Lucie is 2 months old!

2 months already?? Lucie is a keeper -- we weren't sure, but she started smiling and sleeping through the night just in the nick of time! :)

Memorial Day Weekend 2009

Another quick trip home...but any trip home is a good trip home! Frank was headed that way anyways for the annual trip to the Indy 500, so the rest of us decided to hitch a ride as far as chicago! We left Friday morning around 7 am -- had to make 2 stops as opposed to our usual 1...thanks, lucie! Add in Friday of Memorial Day weekend chicago traffic and the whole trip was about 9 hours (compared to the usual 7 1/2). Overall, Lucie did well on hir first (of many) roadtrips to chicago. We stayed with Frank's parents on Friday night - got to see Emma and Gina (and Oliver, of course). That's the second picture above...the cousins on the Williams side. Fun times.

Saturday morning, Frank and "the guys" left for Indy...they've got this trip down - the whole guys' weekend seems fairly routine for them at this point... but, that's what keeps 'em coming back! The kids and I and Frank's mom went to Emma's for lunch, which was excellent...and something about her place makes Ellie and Nathan run frantically in circles - also excellent. After lunch, the kids and I headed down to Glen Ellyn to see my family. The Hilts came over for dinner on Saturday, lunch on Sunday and we went to their house for dinner on Sunday -- lots of good cousin time (and the kids are all old enough to really "disappear" and play well together -- it's awesome!)

Ellie was very excited to show Lucie around nana's house and grandma's house...cute. It was the perfect way to kick off summer -- and I hope everyone in chicago had as much fun as we did... we'll be back in July for a longer stint (if they'll have us!).

Once Frank returned from the race (sweaty and tired, as usual), we pretty much took off for OMaha first thing Monday morning. the return trip was only one stop again (go, lucie!), and only about 8 hours (including a stop at McDonald's for lunch that included 2 trips to the bathroom for ellie, nathan spilling his milk to the tune of needing an entire new outfit, and lucie having one of the worst poop "blowouts" in williams kid hisotry...also requiring a full outfit change.) SOmehow, with all of that, and a stop for gas -- and I think we actually ate lunch, too -- it was a 45 minute stop. Not too shabby. In the middle of all this chaos, without fail, an elderly couple stops and comments on how "cute" the kids are (the poopy one or the milky one?) and how it reminds them of their family years ago and how...(they always say this)... we should enjoy every minute. (again, the poop or the milk?) :)

Frank brought back souvenirs for the kids... a onesie for Lucie, and a couple of matchbox-like cars for ellie and nathan. I think he stresses out a bit about ellie's souvenir - not the easiest place to shop for a girly-girl. No princess stuff at the brickyard! She was happy with the replica of Danica Patirck's racecar. She was all, "oh, a racecar...COOL! IT's a GIRL driver!?!?"

It was a fun weekend - we'll be back soon. :)

Mother's Day 2009

Here are Ellie and Nathan (Lucie was sleeping - slacker!) were up early and very excited about Mother's Day... what great kids! :) My only request for the day was Grands... yep, cinnamon rolls in a can... yummmm.... my favorite! The kids had never had them, so they were looking forward to trying this new breakfast treat. Ellie got the idea (from Caillou, I think) to do "breakfast in bed" (one of the more overrated concepts around, but..) and she was all jacked up about it. So, around 7:30 (I know! Sleeping in!), up came the troops (Lucie still sleeping at this point...) with the Grands. Delish! And, the kids wanted to eat "in bed" with me - yikes! Frank brought up the card table instead, so they could eat with plated flat on a table and chairs at a table -- always thinking! But, a lot of work for cinnamon rolls in a can :) It was fun.

After breakfast, we headed to the zoo -- it was a gorgeous day, and plenty of other moms were celebrating their day at the zoo, too. The new "skyfari" was open, and Frank and Ellie took the ride. Basically, a chair lift that "flies" about 30 or 40 feet off the ground, and goes over several exhibits, like the giraffes, rhinos, elephants. I would have been too scared - so would Nathan - and Lucie can't quite jump on or off a moving chair lift, so the three of us headed to the monkey house instead. The skyfari got great reviews from Ellie (and pretty good reviews from Frank). Some day, I'll try it, too.

On the way home from the zoo, we drove through Arby's (it was a real "mom's choice of un-nutritious foods kind of day!). We spent the rest of the day kind of hanging out and enjoying the day. It was weird to not be home to see OUR moms, but it was a nice kind of quiet day here, too. And it was a day that was relatively bicker-free between ellie and nathan, so perhaps that was the greatest gift I could have asked for. :)

Have a great weekend!