My favorite places in our neigborhood

Here are a few pictues of my favorite places in our neigborhood....always, the anywhere on the lake front where I can listen to the waves hitting the shore and feel the breeze off the water.






This is the Lily Pond, just north of the zoo which is a beautiful retreat from the city, you can almost imagine you're not in the middle of the city (minus the car noises)


















The conservatory is a world of plants, in doors (when it's raining) and smells beautiful. I love just walking through and looking at the plants.









Aaron and I spend a lot of time walking (or in Aaron's case running) through the zoo, it's fun to people watch as well as see all the animals.

Come visit!

Welcome Home

Thought I'd add a few of our pictures to the heap that Sarah had on her blog. I thought my pics of the parents coming through the door was classic, check out the look on Barb and Marks faces!

Vacation

Here's a few pictures from our trip out to LA/Vegas. The first is the Hoover Dam, which if you've never been to, I'd recommend, it's amazing, huge, and crazy to think they built it back in the 1930s









This is a picture at Venice Beach in LA where we met up with one of Aaron's uncles and his two daughters, they showed us quite a bit of the tourist side of LA










A beautiful Sunset over the pacific on our first night in LA. We stayed at a hotel near the Santa Monica Pier so went out to the end of the pier to watch the sunset, it was beautiful!










Here we are hiking (well, taking a break from a long 3.5 hour hike) in the Red Rock Canyon which is a beautiful hiking area 20mins outside of Vegas.










And last but not least a picture from a restaurant on the top of one of the casinos that had a great view of the strip (no we didn't eat there...I can't imagine what the price would have been!)

New Camera

So I bought a new camera today....nothing like a new camera to make you notice some of the cool buildings of the city.
Thought the fog on the Hancock building looked cool...but I haven't quite mastered how to capture the light.
No I don't live in Europe, but sometimes it looks a little like it.


Mom and Dad and Mark and Barb made it safely to Rome and seem to be having a wonderful time.
Booxy

Maggie's Day in Chicago

As many of you know each of my nieces and nephews get a trip to Chicago with Grandma the summer they are 7. So this was Maggie's turn, and we decided to make it a full girls day out.
It was so fun to walk around with Maggie, she finds such enjoyment of little things, like the Hershey store. There's nothing quite like viewing the city through a 7 years old's eyes.
We started the morning by going to the American Girl store where she got to pick out a doll for herself. After much wandering around the store and debate she chose Julie. We then went from there to the rainforest cafe for lunch and then down the Shedd Aquarium. Before heading home on the train we went to the Hello Kitty store and met Uncle Aaron for dinner.
I had such a great time! Thanks for coming up Maggie! Love you!
Booxy

Seattle Trip

Here are a few shots from our Seattle Trip. If you followed Aaron's Blog, we did get out there Saturday evening, loosing one day. But after that the trip was great, we had perfect weather (whoever says it rains in Seattle everyday has it wrong) it was sunny at 60-70s everyday, low humidity! A great break from the Chicago heat. This first pick is at the Ballard Locks in northern Seattle. By the locks they had a beautiful garden and lots of roses.


This photo is of the famous "flying fish" at Pikes Place Market.




Then Aaron by the original Starbucks and a picture of us hiking at Mt Ranier. Unfortunately it was very foggy in the mountains, and came home to find our camera not working any longer. I'm still in the process of trying to figure out if we can fix it...so no picks after Monday.

Summer is HERE!!

WOW, I haven't posted on here for a long time! Just thought I would show some highlights of how our Summer's going so far! Kels is on the swim team this year, and is loving it! Her best stroke, I'd say, is the backstroke. Here she is taking off for the freestyle.

Getting ready to take off for the relay...

And Saturday mornings, Josiah plays T-Ball! He likes it, but we were gone for 1 of the games, and then last Sat it was cancelled due to all the rain, so he hasn't played for a while. He only has a few more games left. He also started basketball camp this week. (4 days for an hour & half in the morning) He is LOVING that! So this summer so far has been pretty crazy for us!

We had a pipe leaking just outside our basement wall, and water was seeping into the basement, so we got that fixed last week! The kids loved watching the digger working just outside. They were so funny all lined up watching out the window.

My poor yard :( Oh well, it's fixed, and our bill was MUCH less then they quoted us! (Gotta love that!)

And, we've been camping twice! (so far...going again over the 4th!) Memorial Day weekend, there's a group that camps at some friends of ours - this year there were 15 campsites! They live along the Mackinaw, and their property connects with one of his brothers, who has a lake. It was the most PERFECT setting! They have a huge shed with a kitchen & full bathroom in it, then down a long lane (right by the river) is a big clearing where everyone camped! The kids had so much fun, since there were alot of other kids their age!

Here's the lake - with this enormous swing! (Kels went off it!)

Then the other weekend we went with some friends to Starved Rock for the weekend. It was soooo beautiful...the weather was perfect!

Our nightly visitor...

Eating breakfast around the campfire :)

Hope everyone's doing well! Love you all! -Kristy

My Birthday

This first pic is of me on our "bike the drive" where they closed down lake shore drive from 5-9 on Sunday Morning and we biked down the the Museum of Science and Industry and back to our house.




The next is the fabulous plate of food at the wonderful restaurant "North Pond" Aaron surprised me with.















Just a fun picture from the restaurant's front, looking at the city.

Love you all! Again....let me know when you want to come up to Chicago this summer! Our July/Aug has open weekends!

Today is the first day of the rest of my life..........

Ok, so maybe I'm being slightly dramatic!

But, yes, it is offical. I am a college graduate. Yesterday, Mom, Dad and I went down to West Lafayette for my 9:30am graduation ceremony.

I was at first a little indifferent about going through the ceremony...but I am so glad that I did. It was a perfect, brisk, SUNNY day...one that won't be soon forgotten. I enjoyed every moment of it.

Here are some pictures:

The wonderful 'rents. Thanks again Mom and Dad for your constant support and love! These guys have been awesome...they were great at giving me my independence yet full support and encouragement all the way through. It was fun to have them there yesterday to meet some of my school friends.

(and yes, I know, I look really wonderful in that little outfit of mine...)

This is a picture of me and my friend Juila. I met her my sophomore year and ended up getting to spend the summer with her at my internship. She is an amazing, bold, born-again believer and was a constant encouragement to me in my classes. :)

Marie, I don't know if you know Robin Overmyer. She is originally from Francesville. We reconnected a few years ago, knowing each other from a girls camp and ACYF from back in the day. Ended up having several classes together...she's really fun.

After graduation and the Management reception, we picked up my friend, Ai, a girl I met last year through a Global Connect program where you get paired up with an international student. She too graduated this year and is heading back to China. It was fun to have mom and dad met her...we had quite an interesting lunch...this girl loves to talk! She was so fun and it's really sad to think that I may never see her again.

Anyways...the whole thing is a little bittersweet. These past four years have been by far the best portion of my life thus far...and a little part of me is like, psh, it's never going to get to any better that...all down here from here.

And maybe it will. But that's ok. I'm trying to not be sad or depressed or cry because its over but smile and laugh because it happened! It was a great ride; and I don't regret a moment of it.

Praise the Lord for He is good...and even if EVERYTHING seems to be changing. He doesn't. And I love that.

Just like I love all of you.

Michigan Weekend

Aaron and I went to Michigan to attend a high school classmate's wedding.





We then spent the rest of the weekend with his family. They are currently boarding a young girl from Germany who's over here working and going to college. It was a beautiful weekend to be in Michigan and went hiking (ok more like a light walk) through the nature preserve that's by his parents house.




These are some fun pics we took of Spencer "jumping" I know it didn't turn out the best, but I thought it looked kind of retro or something. Then of Aaron and Spencer posing deep in thought as they watched the river flow by.