Wow! The snow can make a busy city look beautiful! You can't even see the buildings!

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First snow in Chicago!

First snow in Chicago!

Sept. 17th&18

I had been waiting two weeks, and finally, they were here! The Tafoya family joined us in Chicago this weekend to visit and experience the city. They arrived on Friday at about 6 or 7. They surprised us with yummy snacks, and birthday presents for David! They hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we ordered a Chicago style pizza from Giordano's Pizza. Then, David and I shared The Princess Bride with them and (thank goodness) we all laughed :)
The next morning, my dad and I made a super yummy breakfast of eggs and toriso (a Mexican sausage-type meat). We used flour tortilla shells to eat it with. This is a meal that my dad would make for us kids some Sunday mornings for breakfast, and it was treat to cook it with my dad and eat it with my family :)
One thing I had told my family we should definitely do when they got here, is go to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's the one I had been taking Bailey too, it's free, engaging, and huge! Josiah in particular was very excited about going there. But unfortunately, the weather didn't look too promising. We decided to venture there anyways, planning to take advantage of the animal houses if it rained. Josiah was relieved :) Here are some pictures of the day:

My little monkeys :) 

This is a zoo animal!??? Apparently it's a sand cat.

Can you find Josiah?

Friday and Saturday Sept 10&11

Friday was pretty relaxing. I made sugar cookies! David worked from 3:30 to about 6:30, then we both headed over to Lindsey and Kai's to babysit Bailey while they went out for their 8th anniversary. They had a splendid time, and David finished his homework for that night!

Before

After!

biggest sugar cookie ever!

Saturday David and I went on our 2nd date night to Olive Garden (courtesy of Jim&Joan Thompson for working for their business for 2 years). We had QUITE the adventure, including getting hit by a car and walking 16 blocks in heels (won't do that again). Now, don't worry, we are pretty good when it comes to walking across a street when we're supposed to. And in this instance it was definitely NOT our fault. we came to a three way intersection. We looked all ways, saw the car stop on our right, and stared walking. Now as we were walking in front of this car, it decided to go! The lady barely realized she had hit two pedestrians, because she just gave us a blank stare, and fled the seen. As David and I peeled ourselves off the road, the man in the car straight ahead rolled down his window to see if we were okay. No worries :) David and I came away with only 1 broken foot, and 2 broken legs. JUST KIDDING! She barely touched us, but it was a pretty scary scenario. It got us both pretty shaken up, we thanked Jesus the whole rest of the night that we have family who prays for our safety and that He is looking out for us.  Here are some pictures of our night :) 

David had Chicken Alfredo

This is the sky at 8:30pm! It was dark outside, and the light in the picture is a street light!

I had Chicken Alfredo pizza 

Wed&Thurs Sept 8&9

On Wednesday Bailey and I had our first day together. When she woke up we got her dressed and headed out to the zoo for a refreshing walk and a sight-seeing adventure. The zoo wasn't too lively, but we saw a couple cool animals & of course nature!

After the fun time at the zoo, we went to Oz park! It's a super cool park with grassy places, gardens, statues of The Wizard of Oz, and of course a super fun playground. We walked passed quite a few pretty places to hurriedly get to the park- she was pretty excited about the slides :) 

After we slid down a few more slides and walked through the winding playset, we headed back to the house and hung out for awhile. We played with bubbles, danced to our favorite music, colored, and even rode the elevator a few times! She was pretty tired out after that so we ate lunch, then she laid down for her nap. When she woke up we played with baby & bear, had a snack, watched the dogs walking outside, and danced until Lindsey got home. I would say the first day was a success :)

                                   

Thursday we went to the zoo again, and this time saw quite a few more animals!

Thursday was a really fun day for Bailey and I, a great ending to our last day of our first week! :) 

When I got home, David and I decided to celebrate our first work week together, with pizza!!!

The box made me laugh :D 

Tuesday Sept. 7, 2010

Bailey at Oz Park in Lincoln Park Chicago

Hello! David and I have felt so busy these last couple days! I started work, and David's been super busy with homework. So as you know I'm nannying and it has gone great!!! Bailey is the easiest child to take care of, she's so much fun! She's happy almost all the time -except when her teeth are screaming in pain- and loves to play.
David has gotten A's on all assignments so far, he's working really hard, and it's paying off :) He's even been practicing his classical guitar! But sadly, his $30 guitar isn't good enough for his guitar instructor, Norm. So since David is soon going to be involved with a guitar ensemble, Norm is going to borrow David one of his classical guitars! David didn't argue on that one! :) You guys should hear him practicing his scales!!!

On Tuesday, instead of just jumping into it, Lindsey gave me a run through of a day in the life of Bailey. It made me feel much more confident that I could handle this position. So she came to the bus stop at Jenkins and then walked with me to the bus stop that I take to get to her place. Then we rode to her home and hung out with Bailey as I got the run down. Bailey then went down for a nap and Lindsey and I had a yummy lunch and talked. I am very excited about the friendship with this family that is happening. They are such wonderful people! They have been praying for you, mom & dad Tafoya, for a steady job and income :) They're the type of people that we can def. rely on for prayer. It's so exciting to be a part in Bailey's life!
After Bailey's nap we walked to the conservatory, zoo, and park.

Here are some pictures of Tuesday:

Lindsey and Bailey

While we were on our walk Bailey had alot of interest in collecting all the sticks she could find :)

The slides are Bailey's absolute favorite!

After the fun day with Lindsey and Bailey, David and I decided it was time to go grocery shopping (for the first time since we've been here). And we were only able to because of the wonderful blessing from Lindsey and her husband. They gave us a 'welcome to Chicago' gift, and it was by all means the most warm welcome David and I have ever received! (THANK YOU LINDSEY & KAI!!!!) These are pictures from that night at Dominick's:

We were kinda conflicted after realizing we had to carry 6 bags of groceries home about 8 blocks...

and these are our faces after carrying them home.

 Dominick's was pretty nice! I would compare it to a big Piggly Wiggly, or a Logli's. This concludes our Tuesday :)

Labor Day weekend!

T

David and I have had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. The first couple of days consisted of much-needed resting and quality time. David ended up not working Friday night so we made some delicious raman noodles for dinner.
We went on our first date night here in Chicago on Saturday. We went to Portillos! Both of us had a cheeseburger and some fries. It was yummy :) The place was really neat inside, I wish I had taken pictures of it, but it was like you were in an alley in italy. There were clothes hanging on lines above us, some old man on a rocking chair in the corner, and an upstairs dining area that looked really cool, but we couldn't see it because there was a party up there. On our way back we met David's friend Matt and his girlfriend, Hayley, and we walked the way back to Moody with them and talked. They more-or-less invited themselves over for games the next night, and we accepted because we know how it feels to be dating and not have anywhere productive to hang out at night ;). 
Sunday we went out walking and went to survey the beach. It's really beautiful out there, and reminds me of - and makes me miss- Washington and it's ocean. That night Hayley and Matt came over. David and I made some super scrumptious popcorn with our handy-dandy popcorn maker! :) I think they were impressed. We played Moods, a real come-out-of-your-shell-type-game, and it was hilarious! It's the game where you pick a phrase like "Are those real handcuffs?" and then a mood, like 'crazed' and you have to say the phrase in that mood and the other players have to guess the mood based on choices that are in front of them. So as you can imagine, it was quite fun. We then watched the movie The Proposal. 

Monday was homework day for David. 
he read. and read. and read! He read for four or five hours straight that day. I was proud of him :) 

He's STILL reading!!!

our surprise faces :)

Then when he was finally done reading, we went to the beach! We were very surprised with how late it had got by the time we made it out of our room that night! So then we ventured to the sandy paradise and had a 'vonderful goot time' :) here are some photos :

It got late so we decided we'd better head home and make dinner (it was like 9:30 mind you). So I made tacos, David's favorite! and the pictures speak for themselves ;)












So that was the end of our splendid Labor Day weekend! Hope you enjoyed this, expect more to come!

Love you family!
David and Audrey