The city that starts with a C ends with an O and has HICAG in the middle, and a few other things

It's been nearly 9 months since we said goodbye to good friends and the Windy city and since Jeff had a few vacation days he needed to use before the end of June we decided to drive up to Chicago and visit friends for the weekend. We tried to get the girls to be tourists and go to the city, but all they really wanted to do was hang out and play with their friends that they, okay all of us have missed so much! Plus we finally got to see the newest addition to the Israelsen family, Russell, who is almost 3 months old. So cute! And the kids, mainly Sarah, couldn't get enough of him.

We got up early Thursday morning and drove up to Chicago. There was no question where we were going to eat dinner - Portillo's. One of our favorite place to eat. We had dinner with our good friends the Israelsens and the Palmeris. It was great to be with all of them again.

Friday the kids were torn on what they wanted to do. But we decided on going to watch their friend Bret at his gymnastics class (he is pretty dang good! and strong!) and then go to the DuPage Children's museum (another favorite place) since it was raining. We took the girl's friends Grace, Bret & Lia with us to the museum. They had a blast!

In the wind tunnel
from l to r - Grace, Ada, Emilie, Lia, Bret, Sarah and some random girl!

Playing in the bubbles

Sarah loved this thing - it's tubes connected that twist all over and has air flowing thru them. You stick balls made of yarn in it and it blows them thru it and eventually get blown out the other end. Hours of fun!

I call this the disco room. Mirrors everywhere!

Sarah loved the drums too. It was good for her to have something to beat, besides her sisters.

Goodnight everybody!

Jeff even participated in the fun!

As if the museum wasn't enough to wear them out, we then took all of them swimming at the hotel with the addition of Braden. They swam for a while and then Staci brought pizza to the hotel and they ate by the pool. Then more swimming. Then off to bed. Needless to say, everyone slept really good that night. We were all beat!

Sorry no pictures of swimming since Jeff and I had to take turns watching the fearless 2 year old.

Saturday we slept in late and then did some shopping. Afterwards we went to Staci's house to party. We celebrated the birthday's of Jeff (the 7th), Ken Israelsen (9th) and Mark Houser (9th) and said goodbye to friends from our old ward the Garcia's who are moving to Utah. The birthday celebration became an annual thing a few years ago. There were a couple other men from the ward (who have since moved) with the same birthday as Jeff, so we just threw a big party for all the guys with their birthdays so close. We were excited to be there for the party again this year. I was a slacker and didn't take any pictures that night either.

Sunday we went to church at our old ward. It was great to see and visit with some of our old friends. After church we went to Staci's for dinner and let the kids hang out and play some more. Staci took some really cute pictures of the kids, hopefully she will share some of them with me. (hint hint) Sadly we had to say goodbye to our friends that night. It was hard to say goodbye again. We've missed our good friends the last 9 months, but loved being able to spend time with them.

We decided to get a head start on our drive home since either way that night we would be spending it in a hotel. So we drove to Iowa City. Not soon after we left Sarah wanted some pretzels. So I handed them to her and not two minutes later I turned around to this

I think we all had a great weekend and lots of fun, but were all worn out!

Love the half eaten pretzel in her hand!

Monday we got up and drove the rest of the way home. I think Jeff was particularly excited to get home because one of his favorite posessions was being delivered to the house that day. His '65 Falcon convertible that he inherited when his dad passed away. We've been storing it out in Utah at various places over the last 9 years and now that we have somewhere to put it (3rd car garage) he had it shipped out here.

The delivery truck

OUR PAL!

You should have seen the grin on Jeff's face when it was coming down. He could hardly stand the wait to get in and drive it.

Pretty cute eh?

The inaugural drive in KC!

Finally Jeff and the kids have their convertable.

There was already talk about who gets to inherit the car from him!

Last but definitely not least of this post

Relay Missouri

Jeff's nephew Bryant who is from St. Louis and two of his friends, Crissy and Michael, put together a fundraiser for the charity StandUp for Kids, a charity that helps homeless kids. It is a relay run across Missouri from downtown Kansas City to downtown St. Louis.

You can read more about it at http://www.relaymissouri.blogspot.com/ if you are interested.

The kick off party was last night and the relay started this morning and they will finish in St. Louis on Saturday. We couldn't be more proud of you Bryant and this accomplishment!

So last night we went to the kick off party that was here in KC. It was great and we wish all the runners the best!

The organizers - Michael, Chrissy and Bryant

Emilie and Ada in front of the sponser banner for Jeff's company

Just a cute picture of Sarah and Becca

Emilie with her face paint

Ada

Sarah

Jeff with two of the Kansas City Chiefs players

Corey Mays #51 and Travis Daniels #34

Two of the nicest guys you could every meet. I just might have to cheer for the Chiefs next season!

Again, great job Bryant, Chrissy and Michael! You guys are awesome!