Chicago / Milwaukee Trip

Wednesday evening Hailey and I arrived in Chicago, after going through security twice. The guards thought Hailey was a terrorist and made us go back through and take her shoes off and put them through the x-ray! The airport has gotten quite ridiculous. We stayed with the Hanks, and were excited to meet Wes for the first time. Hailey and Wes are about 5 weeks apart, and loved to stare at each other.

Thursday Natalie and I ventured to downtown Chicago, and after the 45 minute ride realized we both forgot our strollers. So we had quite the adventure riding in cabs, going in and out of stores, and making phone calls, until we were finally able to find umbrella strollers. The plus side, was I able to see quite a bit of downtown! It is really big, and the coolest part is all the old brick buildings and bridges crossing the river. We then headed to Magnificent Mile on Michigan Ave to look at the shops and stopped at Millennial Park to see the giant stainless steel "bean". For dinner we met up with the working husbands and the Hassell grandparents for some Chicago deep dish pizza at Edwardo's.

On Friday, we did some shopping for Hailey at the Schaumberg Mall (#1 tourist attraction in Illinois), and I might have gone slightly overboard at "Janie and Jack." Alex will no longer let me buy anything for Hailey that is smaller than 2T because of the excessive wardrobe. In the afternoon Alex and I left Hailey and went downtown on the Metra. We went to the Chicago Institute of Art and the highlight was seeing the painting "American Gothic" along with other famous impressionist paintings. I couldn't believe how many I recognized, they even had Van Gogh's self portrait. That evening we met the Hassell grandparents, Tim and Anna Hassell, and Brian and Natalie for dinner at Maggiano's for family style Italian food. It was sooo tasty! We then were lucky enough to experience the musical Wicked. I absolutely loved it! It was great and Alex very much enjoyed the song "Popular." We arrived home and were glad to see that Hailey was still alive, our longest time without her.

Saturday, we drove 1 1/2 hours north to Milwaukee to see Alex's good friend from High School, Tim Kraft, and his wife Andrea. Tim Kraft is a graduate of Marquette Law School (second most famous Marquette alumni next to Dwayne "I can't believe the Lakers traded Shaq" Wade). With his guidance, young Tim Hassell will learn the fine art of lawering. I always had the stereotype of Milwaukee being a dirty city of beer and industry, but I couldn't have been more wrong! It was beautiful and had a huge park downtown right on Lake Michigan. There was even a beach, lots of sail boats on the lake, and a beautiful downtown! We ate lunch at a Brewery and got fresh brewed Root Beer. We then went to see where Tim and Anna are living and allowed Tim Kraft to experience the Wii. It was a really fun day and it was so great to see everyone. Hailey loved Tim Kraft, and we are excited for Andrea to have her baby in March... since only the coolest people are born in March :) On the way home I made Alex stop so we could get cheese curds and frozen custard :) You can't go to the Midwest and not stop at Culvers.

Finally came Sunday, which was very relaxing. We spent the day going to church with the Hanks, playing "hand and foot" (a card game) and taking a walk. Our plane left at 8:40pm, and arrived home in Surprise a little after midnight. It was a great trip, and I'm beginning to really enjoy the Midwest! Who would have ever thought... :)

Saturday at the Food Bank

This Saturday we had the pleasure of taking the YW and YM to a service project at the West Valley Food Bank. It was a lof fun packing 1 lb bags of rice, but quite hot inside the warehouse. We think the kids had a great time, and afterwards we had a barbeque and pool party at the bishop's house. As you will notice in the pictures below there were at least twice the amount of young men and young women. We only had 4 girls show up :( Since Alex and I are both involved with the youth, Hailey is usually present at all the activities.

Hailey Portraits

This last month we finally got some professional pictures of Hailey taken. A guy in our ward has started doing photography and came to our house to take pictures of Hailey. She did great, and loved posing for the camera. I don't think she is going to be a shy little girl like I was :) Scroll over the pictures to be able to see them bigger!

L.A. Adverture

This past weekend we ventured to L.A. with Hailey. We left Friday afternoon and arrived around 8pm after stopping at Costco for a hotdog and slice of pizza for dinner. The Kjelstrom's were nice enough to let us stay with them in lovely Santa Monica. Saturday we walked down the beach, met up with Reza, Christy, and Farrah and had lunch... then headed off to the BYU vs. UCLA football game. We had to park about 1 1/2 miles away, and no strollers were allowed, so Hailey got to ride on Dad's shoulders most of the way. The game was quite upsetting as 5 calls were reviewed and none were overturned. Most BYU fans agree that we should have won the game. It was a late night getting back home, and we left Sunday morning back to Phoenix. It was a quick trip with lots of driving, but it was great seeing everyone!

Labor Day Camping Trip

Alex and I decided to take Hailey on her first ever camping trip. We drove about 2 hours north east past Camp Verde to an area with lots of pine trees... not a usual site in Arizona! We found the perfect camping spot with our friends Britton and Jamie. It was completely rustic, so we gathered our own firewood, made a pit, and set-up our tents. We enjoyed grilled brats for dinner, smores and banana boats for dessert, and eggs, pancakes, and bacon for breakfast! The best part was it was 30 degrees cooler than Surprise. We all enjoyed the campfire, and even got a little rain shower early evening. Hailey loved the outdoors, and did great. She finally got to wear her hat and sweatshirt. It was a lot fun, but camping is definitely a lot more work with a 6-month old who wants to roll on the ground and eats twigs :)