Our Chicago Trip: Warning Long Post!

At the End of June we went to Chicago to visit some family. It was so much fun. We flew on a airplane with both kids and to be honest with you I was very nervous. But the boys did great!!! Butch loved the airplane and can't wait to go again.  Our 1st trip was to Lincoln memorial. This is actually in I believe Springfield Ill. It is pretty close to where James's brother Frank lives. This 1st picture Butch is picking his nose.

This is all of us with cousins Landon and Drew by the memorial.

The outside of it. James loved the statues uptop.

James and the boys. and Rock Star looking at a model of Abraham Lincoln's neighborhood.

James and Frank waiting for the tour of Abe's house to begin.

James and Butch with a worker lady.

Rocky waiting for the tour

This was Abe's real desk and mirror. I thought this was pretty cool.

 

After we finished with Abe's stuff we went and visited James's dads grave. I have never been and wanted to see it. It was pretty neat and am really glad we went. James had a sister Danika that passed and her grave was there also and they have one for his mom Emily too.

After that we went back to Franks house and the kids played outside while James mowed there lawn. They have a John Deere Dumper thing and my boys loved it. Santa might get them one this year.

The next day we surprised uncle Ed at his birthday party and unfortantley I didn't take any pictures but one of the days we went to the Polish fest and had fun. We got the Book of Morman in Polish for my dad. They had a lot of cool things showing what polish do. We ate polish food and the kids played at the park. It was a fun day!

Butch wanted to try the Wall Climbing they let him and he went all the way to the top. And he was so light that he couldn't come down so they had to get him. When he was up at the top he said he could see everything. He had so much fun.

On another day we went to Shedd Aquiram. It was fun!!!

Last but not least we went to Soldier Field.(thats where the Chicago Bears play) One of these days James is going to go and watch them play. We love Da Bears!!!

We love family Vacations and wish we could do it all the time. We loved spending time with the Verenski's and can't wait to go back.

Notice on this picture james and rocky look so much alike. Mabey one of these days one of my kids will look like me.

Happy Birthday Jim!!

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father ever!!!! We hope you have a wonderful day!! You mean the world to me and the kids!! We love doing all the family things you take us to do!!! You are such a hard worker and great person!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

My Version of THE FIRE! Long story!

I thought that I would tell ya' all my version of the fire we experienced on 07/11/10.{Butch's 4th Birthday}

Well I will start at the beginning. It was a Sunday so we decided to just have a small Family party and not have a friend party this year. So on Saturday we took Butch out to breakfast, to see toy story 3 and to the Diamond Backs game. We had a blast. We asked Butch what he wanted to eat for dinner for his birthday (whenever it is your birthday you get to pick what we have for dinner) so of course he picks Chicken Nuggets and French fries. So on Sunday 07/11/10 we went to church got home from church and started cleaning the house and getting the food ready. Well I was doing the cupcakes and James was in charge of the deep fryer. He had wanted to do it inside with our other deep fryer but i convinced him to do it outside so our house wouldn't smell for 5 days after. So James was coming in and out getting the oil hot and when he came in I asked him if he wanted to help me decorate the cupcakes. He said sure. So we sat down at the kitchen table frosting them cupcakes and 2 minutes go by and James turns to me and says "oh my gosh it is on fire!!! Call 911!!!!!" So I grab my phone and go and look for the kids. They were in the play room playing and I couldn't find them! So I yelled "Butch the house is on Fire!" the boys came right out of the closet we ran out front and called 911. I wasn't sure what was on fire. Didn't know if it was the house or the shed. Well this whole time all of the neighbors are coming out making sure we are ok and every car that drives by stops and makes sure we are alright which was very nice. Well about 5 min go by and I yelled for James to make sure all was ok he said he was fine and so I thought I better call my mom to get the boys. I called my mom and instatley start crying. I tell my mom what happened and all of a sudden I hear a noise like a jett going off. In my head I am thinking the shed is falling on James and he is dying. I tell my mom I have to go and I go to the fence and yell for james he says he's ok. Meanwhile the neighbor comes over and takes us over to her house, to get us out of the heat. The jett like noise goes off three times and come to find out it is the propane. It scared the crap out of me. The fire fighters finally show up and take care of the fire.  Buck, my dad and my mom came too. James says it got so hot he was spraying himself with the hose and he was dry like a minute later. He also said he was spraying the house because it got so hot. I think if he wouldn't have done that we would have lost it. Here are some pictures of the shed and firemen at work.

Even our swing set got ruined!

We had a TON of crap in there. I had just cleaned out everyone's closets and stuffed it all in there. We have lost alot of memories in there.

It got so hot it craked our windows in the back! The 2 cottonwood trees James planted when we moved in got burned. We are hoping they don't die because they are huge.

We had to move the party to my mom's because of the whole thing. We forgot the candles so all we had was the #2. He didn't know though. Butch thought this was the coolest birthday ever because firemen came to his house!

 We are all just thankful that our house didn't burn down and no one got hurt.