Memorial Weekend 2010

So this Memorial weekend was absolutely wonderful. We had Ryan's entire family at our house for 3 days, which went by WAY too quickly but was incredible while it lasted. Ryan's parents came from Michigan and his brother Scott and his girlfriend Jenny came all the way from Baltimore. Our little 2 bedroom townhouse was crowded, but we had so much fun together. We can't wait until we get to see them all again!:-) This is a pretty long post but Jenny was so wonderful to take tons of pics for us so I wanted to share a lot of them with everyone!

We started off the first day heading downtown and seeing some sites. We began our trip downtown at the planetarium because it has such a wonderful view of the skyline as you can see...

It was VERY windy here and little one just wanted to run, but we somehow got a quick family pic.

Unky Jigs was so much fun...this was just the beginning of the playing they did together:-)

Playing in the grass with Chicago in the background.

Unky Jigs entertaining again...

Run, run, run, its all we want to do lately.

I love my Unky Jigs! He's going to be such a good Daddy someday, such a natural...

Our next stop was "The Bean"...awesome place for some pictures, of which we took a lot:-)

Inside the bean looking at our reflection.

A picture of us taken through the bean...

If you look in the background you can see me taking the picture of Ryan...

Jenny doing what she loves and is amazing at:-)

You can see Jenny taking the picture on the left...cool how it all works...love the bunny ears though Momma Jigs:-)

My and Jenny...we had such a great bonding weekend, miss you lady!

Running some more:-)

Cool dude!

3 of some of my favorite people:-)

How do I look in Daddy's hat?

Loving my Papa!

Fun with Nana and Papa!

Silly billy!

One of her favorite games was walking back and forth over Nana's legs...

Getting the air out of the mattress was a family affair:-)

Riding Nana's "Pony"

Our favorite "Nana Chair"

Brothers:-)

Nana and Papa bought me popsicles and I LOVED them!

There is a story behind this running with the baby on his head, but you'll have to ask Scott to get the details:-)

Playing golf with Daddy and Unky Jigs

Nanna bought us a watering can that we played with all weekend:-)

Contemplative...

Look what I can do Papa! Like my crab pool?

More fun with Unky...

Helpin a girl out...

Mmmmmm...Nana's mac and cheese!

Everyone right before the weekend was over and we had to take Scott and Jenny to the airport:-(

Luckily Nana and Papa got to stay one more night so we could play a little more!

Pretty girl!

Just had to add this picture Jenny took of our Lorilyn...such a precious moment!

Thanks again everyone for coming, we loved every second and can't wait until we see you again!

"Buisness" Trip

A couple weeks ago Ryan was sent to Madison, WI for a week long training for work, and since all his expenses were paid, LJ and I decided to tag along for a fun adventure filled week. We had a wonderful time exploring Madison during the day and then meeting up with Dad in the evening and trying out yummy restaurants and exploring the hotel pool. I apologize for the length of this post, but I took tons of pictures and wanted to document our fun times in Madison. We were blessed with great weather until the very last day so we got to walk all over and see many things. Our hotel room overlooked the capital, so we had a beautiful view outside our window.

View from our hotel window

View at night with reflection of the room in the background. Ryan was pretty proud of this pic he took:-)

Daddy and LJ in front of the capital.

Madison has a wonderful free zoo with 2 great parks outside it. We had fun exploring the zoo and then playing at the park. Lorilyn loved the Lions and kept saying roooaaarr...!

Her watching the sleepy lions...

This was her face at the next animal we saw....she wasn't as impressed as with the lions, but next picture shows why....

It was a HUGE dirty pig:-)

This was as close as she would get on her own to the reptile exhibits....guess she is her mommy's girl:-)

Although she was VERY intrigued by the turtles:-)

Us with Mr Polar Bear. While all the other bears either hid or slept, this guy was walking all around, gave us a great show:-)

After being very good in the stroller at the Zoo we headed out to the park to play. Of course we ran to the swings first:-)

Now another kind of swing...

It took her a while to adventure out with the other kids on the playground...

But once she decided to go, there was no stopping her.

Mommy had to go rescue her after she got to the top of this and had no idea how to get down:-)

Overall I think we loved our day at the Zoo:-)

This was the first evening, after our first yummy dinner, but we ended up going to the pool every night and had a blast swimming with daddy.

Splish splash:-)

Daddy's the best!

Her FAVORITE thing in the hotel room to do was wrestle/cuddle with all the pillows on the bed.

She would literally do this multiple times a day, loving the 6 lush pillows we had:-)

We were a little hyper that night, can you tell?:-)

We're glad such little things like beds and pillows can bring so much joy:-)

We also LOVE our blanky:-)

The next day we walked down state street and out to the Lake. LJ loved the duckies.

Madison is full of beautiful views:-)

This was a normal sight at the places we went to eat...Its amazing how you don't care what she's eating or where the food is going as long as she is quite for a few minutes:-)

So this was the first time Lorilyn ever tried ranch dressing. She began very daintily dipping her finger and testing it out...

But soon it was gulping and scraping to get every last drop...

Anyone who knows me and ranch will really just say, like mother like daughter...:-)

Yay for ranch and chocolate!:-) She's a girl who knows how to enjoy the finer things of life:-)

The floor as we were done...the waitress said she would clean it up but Ryan made her bring him the broom cuz we felt so bad:-) She was happy and content for 30 minutes though so it was well worth it!

Our new favorite thing is trying to put on every shoe we see...

The last evening we went to Ella's Deli, an amazing place full of fun for all. As you see in the background there were circus toys, flying elephants, mirrors, shells in the table, hanging bears... LJ was entertained the whole time just watching all that was going on around her.

This is just as you walk in the restaurant... Its a magical place for all ages:-)

There was also a carousel outside the Deli so LJ got to sit on her first horse:-)

Back at the hotel after a wonderful week exploring Madison. We feel so blessed we got the opportunity and can't wait to go back and visit that great city!