Chicago, briefly

We took the Megabus to Chicago for a quick two night stay with Marla before our flight to Guatemala. The 6 hour bus ride was great, there was hardly anyone on the bus and it only cost $3 per person!


Ezra went a little haywire...


But thankfully fell asleep eventually.


And we arrived! Ezra was amazed at the enormity of Chicago, and really enjoyed the public sculptures. Here he and Marla peek out from this big red one whose name and creator I have forgotten. Lovely though. And check it out- he's smiling!


We got some dinner with Marla and Liz (both friends of mine from grade school). Ezra was charming the ladies, as usual.


Things started to get a little racy!


Speaking of public sculpture we love this one in Millenium Park. The big reflective bean, you know the one, right?


Trippy... can you find us?


After a looooooooooong day walking around in the rain we found this free play room at the Art Institute of Chicago. We played with some building blocks until Marla was finished with school. By the way, check out the sleeping grandpa behind Ezra!


Our flight was a 5 o'clock in the morning. Ezra had slept for maybe 4 hours. When we got on the plane he insisted he wasn't tired and persisted to color almost this entire page purple. Then he conked our for the remainder of the flight.

Some Guatemala shots coming up next!

The Legalization of Traxwell

Our good friends Maxwell & Tracy (hence Traxwell) got married (they called it the legalization party) on 9.10.11 and we were so happy to get all dressed up and attend! I swear he was happy, he just will not crack for the camera!


Ezra was dressed entirely by Share and Care thrift store in Hackensack, MN I will have you know. So snappy!


There's a smile darnit! Thanks for taking the shots Grandpa on that beautiful day.

By the way I know I'm behind, you probably want pictures of Guate, soon soon!

The Boy & His Grandma

He loves her, he really does, he just will not smile for the camera these days.
We tried, many times, as you can see.





Miss you Grandma!

The Opays

Ezra had a ton of fun (as usual) with his cousins Hanna, Connor, Isaac, & Ella at his Grandma and Grandpa Rick's house last week. They went swimming (although the water was cooooooold- lots of jumping in and jumping out quickly), watched movies, had a picnic at the park, and played played played played. It was a whirlwind of fun!


Revving Grandpa Rick's motorcycle.

Late Summer Variety

On Sunday of Labor Day weekend Ezra and I went over to Itasca state park, determined to bike from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the overly-hyped Douglas Lodge. It's roughly 5 miles of hilly, winding terrain, riddled with bumps and inexperienced tweens careening downhill double wide. Sounds hazardous, but we did it! It's actually a trek that I've done many, many, many times in my life (mostly as a tween ironically) so it was a nice trip down memory lane. It was harder with 35+ pounds of Ezra on the three speed cruiser, and I walked up hills that I breathlessly cruised over in my youth.
Ezra slept through about an hour of riding and I appreciated the opportunity to exercise and enjoy being outside whilst my anti-napper snoozed.
We made it to the Lodge and met up with Gramps, Unk, and "Dofia". We ate some dishes that sounded exquisitely delicious on the menu and turned out mediocre. The hit of the meal were the sweet potato french fries. I got the Wild Rice Hotdish which was just a pile of over cooked wild rice with some water chestnuts thrown in. Note to self: next time just get the salad bar!


Back at Grandpa's house Ezra enjoyed going on a go-cart ride with Unk! He also helped out in the garden, picking carrots, beets, and radishes. He also scored a pumpkin that he's been bugging me to carve. I guess it's never too early to carve a pumpkin? I guess since we won't be here for Halloween after all. I can't remember seeing any pumpkins in Guatemala...


Hanging out a Grandma's is always interesting...

King Ezra

Ezra got some beads. No, he didn't get them the conventional way. They are Grandma's. I don't think she got them the conventional way.

Anyhow, I got a camera! It's a Pentax and it has a lot of funny bells and whistles. I will be posting more photos soon!