PART 3 ::: CHICAGO

We all drove into Chicago for a couple of fun filled days, or I should say extremely fun filled days! First the girls went to the American Girl Place for a luncheon while the boys went to the Field Museum to see the dinosaurs and an exhibition on pirates.

Teagan riding with Nana in her first taxi cab ride in the Windy City.

As you can see, Riley Rose was very excited!!!!! This picture was taken as soon as we walked in the door. She turned around and had the biggest cheese smile possible.

Teagan had a lot of fun in the Tea Room with her new Itty Bitty doll Nana had bought her in anticipation of our visit. {Don't you love the hand on her doll in this picture?!}

Friend of the family, Barb O'Dea joined us for lunch being a collector of American Girl Dolls. She was in heaven. She even brought her Kit doll because that is Ruthie's (Riley's doll) best friend.

Kelly Z went with us too to have some much needed girl time!

In this picture of Nana and Teagan, you can see the party dress that Daddy bought Teagan right after she was born. What a great Daddy already buying her dresses. And Great Grammy Helen made the sweater. An adorable outfit for our adorable little girl.

LOVE IT!!!!

After lunch we met up with the boys at the Taste of Chicago. I must not have taken any pictures while we were there. Then it was off to meet up with some old friends. Owen fell asleep on the way, exhasuted of course, with dinosaur toy in hand.

We went to Linnea and Cam's to have my favorite pizza, Calo, for dinner. The Nordlunds and Voss family came too. It was nice to catch up and meet the new babies.
{Ali, Barbara, Jamie, Linnea}

Jon and Nathan holding the three newbies, Sofia, Sonja, and Teagan.

Gwen showing Teagan her kitchen. You can tell she's a big sister now!

I love that Owen is a month older than Gwen and now Sonja is a month older than Teagan. Destined to be long distance friends for life. {Thanks for this pic Linnea.}

Owen finally woke up and had fun playing with all the girls. So many to choose from!

Giving Sanne some extra lovin'.

Why do we always torture ourselves to try and get the infamous sofa picture? Maybe when they are ten we can get them all to look at the same time, oh and actually stay on the sofa too!

Sonja and Teagan comparing things they like to put in their mouths.

Sanne had no problem warming up to Mike and kept bringing him books to read to her.

Owen giving Gwen a BIG hug goodbye. Thanks for a great night guys!

We stayed over at the Nordlund's in our old apartment building. It was fun to be there and to spend more time with them. Thanks for letting this crazy crew stay over!

Sanne, Owen, and Teagan playing the next morning before we started another busy day.

Before we left our old hood, we stopped by our neighbors' Steve and Ingrid. Owen was happy to see Emma again and we got to meet their new addition, Charlie.

Then it was off to breakfast at Pauline's with Joan Kohn. She is always such a joy to be around and has so much love for our little family.

After breakfast we went to Mike's old barber so he could finally get a real haircut, meaning not one by ME. Mike is showing Owen a picture of Owen getting his first haircut there that they have on the wall. {If you remember the original post of his first haircut, you know he has a Playboy magazine on his lap. The barber said his picture is a big hit, right next to some celebs that have been there and signed pictures for them.}

While Daddy got his hair cut, the kids and I walked to the beach. Oh how I miss the beach in Chicago.

I couldn't leave Chicago without seeing my (not so little) girls. So we met up with them in Mike's old school district, Lincolnwood, at Wholly Frijoles for lunch. I miss my girls and it was so fun to catch up with them and get the latest scoop. I still can't believe that Becca is going to college next year, Grace is way taller than me, and Meghan is driving! Yikes!

{Becca, Grace, Meghan}


Chicago was AWESOME, as Owen would say. It was nice to see everyone and eat at some of our favorite places too. We miss it already.

PART 2 ::: OPEN HOUSE

Because it wouldn't be a true summer vacation at Diamond Lake without one of my parent's parties, they had an open house for friends and family on Sunday. It was so nice to see everyone and for people to get the chance to finally meet Teagan.
I didn't take too many pics at the party, too busy making the rounds, but I did snap some of the kids. Owen and Rya had no problem playing together just as they had when we last saw them. They had quite the squirt gun fight, thanks to Aunt Barbara who brought a bag full. Good times!

This one was funny of Owen going in for the sneak attack!

Teagan chillin' with Auntie Cole.


Aren't these two girls adorable!!!! {Rya above and Rosers below.}

Rya giving Aidan a kiss. I loved watching all of them interact.

I don't know why, but I love this picture of Owen. Just full blown into the swing of playing and lovin it!

Oh, the babes! I probably took twenty pictures of these three sitting together. They are all so sweet. {Mirielle 1 year, Teagan 7 months, Keira 10 months}


If Teagan could talk in the picture below...
Teagan: "Hey Mirielle, where do you think you're going? My Mama isn't done taking pictures!"

Another hilarious picture I just happened to snap of them. Totally not posed and way too funny.

Pretty little Rya putting on her flippers.


Happy Mirielle!


My cousins Nicole, Carissa, and Alexis stayed over after the party. It was fun to hang out and catch up, and of course laugh our asses off at eachother. Here are some pics from the next morning...
Teagan and her second cousin Nicole.

Cole and the girls came back up to the lake too so we could spend more time together.



Aidan being silly again!



Great Aunt Bev came up too, sadly without PEACH COBBLER! But we were happy to see her anyway!

In the afternoon some of the "Ohio Gang" came to see the little ones. It was so nice to see all of them and we appreciated them making the trip, but I have to admit it made me a little sad that Grandma Betty Lou couldn't be here too to meet all of her great grandchildren.
A picture of the wise round table...

Rosers exposing Owen to the world of Barbie! [And yes, those are mine and Karen's from when we were little.]

Teagan loves her Papa!



Last summer Owen wasn't too excited about the jetski, in fact pretty much as soon as we put him on it, we took him off. This year however, he loved it! He rode with Daddy and then he wanted to ride with his crazy driver Mama. I went full speed with both him and Rosers on and did tricks, and they both wanted more. They are our kids after all!

So that was Sunday and Monday. Two awesome days of vacation at Diamond Lake and then it was off to Chi-town.

SUMMER VACATION::: PART 1

I started to put together what could have been one of the longest blog posts ever, when I decided to break it up due to the overwhelming amount of pictures I took, hence PART 1. So here we go, let the GrisWyllie/Willard adventure begin...
It started off sitting on a plane on Friday evening, only to leave Saturday afternoon. Long story, but we were finally on our way. I have to check, but this was around Owen's 40th flight and Teagan's first. They both were great!

{Owen took this picture of Teagan.}

We finally arrived to Diamond Lake, where people had been waiting for us to arrive. Aunt Kika was very excited to meet her new neice!

As soon as we saw Great Aunt Ginny we took a picture! She had visited us multiple times after Owen was born, and we lived in Chicago, and each time we forgot to get a picture together.

Then we made sure to get one with Owen too!

Nancy babysat for me when I was a baby and now she is holding my littlest baby.


Aidan being silly! And this was just the beginning. I love his personality. Every time I turned around he was either saying something funny or making a silly face. Too cute!

Rosers giving her aunt some love!

Aunt Bev and Rene were also there, but I didn't get any pics of them that day I guess. So our first day was filled with a lot of traveling and a lot of happy faces to greet us! We were so excited to finally get there!