Clark Family Reunion 2011/ Chicago

                                                          

                                                  

We spent the entire past week with my mom's side of the family for our family reunion. And it was held, get this...

Here in Illinois!!

A once in a lifetime event to have so much of my family to come to the place I live!

I have one aunt and uncle that live outside of Utah on my Mom's side. And they just so happen to live about an hour and a half away. They are amazing, and they were our hosts. What a fantastic job they did!

My parents, and sister Emily and her family all drove out. They were able to come to our house first, and go to church with us. It was so much fun, and kind of surreal to have them all at my home! We did miss my sister's Shelley and Lauren and their families.

We spent the first couple of days here in the Chicago area, and then the whole group traveled to Nauvoo, Il.

We did the Chicago sights first. It was a packed couple of days, and for the most part our kids were troopers! I will have to split our Chicago and Nauvoo events into two posts. I as usual, went a little crazy with the photos.

After many a bathroom trip. (We did have 18 children ages 10 and under with us.) We hit the Chicago Bean.

                                  Us. With my parents, Aunt, Uncle, cousins, neice and sister in the background.

We are blurry, but this is most of our group with the city skyline in the background.

Our kids were not happy with us because we would not let them go in the fountain. My children don't do well once wet. So, that was a no-go at the start of our day. The looks of dismay!

We went to Navy Pier for just a bit, then headed to Lincoln Park zoo. I really like this zoo. It is free, small enough to see the whole thing and not be too overwhelmed, and right in the heart of the city. Oh, and they have a carousel. Here is Georgia riding her panda.

And Walker on his, prairie dog? I am not sure. Not sure what Del is doing either.

Our kids loved the tigers. In fact, they loved them so much, that every so often, one of them would disappear while we rested on a bench. We would find them back at the tiger window.  Really safe, I know!

There is a really pretty garden the zoo opens up into. We used this location for some of our professional family photos last year. We stopped again for pictures with the skyline. It ended up looking further away than in person. The kids used the opportunity to do some cartwheels and get a swing around by the ankles from the dads.

My Mom and Dad.

My sister Emily, her husband, Mike, and the kiddos, Hailey, Mallorey, Annie, and Jack.

My uncle was so great the entire day, and acted as our taxi cab. We would just call him up, and he would come to our location with a big 15 passenger van he had rented, and haul us to the next sight. He said he might just "give up lawyering" as he put it, and drive a rig! Yeah, I am betting not, but we shall see! Thanks Uncle Scott!

We ate deep dish pizza for dinner at Gino's East, and then went on a Wendella architectural river tour. It was VERY cool! I must admit that when I drive into a city, I don't look at the buildings and wonder what the story behind their being built is. But I will now! It was really interesting to learn the history of the buildings in Chicago. And there is no shortage of good architecture here! Just bring a jacket. Our tour went out onto Lake Michigan for about a half and hour, and it was windy. Great thing to do on your visit to Chicago!

My Dad, concentrating on the architecture.

It was in this building that Abraham Lincoln announced his candidacy for President of the United States. Cool, huh?

Any good tips for growing out bangs on a little girl who won't wear a clip in her hair?

My extended family, enjoying the views.

The next day, we took the kids to the American Girl store, and the Lego store. The lucky ducks, they all got to pick a toy. Georgia got her first American Girl doll. One of the mini dolls. She chose Kit.

Very exciting. The boys did not let their Bionicles out of their sights for the rest of the week.

After our American Girl stop, we decided to walk to the Chicago classic, Ed Debevic's for lunch. It had been so difficult finding parking that was tall enough to fit our cars, that we did not want to have to pull them out of the only garage that we found over 7 feet. 

We all worked for our lunch by walking many blocks in the heat and humidity. 

The kids had so much fun at Ed Debevic's. And we were all good sports about wearing our hats. Even though our waitress kept calling us all "weirdos," and poor Mike "princess." 

(if you don't know Ed Debevic's, you don't know what I am talking about.)

We all enjoyed a "Worlds Smallest Sundae," and the kids were thrilled to keep their glass as a souvenir.

That night, at my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Scott's house, mother nature treated those unaccustomed to the midwest storms to a lovely tornado warning. We all went to hang out in the basement together. All forty of us. But one, by one, everyone was drawn back upstairs to watch the sky, and the weather reports. And for my Mom and my Aunt Jean, it was the thrill they wanted! To hear the sirens, and watch the sky turn green. So glad they were satisfied. Without being blown away that is. 

We loaded up, and headed to Nauvoo the next morning. More fun to come! 

Houndstooth

It is a classic.

I have always gravitated toward the houndstooth pattern. So I don't know why it did not occur to me sooner to use it in my home decor. I have a jacket in a brown houndstooth that I love, and I have seen shoes that are very cute.
When I saw these pillows on Etsy, I decided they would look nice in my boy's rooms. I initially went out and purchased some really big (too big) pillows, and eyed, some fabric to have some made. But when I crossed paths with these I decided they fit better size wise, and with a lower stress level, and went for it.

I keep thinking they just look "zippy" in the boy's rooms. I know, that is a cheesy word, but it describes the feel they give pretty accurately. A shot of life. I am liking it.

Especially for our very "overworked" bunk beds. These things have taken quit the beating from the older boys. I have decided that I will let them be for a while, before I get ambitious with paint. I am sure that would be one quickly destroyed refinishing job. Or better yet, we find an alternative bedding situation.

For now we are going with that "masculine rustic" look. That is code for:  -little boys who like to draw on, saw on, jump on, and stick things on, every piece of furniture they can get their hands on.-

And in Walker's room. Just so that when he has a big boy bed it can blend in a bit with the other brother's.

A little sweet, a little jazzy.

Oh, and there was a miscommunication with my Etsy order. I have yet to figure out how this happened, but, I apparently purchased six, of these pillows, instead of the intended three I thought I had. So if anyone is interested in buying a houndstooth pillow from me, let me know. Oopsy.

Speaking of a classic. Suuuuuch a great chair!

                                                                image Caitlin Creer Design

200,000 Miles!

Del is very proud. He had a great moment this past week. This beauty, his green Honda Accord hit the 200,000 mile mark. I say "beauty" with a smile in my voice, because my husband is very hard on two things. Cars, and clothes.

He is known to cram up to three motorized wheelchairs in his car at a time. Hence, the rip in the leather on the back seat. He is also prone to putting sticky notes all over the dash board, and not really taking note of his muddy shoes on the carpet. He is also driving constantly. To all kinds of doctor's offices, and health care facilities, and back and forth from his office to our home in the Sticks.  But luckily this is just in his car, not the family car.

As far as being hard on his clothes, let's just say there is a lot of dry cleaning going on here.

I guess it could be worse. There is a man at my health club that I see at least twice a week. And I am not kidding, he is working out in a dress shirt and slacks every time! I mean full on, sweating it out on the eliptical machine!  I always find myself stopping to stare for just a second. It is so odd.

Wake up, take shower, dress in work clothes, slick back hair, spritz on some cologn, hit the gym. Huh?

Okay back on subject.

I remember when we went to look at this car. The lady he bought it from pulled up in front of us in it, and Del said something like, "Yup, I think I'll buy it."

And buy it he did, The only way Del likes to buy anything. With cash.

 On the flip side of the muddy shoes and such, Del is very kind to the engine. He is always making sure it is up on it's mantainance. And it is still purring along! Del came in after it hit the big 200,000 with a smile on his face and said, "I think it is going to go to 300,000!"

One of the moments that sticks out to me is when an autobody shop guy lifted the Honda's hood, and told Del, "Look at that engine! That is a great engine!"

It was like someone had just complimented Del on his first born.

And nothing could please my thrifty minded husband more than this mile marker. Del is also a bit competitive, so this whole, "How far can the car go?" game is a lot of fun to him. Nothing to motivate this man like making money, and lack of needing to spend money on a new car.

 I am sure that one day, just as he had with past cars, he will have driven his car into the ground. And I will get a phone call from the side of the road to come pick him up. And we will start this all over again.

But don't tell Del I said his car might see the end of it's days.

He would be very sad.

A Study Guide

I have a friend that lives in my ward from church. We have attended meetings together for eight years now. When we first moved to the Chicago area, we lived in an apartment closer to the city, and Tanja, that is my friend's name, lived in the building right next to us. Through a great twist of fate, they ended up moving from another spot in a nearby city, into our complex, just weeks after us. Then, while our house was being built, Tanja and her husband began looking for a home. Coincidentally, they ended up in a city that is in our ward, yet again!
We have similar last names. I should say, we have last names that start with the same letter. And this has been enough to throw all of the people around us into confusion. We are them, and they are us, half of the time. Both families have learned to answer to both last names. The mix-ups just make us smile. We don't bother to correct people anymore.
It is actually a privilege on my part to be confused with Tanja on any level.

She is one of the most devout women I know. She is mindful of every principal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she lives them. I am sure that sometimes she wishes she could get a little more credit than being constantly mixed up with the likes of me.

When I first met Tanja, she was giving a small lesson at a Relief Society function. Relief Society is the organization run by, and founded for, women of the Church.
In her little talk, Tanja mentioned how at a young age, she set a goal for herself, that by the end of her life she would be a great Scriptiorian. She wanted to know the Bible, Book of Mormon, and other works, as well as she possibly could.

I found this to be a fascinating goal. Not just to say I have read this, or that. But to KNOW...where to look, who did what, and when it happened, and the meaning behind all of it. It stuck with me. And I am positive Tanja is well on her way.

I have a bit further to go. Okay... a lot further. But I want to get there too. As I have read The Book of Mormon this year, I have often thought, "Oh, I need to remember to look up what the symbolism, or meaning of that is." about one topic or another.
I have seen on other's blogs, that they have found guides to read as a companion to their scriptures, to help them decipher things that are difficult to grasp. But at the moment, who had what posted is slipping my mind.

So I wonder if you know of a good guide to follow along with scripture study, would you mind sharing?
It would greatly help me on my path to being a Scriptorian, in my own way.

"The mind can’t work in a vacuum. If you want to come to an understanding about something, you’ve got to [have] facts to work with, information. And sometimes as you’re pondering a problem you realize you don’t have all the data, you don’t have the facts. You need to go back and get more. Or some of the facts may not have been accurate. . . . Be sure that the data you’re working with is accurate.”


Elder Richard G. Scott 

Planting, Eating, And Enjoying Summer

Our poor little Walker has been sick this past week. The "coming out both ends" kind of sick. It is so sad to watch a little eighteen month old lean over his "throw-up bucket."

You know those little pink tupperware they bath the newborns in at the hospital, and then you can take home? They go from our children's newborn bathtubs, to their all grown up, throw-up buckets at our house.
I do have four kids, and only three pink tupperware however. So one of them must have disappeared somewhere along the way.

So I am home from church with Walker, and I thought after I had finished scrubbing the carpet from the last sickness incident, I would blog a bit. Yay for the fact that I have a carpet cleaning for the entire house scheduled for later this week!

We have had a week of nothing very pressing this past week. So the being sick thing kind of fit in. But we did have a few fun things go on.

I finally got my flowers in the pots. I needed new pots pretty badly this year. I found these ceramic pots for a really good price, and on sale! So I spray painted them with a textured black. Just give this pot a week and half, and the flowers will be big, happy, and spilling over the sides! Can't wait!

I generally keep things pretty simple with my flowers, because we are gone so much of the hot Summer, and watering becomes an issue. This year I took it one step further, and for the first time, I put mulch in my beds, instead of planting flowers. I love beds brimming over with blooms. But, I must admit the simplicity of the mulch has been nice. I also do like the clean look of it.

What do you do? Mulch, or flowers?

I love the tree line on this spot we drive past frequently. So I asked the kids if they wanted to get the camera set up and take a picture with the big trees. We got what we could. The boys look like burglars with their dark hood pulled over their heads.
Me saying "Look, it is about to take the picture!" Nobody else cared. So we packed up and went to Culvers.

We had our first S'mores night of the year.  Our kids love firepit nights. As pathetic as our firepit may be.

Some yard work, and some tired, dirty kids, wearing whatever random clothing they have changed into throughout the day, and an ooy, gooy, s'more!

More starchy carbs! This plate is an example of the eyes being bigger than the stomach. But what did fit in the stomach was good!

I think for the most part, I have cleared the pictures I had sitting around. I am loving that I have my iMac back, refreshed and ready to roll! I guess I better go get something ready for dinner for after church, and do some scripture study, so my soul does not go unfed this week. Unlike my stomach!

Just My PC, and Me

Well, the latest at our house is that my poor iMac had a horrible stroke and had to go to the iMac hospital. I have found that without it, I cannot charge up my iPod to listen to music while I work out, I cannot download all of my videos and pictures, and I can't figure out Pintrest because it says to click and drag everything, and my Dell is just not doing that. So all of that must wait. Other new events include, Wally discovering that he wants to document every minute of his life this week with the point and shoot and the Flip video. It is pretty cute. We are getitng ready for the boys to be off to Summer school for a few hours a day next week. I am now headed out the door to take all four of them to the health club with me for the first time. This should be interesting.
We had a nice weekend with lots of yard work, lots of good food, and time with Del. We had a BBQ with good friends at our house on Monday. And I was having such a good, stress free time (rare when hosting a party) that I did not pull out my camera, as I had intended.
This week, I am doing some more de-junking, waiting for my garage storage system to be installed.... searching for paint color inspiration for my powder room, wich is in need of some love, and keeping up with Walker, who has become even more of a handful, if that is possible. But we always have several stories to rehash, and smile about at night after he goes to bed.
In my inspiration search, I did come across a kitchen that I am luuuuuvvving right now. So crip and pretty. So until I get my own picture situation figured out, take a gander at this! What do you think, just right, or too white?
Nothing is ever too white for me.

                                           Found at Cote de Texas. Kitchen in a home in Chicagoland.