Simon's first boat ride

I promised Simon back in June that I would take him on a boat by the end of the summer and I came through on my promise this Monday! We rode the train downtown and met my best friend Resha (I thought back up might be nice). After fueling up on coffee and bananas we went on the Chicago water taxi. It was a 15 minute boat ride from one branch of the river to Michigan ave. We had a blast! Then while walking back to the train we walked past a fire station and the sweet fire fighters asked if we wanted to see the trucks....that was almost better than the boat! Good summer day :)

Fun at the zoo!

Simon's First Baseball Game

Alan and I took Simon to his first baseball game on Wednesday. It was at Wrigley field and was Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds. 

Taking it all in. So much to see.

Story and pictures after jump...

Park with Evelyn and Sarah

This past Sunday Simon and I drove our new car up to a big park and met a new friend for a play date. Evelyn is about a week younger than Simon and the two of them are very similarly tempered. They are great at playing together and often Simon takes the lead (he rarely does that with other kids, he's more a watcher). I also loved chatting with Sarah, Eveyln's mom. Sadly they will be moving to Colorado in a few weeks. Another friend we're running out of the city. 

Emily's awesome job at parallel parking the new car.

Our New Honda Odyssey 

Scoping each other out.

Posing for a picture after lots of bubbles, ball throwing and car racing.

Cheese! (Simon is facing Sarah and Evelyn is facing me. We were both taking pictures.)

Simon decided jumping was a good way to pose for pictures.

I love this one for Evelyn's face as she watches Simon jump again. 

Dino party

Jenn and Simon are having a dino party!

Tunnel Vision

Simon watches for his Thomas train to go under the cardboard tunnel he and Papa made while we were in Boston.

"Dark in there!"

2013: A Spacious Odyssey

We now live in a world where I own a minivan.  On Friday night Emily and I became the proud owners of a 2013 Honda Odyssey.  We'd been talking about getting a new car for a while and had been intentionally avoiding looking into minivans.  But the more research we did and people we talked to, the more it became apparent that a minivan was really the best choice for us.  Last weekend we test drove the Odyssey and were really surprised by how much we liked it.  It didn't look or drive or feel like the clunky old minivans from when we were kids.  After checking out a few other similar cars from other manufacturers, we decided we liked the Odyssey the best by far.  We requested quotes from all the dealers in the area, and on Friday when we received a great quote from the place we'd been working with in the city we decided to go for it.

More after the jump...