Chicago and Milwaukee

For my birthday Brandon and I took a trip without our kids to Chicago and Milwaukee!  A huge thank you to my mom who came out and stayed with our kids; taking them to field trips, basketball practices, and trip to the park.

Our tickets were crazy cheap, but they were also red-eyes.  We arrived to a rainy, windy cold Chicago Thursday morning at 5 am.  After picking up our rental car we drove to a Walmart and slept in the parking lot.  Luckily by the time we woke up the rain had stopped and it was a little less cold.  After buying some gloves we started our adventure....

The cloud bean thing at Millennium park, you know you always see pictures of it, but it is way cooler in person than I thought it would be.

We spent the majority of Thursday at the Art institute of Chicago.  Which was incredible, but I didn't take any pictures.  We also walked down miracle mile and ate deep dish pizza.

Friday we slept till 11:20.  ELEVEN.  It was glorious.  And then we spent the day in Milwaukee with my cousin and her sweet little family.  We went the grocery store and sampled all the cheese, had delicious frozen custard, and root beer, explored downtown a bit, visited with "The Bronze Fonz", had dinner on the water front, went to the Pabts mansion, and even happened onto someone's engagement moment.  Milwaukee is a beautiful city, but the company was the best part.  Rachel's little home, neighborhood, and family is pretty darn perfect.  I even got the chance to snap a couple Christmas card pictures for them.

Saturday, after breakfast, The VanWickles joined us for a little more time in Chicago before our flight home.  We walked down Navy pier, went up to the top of Hancock tower, and had Chicago dogs! Owen is a sweet heart.

(stolen from Rachel's facebook) 

It was such a wonderful trip and thank you to my mom and the VanWickles for making it so easy to get away.  :)  It was perfect.  (I swear we look colder than it actually was)

Portland Halloween

This year the boys had  a five day weekend over the Saturday Halloween.  So we packed our bags and headed up to Portland.  It was very wet and Brandon promised that in the future we would only visit in July.  The fall colors were beautiful though.

We visited the Hartley Park ward in Portland and the rock by the Bateman's apartment, which felt a little bit like going home. <3 p="">

We rented a house in Portland which was a great way to travel!

Saturday, Halloween, was very rainy; more rain than usually Portland sees in such a short period of time.  The boys dawned serious rain apparel and headed out trick or treating.  Genevieve and I hung out in the car. 

We also visited the zoo

And the Tillamook Cheese Factory

We rode the Max to the Saturday's market and voodoo doughnuts..

Despite the rain, it was kind of a perfect trip.  Also a friendly reminder that (I may be a little broken) I prefer the desert sunshine.

Chandler Plays Basketball

Chandler loved playing basketball during the summer league.

Back to School!

Chandler: eight years old, third grade, Ms. Hanson, rides his bike to school, enjoys reading and art, starting in the GATE program, and plays basketball with the NJB.

Sterling: five years old, second year of preschool with Ms. Kriss, learning something new everyday, starting basketball skills class at the YMCA, enjoys legos, and FOOD.  "Dad, did you know that mom bought me these shoes with stars on them because I am a rock star?  I really am Dad."

 Baby Genevieve, 8 months, crawls, claps, and grows teeth, enjoys riding in the cozy coupe and duplos, hates the gym daycare and getting dressed.
 

We're excited for an awesome school year here at the Barnette house!  

Goodbye Summer?

It feels weird to be saying goodbye to summer before labor day, but school is back in and I can't put back to school pictures in the summer pictures folder, right??  Anyways, here's some favorite pictures from summer 2015..

The Beach

We promised Chandler we would go to the beach while we were at my parents back in June.  Unfortunately, it rained the day we planned on going.  So, I promised him we would go back; I figured we had the entire summer.  In late July, looking at my calendar, I realized we only had one conflict-free weekend left before mid September.  So we packed everything up, and we drove to my parents just to spend the day at the beach.