we were so good looking and athletic-seeming. Anyway, it was a blast, and I'm glad we put our pride aside and did it. It will certainly be one of the more memorable aspects of the trip.
Our last day of the trip, Michelle had to scoot out of there early so she could go see an old friend and get on the road back home. We were sad to see her go. But then Sally and I had a few hours to kill before heading back on the L (you know, the elevated train?) to the airport, so we went to the newish Millennium Park and took a nice stroll along Michigan Ave. Talk about beautiful. I love, love, love cities, and the architecture in Chicago is so varied and interesting. Here are some pics of the morning:
Me in front of the famous Bean sculpture in the park.
Sally and me taking pictures of ourselves in the reflective surface of the famous Bean statue. Note the guy with the "what are those two doing?" expression.
Sally and me standing in front of the Bean sculpture. Note that the guy who was wondering what in the world we were up to in the previous photo is the same one taking our picture. He offered. Very nice.
Here are a few other shots of cool things in the city:
Sally in front of the amphitheater in Millennium park. There's a nice wide lawn behind it. I'm sure it's an amazing place to see a concert.
Pretty tulips in the garden
Pretty Sally in the garden.
The short building is the library. Isn't it gorgeous? And we're pretty sure the tall building with the slanty ceiling is the one the kids slid down in the masterpiece of 80s film making, Adventures in Babysitting.
The Chicago Tribune building. Just because it's really cool looking. And because I tried to imagine just for a minute what it would be like to work there every day. (Not that I would really want to be a journalist. But it was still fun to think about.)
Me in front of the river, looking Lion Hair-ish.
It was a wonderful trip. I feel so blessed to have such good friends. No matter how much time we're apart, whenever we get together it's like no time has passed. I hope we'll still be going on trips like these twenty years from now.
And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to my wonderful husband and amazing kids for being so great while I was gone. I came home to done laundry, clean rooms, and lots of hugs and smiles. And belated Mother's Day cards. Knowing I have all of you to come home to makes trips like this even sweeter.
