Wrapping Up Year #1

It's kind of a strange thing to know you will (most likely) only be living somewhere for two years. And, technically, not even two full years, but two school years with the summer spent somewhere else. In some ways it might have been easy to hold back and not fully invest, because right from the start we've known our time here is limited. Fortunately, as I've mentioned before, we have been very blessed by the community of other business school families, neighbors, and church families and there was NO way we could have not invested this school year. I think it's safe to say that Brandon and I have both felt very socially fulfilled as we've connected with people here and shared this Chicago time with them. This is one of the youth I get to work with in our ward-- I just love her!!!

(Oh, by the way, my camera recently broke, so these pictures are whatever I've been able to scrape up from our last few weeks!) We are busy packing, cleaning, and fitting in a few more fun times in Chicago before heading to California on Thursday. Last weekend it was in the mid-90's, so we headed to the beach!

I also had the chance to run another Chicago style race: The Soldier Field 10-Miler. It was probably one of the best races I've done because I got to train a little and go the race with a friend, I ran my personal best as I was training for it, and we finished on the 50 yard line of the Bears stadium with our finish broadcast on the big TV. Pictures to come later. I've been telling Alyse every day for the last week, "You, Mommy, and Daddy are going on an airplane to California." and then I list off all the family she will get to see there. She just stares at me and sometimes says, "Daddy?" like she wants to make sure he's coming too on whatever adventure Mommy is jabbering about! It's hard to know what she really understands, but she's been surprising us more and more. For example, there is a couple at church she really likes and she always turns around and smiles at them and says the husbands name a million time "Matt" with lots of emphasis on the "t's". They just had a baby, so last time we saw them we showed Alyse their new baby. This week at random times Alyse would say, "Matt" and then a few seconds later "baby" and make the sign for baby. If that doesn't prove how much of a genius she is, then listen to this :) One of Alyse's BFFs is Lilah. She is a year older and Alyse just loves watching her do all of the big girl stuff. Lilah has been gone for the last month to Canada and often Alyse will say, "Lilah?" and I will repeat (again), "Lilah went on a trip to visit her...". The other day when we were out on the playground, Alyse pointed to an airplane flying overhead and said "Lilah". Anyway, she is a smartie :) She tries to do what we do, and sometimes gets frustrated when she can't or when it's taking too long and we don't have all day to fit the key in the keyhole and get in the door!

Brandon has two finals tomorrow and then he's all done with his first year of B school! It never ceases to amaze me how focused and driven he is, all the while balancing his time and energy to play with Alyse the moment he walks in the door, ask me all about our day while we eat dinner before he goes back to studying for the night, etc. It will be nice to have a few days of packing, traveling, and settling in to all spend together before he buckles down for his internship. It really is so fun to watch Brandon and Alyse play and she totally knows what things she does with daddy (i.e. tackle) and what she does with mommy (i.e. grab my legs and whine...just kidding, she does play stuff too!). One of my friends had a great idea to take some pictures for Mother's Day, and another friend was kind enough to take the pictures! Here are a few below: