Chicago Visitors

This past weekend Jim's brother, Brent, and his family came up from Chicago to visit with us. This is really the first time that the kids got to play with one another. Isaac and Elizabeth were so excited to see Liesel and Ireland. It was really cute. Elizabeth also attached herself to Brent and is now asking for him. It was a ton of fun to watch the kids interact with each other not to mention for Jim and I to actually get a chance to visit with Brent and Danika with out being on a phone or surrounded by other family members. I am normally great at taking pictures but I didn't even take one with them visiting! I even had the camera on the table! Lame. That is what I was. It was a good thing Danika took some, so if you'd like to see what she posted, click here. We are really looking forward to going to Chicago to spend time with them in September and for them to come and visit again!

Cross Plains, WI - population: 3500

So we made it to our new home in Cross Plains, WI. It was quite a shock from going from LA where the population is a little over 12 million to Cross Plains where the population is 3500. If you blink, you will miss Main Street. The kicker is that not all 3500 live with-in the village! There are a ton farms outside of the "village."

The move has been interesting. On day four of us being here, Elizabeth got 2 of her fingers stuck in the van door and severed the first 3rd of both of her fingers almost all the way off. She was taken by ambulance and had to have them re-attached. Because of that, she has been in a couple of different casts and can not get her fingers wet. This has posed difficult because it is hotter than heck and so humid here. She also has to avoid any rough play, dirt and sand. So basically me taking the kids to different parks and splash pools have been out of the question. She is a trooper and this has in no way set her back one bit.

Besides going to many doctor appointments, we did manage to make it to the zoo in Madison. It is a free zoo, which I love, since I am always looking for free, fun things to do with the kids.

One of the fun things that we did was go to Jim's company picnic. It was called Epic-nic. Get it Epic and picnic? Anyways, it was fillet Mignon and lobster for the adults and hot dogs for the kids. The kids had a great time playing on the jump houses, rock climb and many of the games. There was also a petting zoo, a tractor petting zoo, carriage rides, face painting plus so much more. I felt bad that Elizabeth couldn't participate in much because of her fingers, but both of the kids still had a great time.

Slowly but surely we are making friends, finding our way around and getting used to all the corn and soy bean fields, and all the cows and wild turkeys. The kids really enjoy having a yard and and going to the park. In a week Isaac will start soccer so it will be good for him to actually meet kids his age. And until we get the ok that Elizabeth can get her fingers wet, she will just have to have fun with a Piggly Wiggly bag wrapped up her arm and run through the sprinklers.

In the Move

Well blog readers, I haven't forgotten about. I have been so busy these last couple of months and in transition, that I haven't had the time or the camera cord to blog.

To start at the beginning, we found out in May that Jim was offered and accepted the job at Epic which happens to be in Verona, Wisconsin. We had a couple of weeks to pack up and tie up loose ends before Jim started work. It was a bit chaotic. We did manage, however, to slip in a couple of trips to Disneyland. The pictures on this slide show is of our last trip. We felt that we had to take our last family picture there since we have a picture of us as a family on our first visit. Elizabeth was only 5 weeks old! We had a great time and we all miss Disneyland very much. It became a part of our family and we have such great memories of us spending time with our own family there and other family members and others.

After we were packed up and moved out, the kids and I stayed up in the Bay Area with family for 4 weeks while Jim and his Dad drove everything to Wisconsin. We had a great time visiting with family and friends, going to the Livermore rodeo, my parents cabin, San Francisco and many other fun things. Jim flew back for his best friend, Andre Crane's, wedding. That night the four of us plus my Mom flew on a red eye to Wisconsin.

We had a great time in Malibu and meet many wonderful, nice people. We really miss the people, the beach and of course Disneyland. We also miss only being a 6 hour drive to our parents houses. Southern California served us well, but we are ready for our new adventure.