I told Sean that I was not going to take his picture while he was sticking out his tongue. He politely obliged so I could snap this picture. I did not realize, of course, that Sierra had already begun copying Sean just as I snapped the picture. She copies just about everything he does. Once she begins potty-training, she will be disappointed to learn that she cannot stand up to go.

I was trying to sneak a picture of Sierra with Mr. Potato Head but she realized it just in time to scrunch her nose and give me a big "Cheese!".

Less than 3 weeks until 6th grade for Callie.

Fire destroyed the main building of Brands where mom recently "retired" (but was still working part-time) and where Jeff had worked several years. It appears to be arson.

Sean had a little accident with a fence post a couple of days ago. Fortunately, it wasn't worse.

Sierra smiles...

Here are some natural Sean smiles....

More Windy City pics. We did visit the beach on our vacation. This was the 31st Street Beach in Chicago on Lake Michigan. The water was 65 degrees and there was a very cool wind blowing. It was about 8:00pm Central time. Now that we are on Eastern time with Daylight Savings at home, it was nice to visit Central time when the sun is where we expect it to be throughout the day and when it gets dark when it is supposed to. ;-) In other words, we still have not adjusted to the new time zone. It is just weird for it to still be daylight past 9pm.

Sean is going through a phase where he gets these funny looks on his face when he is trying to smile for the camera. He puts such effort into it and it still turns out like this. At least for now, us girls are not having any problems other than bad hair days. :-)

See how big everyone is getting!

More Aquarium pics.

On our first night, we decided to find someplace to eat.... our excursion took us all the way around the outskirts of O'Hare Airport. It was pretty cool seeing all the huge jets coming in to land and those taking off. About every 20 seconds. Sean really enjoyed that since they were much bigger than what we see at our local airport.

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago was very nice. We did have to wait in line for an hour to get in, but it was worth it. There are a lot of people in Chicago.

Callie, Sean and Sierra got to touch Sea Stars in this touch pool.

Chicago Vacation pics.
Brookfield Zoo - We were quite tired at the end of an afternoon at the zoo. Sean would lie down flat on his back on the paved paths, but perked up for this picture on the lion's back.