We're Home!!!

We arrived home from our Chicago trip yesterday evening at about 5:00 p.m. Noah is quite the little traveler. On the way out to Illinois we drove over night and he did marvelously. On the way back we drove during the day, 8 hours on Wednesday and 8 hours yesterday. Again, he was a champ. It was only in the last hour of the trip yesterday that he started to get restless, but who could blame him?

We stayed Wednesday night in Council Bluff at the Ameristar Hotel & Casino. No, Noah didn't do any gambling and I'm sorry to report that I had no luck either, but we did go for a quick swim in their pool. Again, he did beautifully- he easily fell asleep in the hotel room. Here he is with Grandma Kathy sitting on the hotel bed.

While we're glad to be home, we sure do miss all our family out in Illinois! We had such a great time. Noah got to meet lots of new family members and I could tell he loved spending time with them all. Here are a couple pictures of most of the "gang", one at Cunis' ice cream shop and one on Jackie & Eldon's front porch before we left for Colorado. We can't wait to see all of them again!

An Early Birthday Party

What a treat! The family in Chicago gave Noah an early birthday party on Sunday because they won't be able to make it to his party in August. Noah is so lucky to have so many people that love and care about him. He has thoroughly enjoyed our time here, playing with everyone and making new buddies. Since we have been here he has perfected saying "mama", has learned to wave (although hasn't done that recently), has learned to clap with both hands open, has learned to say "dada" and tons of other new sounds and of course has learned his newly popular "Cubbie bear" growl. We leave tomorrow morning to return to Colorado and will really miss everyone here in Illinois! Here are a couple pics from his party:
His birthday cake. (Which still no one has eaten because Justin made apple and blackberry pies that evening!)


Yesterday Justin, Noah and I headed back into the city. We went to Uno's Pizzeria for lunch (which Noah slept through). Then we headed down to Navy pier, which looks out on Lake Michigan. What a beautiful view! We'll have to take Noah back when he's old enough to ride the Ferris wheel that's on the pier.


We were going to go to Sears Tower, but due to lack of time and the fact that Noah's too young to remember it, we decided to postpone that until he's older. Instead we headed down to Grant Park, which is along the lake front, to see Buckingham Fountain.

As with all vacations, there was too much to see & do and not enough time! I'm looking forward to when we can come back to visit everyone again!

Thanks to all of our family in Illinois for making our visit truly wonderful! We had a GREAT time!!! We love you all very much!!!

Holy Cow!!! It's Noah's First Cubs Game!

Justin, Noah, Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Tom and I went to the Cubs game at Wrigley field yesterday. When we were planning our trip to Chicago Justin and I toyed with the idea of getting tickets to a game but by the time we went to buy them they were sold out. Well, Thursday morning, Justin's Aunt Jackie won 4 tickets from the local radio station! As Harry Caray would say: "Holy Cow!"
Our subway ride the the game was quite a lesson in patience. Noah's teething and he was very tired. Long story short, he cried/screamed the entire time on the subway. Justin finally got him settled down and he fell asleep.
As part of Aunt Jackie's win, the four of us were treated to lunch at the Sheffield Grill for free. Here's a picture of Noah sleeping on the table in the grill (of course we were right there with him).

Here's Justin, Grandma Kathy and Noah after entering Wrigley field.

Noah woke up from his nap in a great mood. Justin's cousin Sue had loaned us an umbrella which we were able to use through the entire game to keep him in the shade. He had a great time looking at all the people, playing with our water bottles, eating the strap on the umbrella, playing with the fence behind us but didn't really realize there was a baseball going on in from of him. It will be fun to one day share with him the story of his first baseball game.

Here's a view of the field from our seats, I don't think there's a bad seat in that entire stadium! Quite a different experience from going to a game at Coors Field in Denver. One of the greatest things for me was the singing of Take Me Out To The Ballgame, the entire stadium stayed and sang, it was so cool to watch!

We're in Chicago!!!!

Actually, we're in South Holland, a suburb of Chicago. We (Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Tom, Noah, Justin & I) arrived on Monday morning. It's been a great trip so far. Packing for this trip was very interesting. Had it been only Justin and I we would have taken one suitcase and a small bag. Since we have Noah it felt as though we were moving. Here's a picture of the back of Kathy & Tom's car after we were all packed.
We stopped that this rest stop along the Mississippi River, just on the border of Iowa and Illinois at about 7:30 am Monday morning. What a pretty view!
Justin has lots of family out here, his mom's side of the family. They sure are a great bunch and are all so great with Noah. Here's Noah with his cousin, Sue, who is a 2nd grade teacher.
Here's Noah with Aunt Jackie, who is a retired music teacher. I don't have a picture of him with Jackie's husband, Eldon (YET!!!) He's also a retired school teacher.
Here's Noah and his cousin, Chris, who teaches elementary school art. (Are you starting to see a theme?)
Noah, Grandma Kathy & cousin Chris playing with his new shape puzzle in Jackie & Eldon's basement.
Yesterday, Noah, Justin and I had lunch with Grandpa Dean, Fran and Noah's Uncle Jackson and Aunt Holly. They live outside of Springfield, so it was great to have the opportunity to visit with them. Jackson will be going into first grade has grown a lot since the last time we saw him (which was at our wedding!) And it was the first time we have seen Holly, who just turned two. They sure are cute kiddos!

Here's a picture of Grandpa Tom, Noah & Aunt Connie playing piano this morning. Connie & Noah were playing "Concerto for Bebe" in no particular key. Actually, Connie plays piano very beautifully, what a great start to the day!
Today we headed into Chicago. Above is a picture of the clan, me, Connie, Sue, Tom, Kathy, Noah & Elloise (and of course Justin who was taking the picture). Our first stop was Macy's, formerly known as Marshall Fields. What a huge store-there are 9+ stories!!! Noah was crashed out when we got there but quickly woke up just in time to find the toy section. Of course Noah HAD to get a new toy! Why not, we're on vacation, right?
After lunch in the food hall at Macy's we walked down Michigan Avenue to Ghiradelli's for dessert. On the way back we stopped at the Millennium Park. Noah had a great time walking around in the fountain area and looking at himself in the "bean".

Here's Noah and his daddy on Michigan Avenue. We'll be going back downtown on Friday to meet up with Justin's brother, Daniel, and of course to have lunch at the one and only Uno's!

So far Noah's acquired 5 new articles of Cubbies' clothing, all in different sizes (24 months, 2T, 3T & 4T) so he should be set on his Cubbies' wear for a while! :)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!!

Three years ago Justin's family started the tradition of playing games all day on the fourth of July. They named it the L. Marvin Olmsted Memorial Day Games, in honor of Noah's late great-grandfather. It is quite the production and anyone affiliated with the Shoemaker clan is sure to have heard of "The Games." They start first thing in the morning with croquet and include a cherry spit contest, an airplane toss, bocce ball (which I won, thanks to my Italian heritage), water balloon toss, corn hole, and latter golf. It was an exhausting, hot and fun day spent with family. Noah was too little to be able to participate in the activities this year, but he enjoyed seeing all of his family that was there. His Uncle Adam and Aunt Leahna flew home from Tacoma, WA for the weekend for the games and his cousin Casey came down from Laramie to partake of the festivities. Here are a few pictures from the day:
Adam & Leahna
Seth & Noah
Leahna & Noah
Tom & Kathy. Kathy won the croquet tournament this year!!!! Woo Hoo, way to go Kathy!

Here's my baby playing in the water in Grandma Kathy's inflatable boat which served as a baby pool today. It was so hot and it was nice for him to cool off.

Swimming, Plan B

We have been taking Noah swimming at the rec center every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Since tomorrow is the 4th of July and we would not be going we decided to take him today. When we got to the rec center the "leisure pool," a.k.a. the baby pool, was closed. So, we decided to have Noah try out his own baby pool on our deck. Had we known it was going to be so successful I don't know if we would have been paying to take him to the rec center pool!!! Just kidding, we love the rec center pool because he can go under water, back and front float and he gets to be around other kids. However, the baby pool at our house was a huge success!!! He played in it for almost an hour!


Here's a short clip of his "pool fun."

Just had to share a picture of Noah eating his first (okay, his second) grilled cheese sandwich. Grandpa Tom made him one for lunch yesterday but by the time we gave it to him he was too full. We tried it again last night. He didn't eat much of it, but it was a good start. Little things like this make me sad, he's growing up so fast!

Genetics, How Interesting

Genetics are so interesting. More so now that we've had Noah. There are definitely traits that he gets from Justin and ones that he gets from me. For instance, when Noah gets his "what in the world it going on?" face he looks just like Justin. And I'm sure that Justin would tell you that Noah has a stubborn streak that he gets from me.
What's even more interesting are the traits that he has gotten from earlier generations. I can only speak for my side of the family, but I think that Noah has gotten my dad's lips. My mom claims that I also inherited them. She lovingly refers to them as "saucer lips." My dad and I can both make our top lip thin like a saucer. It wasn't until this picture that I realized Noah really did get my dad's lips!

Some of the traits that Noah has inherited he got from my Gramps (my mom's dad.) He has a dimple in his chin- that's from Gramps. His hair has red highlights, some days it looks REALLY red- again, from Gramps. And now that his hair is getting longer, it has little curls at the end- yep, your guessed it, again Gramps. The Fourth of July always reminds me of Gramps. He passed away on July 5, 1985. It will be 23 years ago on Saturday and some of the memories I have of him are so vivid. It touches my heart to see some of Gramps in my baby boy!

Noah has started earning his keep, :) we are training him to load and unload the dishwasher!!! What a goofy baby!