Feeling Illinois II

There were side trips. Excursions. Adventures. Trains. Planes. Shetland ponies.




We spent Labor Day with the Michauds in Madison. At least one person was excited to see us:



We had not seen our dear friends from Portland since before Louis was born. They fed us, took us on a tour of campus, shared parenting tips and tribulations. The four kids nearly got the best of us, but we persevered with a united front.



Louis, age 3, entertained us with a world geography lesson.



Days later, the Hansons sent Brent on his way alone by train into the city to visit Uncle Kurt and Aunt Bobbi.



The view from their condo near Rush and State had changed since his last visit more than a decade ago, with more condo towers plugging up the skyline.



Kurt & Bobbi remodeled their condo beautifully. We spent time catching up on family, the kids, the parents and our futures.



With the Republican convention in full swing, we talked politics, too. Here, at Corner Bakery, instead of saying cheese for the camera, Bobbi & Kurt say, "Barack Obama."



Of course, no trip to Chicago is complete without a visit to Wrigley Field. Kurt donned his earphones, Cubs shirt and Cubs hat and took Brent via the L to the game with the Astros. Just our luck, the Cubs were mired in their longest losing streak of the season, and we caught loss No. 5, a shutout. Here, Kurt calls the farm team in Iowa pleading for them to send someone up who could hit the ball out of the infield.



Even at night, Wrigley is a pretty nice place.



Brent got home the next evening to find a teething Paige had been listening to the game on the radio and gotten snookered by a beer ad. Parents: Do not try this at home.




Later we went to the area zoo -- not a bad little place for a non-metro zoo. Yes, some of the animals had depressingly confined lives. But Claire enjoyed the pony ride.





Sarah ran into one of her best high school friends, Darcy, who just happens to have a daughter close to Claire's age. They caught up as they could near the fish and elephant exhibits.








The girls sure miss all the attention that granny and grandpa showered on them.

daddy dums

A new, experimental blog about parental leave. Check it out.

Three's a party

We got a visit from Xia-Li and her new sister last night and it nearly turned into a big slumber party.



These girls had a splash.

Look Kurt

It fits!

Now, all it needs is "Zambrano-no" on back.

Feeling Illinois I

Just got back from another relaxing trip to the Lincoln State. The plane flight went as well as could be expected, given we sat four to three seats. Grandpa kindly picked us up curbside and drove us to the homestead.

Claire's first course of action: Dress mom's old dolls.






Grandpa and granny know what Claire likes. Kindly, grandpa built a swing set, using plans he cobbled off Web sites and his own tools. He did great. The set held sturdy as Claire begged to go higher and higher.





The skies might not be as wide open as in other psrts of this country, but granny and grandpa's place and their surroundings offered Claire space to explore.



Tomatoes grew there like berries grow here. We found redbirds and owls, locust shells and dew-draped spider webs.



We saw ponds and canals, turtles and toads and one solitary, fleeing firefly.



We tried to find fish. But the bass and bluegill proved elusive at high noon on the Hennepin.



Brad took care to direct his inexperienced passengers while motoring away from the bank, plying through algae blooms and around underwater brambles of fallen cottonwood limbs.





Claire couldn't resist fondling a lure and ended up snagging her thumb. The girl's first trip in a boat was marked by a midday meltdown.



Nothing a Sierra Mist couldn't cure.




"That's fishing," she learned. And man, did it wipe her out. Later, she collapsed beneath a self-built fort in granny's living room.



No visit to granny and grandpa's would be complete without several nights of grillin'.



Or dressing the grandchild up in her mom's adorable dresses made by her granny.



Grandma Hanson, Uncle Claude, Uncle Brent and Aunt Judy and Uncle Seth and Aunt Jackie all came one afternoon to meet Paige. They showered her with attention.





Claire often asked to be lifted into a tree where she could look us in the eyes, feel the Midwestern breeze fluffing her hair and vow that, one day, she would climb the tree by herself.