Chicago-Day 3

Day three began with an early morning after a late night. Autumn had some trouble being in the same room with us all and sleeping. Therefore, we were all a bit tired as we headed to Shedd Aquarium. We did have a pretty good time though. Autumn did have a melt down after a couple of hours, so she and Grandma went back to the hotel early.

Here are the girls enjoying the fish displays in the very beginning. (Still happy!)
After Autumn and Grandma went back, Jayna and I enjoyed a dolphin show. Here is one jumping in the air. These are the only two pictures I took while at the aquarium. We then went back to the hotel ourselves for some food and a small bit of down time. When we were all feeling refreshed, we headed down to the Navy Pier. It was a short walk from our hotel...
Us girls were enjoying our time together as we began this next adventure.
These girls love their grandma!
And she loves them! (I absolutely love this picture!)
Jayna, Autumn and I rode the "horsie ride." This was Autumn's first time. She kept saying, "WEE!"
Here we are with our friends, Kay, Kaytlin and Talayah (sleeping in the stroller).
A tired Jayna holds her dear friends hand as we walked to our seat for the fireworks. I didn't catch any pictures of the fireworks, but they were really neat. Then, we walked back to the hotel and headed to bed. The girls fell fast asleep. Grandma and I enjoyed some adult talk time until late, but it was so worth it. We had another fun-filled day. (I do have some very cute pictures of the girls playing in the water at the pier, but I will share them later.) Stay tuned...

Chicago-Day 2

Day two of Chicago was Jayna's favorite by far. We started the day by walking about 1/2 mile to the American Girl Doll Store. You can tell by her smile that she was really enjoying herself...

This is when we first arrived.
Jayna stands next to her doll, Julie. Each doll is from a time in history and has a story of struggle and triumph. Julie is from the 1970s. She has divorced parents but finds joy and happiness in her life despite.
Taylor Morley gave Jayna an American Girl baby to take along with us. (Thank you Taylor!) It was nice because this doll was able to have brunch with us. (We didn't purchase Julie until after we were done with brunch.) Notice the baby even has a seat at the table.
Jayna and I enjoyed our time together at the brunch. I always love spending time with her.
Grandma had a nice time with us too. Jayna so enjoys having Grandma around. (Notice the doll now has her own little tea cup. What a place!)
Here we are at the end of brunch. We had mousse for dessert in flower pots. You were able to keep the flowers, which gave Autumn something to play with and bought us a little more time at the table.


After this, we shopped a little and went back to the hotel so Autumn could have a nap. Later, Jayna and I went back to the American Girl place to watch a play. It was a wonderful play, and we had a nice time just the two of us...thanks to Grandma for staying with Autumn. As soon as we returned from the play, we hopped in the Tahoe and headed over to see Jayna's friends, Kaytlin and Talayah. We had dinner at their house. Then, the girls played together for a couple of hours. It was really nice to spend some time with them. We didn't get to bed until late though. Isn't that what vacation is all about? Be watching for day three...

Chicago-Day 1

We are back from Chicago safe and sound, thanks to 'Sassy' (our GPS). We had a wonderful time. I think I will share the events one day at a time so you can feel as though you were there...well kind of anyway. Our first day was spent travelling, swimming and dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Enjoy!

Jayna loves to swim so much that it didn't take her more than 30 minutes to throw her things in the room, change her clothes and get the rest of us down to the pool. She then jumped right in. She is a lot tougher than her mom because it was a little chilly. This was the outdoor pool. We had a great view of it from our room.
She had a ball swimming. I had to convince her that we needed dinner to get her out of the pool.
Autumn on the other hand is more like her mom...cold. She didn't stay in for more than 5 minutes. She has the look of torture on her face. This is how I felt too, but I love Jayna too much to not swim with her.
We then walked about 7 blocks or so to the Rainforest Cafe. The girls enjoyed looking at the animal displays, but they did not enjoy the noise. Also, Autumn had zero patience for sitting there and waiting. They did eat their dinners, but Grandma and I took ours in a box.
As we were about to go Jayna said, "Mom it is really raining outside." I replied with, "That is just a reflection of the inside. No wait, you are right it is really raining outside. Let's go get Grandma and find a way to our hotel." Well, we got Grandma and found a nice man to catch us a cab. We then all jumped in the cab while throwing all of our stuff in quickly. Needless to say, we still got drenched. Autumn was freezing the whole way back to the hotel. Jayna was uneasy about riding with this stranger. Grandma and I were laughing about the whole situation. What else are you going to do? I thought it was fitting to take a picture of the girls wet hair. By this time, Jayna found the situation comical as well. Day one ends. Stay tuned for day two.

Jayna's Arm...No Cast!

Jayna got her cast off last Tuesday!!! She was so happy and is doing great! The bones are healing and look very good. Of course, she had plans made with Aunt Vicki and Uncle Eldon to go swimming that very afternooon. She is such a fish.

Here she is, free arm and ready to swim.
Here's a close up of the arm. The surgery scrub was still on along with a lot of dead skin. Since then, it has come off.
She's ready to jump in.
Here she is swimming with her cousins Madison and Ava. She had so much fun. She says that Madison is a great swim partner. Thanks Aunt Vicki and Uncle Eldon for letting us swim...two days in a row!

A Day With Kaytlin and Talayah

Jayna has some friends from daycare/preschool that moved to Chicago two years ago. We usually get to see them when they visit Michigan, which is a couple of times a year. This makes Jayna very happy because she really misses Kaytlin and Talayah. As a matter of fact, we are going to Chicago to visit them on Monday, so be waiting for those pictures. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the ones here from their day at the park in Midland. These girls are such good friends!

Autumn loved driving. I think she liked having the control. HMMM
Here are the three girls playing together. Jayna was able to hang in there with her cast and all.
Here is a beautiful shot of the three friends...Talayah, Kaytlin and Jayna (left to right).
Jayna and Kaytlin have been friends ever since Kaytlin was a baby (Jayna was 1).
The girls had fun on the train too. They are silly and cute!

Jayna's 7th Birthday

I can't believe it, Jayna turned 7 last Monday, July 21st. Time is going way too fast, and she is growing into a very beautiful girl. She is so smart and has a wonderful passion for life. Jayna has a super kind heart. She often thinks of ways to make people feel better when they are down. We love this girl and feel so blessed to have her as our first daughter.

She picked a theme of Hello Kitty. Ms. Donna made this beautiful cake to look exactly the way Jayna wanted it to. It tasted wonderful as well. Thanks Ms. Donna!
Uncle Sep, Aunt Allison, Tucker and Toby got Jayna this fun singing card. The kids went wild whenever they heard "Who let the dogs out..." It was so funny. Jayna got many sweet and kind cards for her birthday. Thank you everyone who thought of her.
Jayna picked a friend to go to the beach with us this year. Katie agreed to spend the day with her. These two girls played so well together the whole day. What a great friendship! Thank you Katie for making Jayna's birthday super fun! (Unfortunately, I forgot my camera when we went to the beach, sorry. We had a lot of fun though.)
Jayna and Katie decided to have a beauty salon for the guys when they got out of work and came over. Louie and Sean were so very kind to participate. They also played a few games the girls made up. Thank you Louie and Sean for being so nice and playing along.
I think Sean was enjoying this way too much!!! Notice how Autumn had to get in the fun too. She loves playing with her sister and Sean.

We appreciate all who made Jayna's birthday so special. She really enjoyed her Hess family time on Friday. Then, the beach with Katie and the Messer family made for a wonderful birthday day. The evening was complete with the guys (Katie Bovee too) and Daddy for Chinese. She does have one more celebration with Grandpa and Grandma Shutes. What a blessed young lady. She has a lot of love from you all. Thank you so very much for loving her.

Congratulations Aaron

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR MASTER ELECTRICIAN

Aaron passed his master's exam and is now a master electrician! We are very proud of him! He works so hard everyday and definitely deserves this! We praise God for His faithfulness to Aaron! This is such a blessing for him! Way to go Aaron! We love you!