Sunset Park

 Last weekend we visited Sunset Park, which is full of giant geese and swans and ducks. Mike and I were both kind of scared of the birds, but Nora just wanted to get closer.

On this particular trip to the park, Nora would have kept swinging all day long. We were there pretty early, before it got too hot. But once it hit 90 degrees at about 8:30 a.m., Nora's mean parents loaded her in the car and took her home.

Discovery Children's Museum

Last weekend we made our first visit to Discovery Children's Museum. Nora's favorite part by far was Water World, which features all kinds of neat water works and a mini replica of the Hoover Dam.

Nora got to wear an awesome rain coat

She got to experiment with floating balls in the water

Do some splashing

And it was great fun!

Later we went to the park:

DAM & Rocky Mountain National Park, Labor Day weekend

We took a little family vacation several weeks ago on Labor Day weekend. We checked out a Mark Rothko exhibit at the Denver Art Museum and then spent two days in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.

I didn't take any photos in Denver, but Nora did pretty well at the museum. She was babbling and noisy in the very quiet galleries and she spit up on the floor when we were looking at Rothko, but other than that, she was quite good. We happened upon the Taste of Denver event, so downtown was full of people and food. We got a snack on the street and then headed for Estes Park.

Nora is learning at an early age that vacation means time to read a book. 

This was our first outing with the hiking backpack, Mike's birthday present.

We hiked about five miles, it was gorgeous, and Nora fell asleep. It was hard work riding on Daddy's back!

I could post a dozen mountain pictures. It was so pretty!

Right before hike number two.

Awesome August

Mike's mom, dad, and brother came for a visit. Grandma Sheri is taking care of Nora for a couple of weeks. While the guys were here (just for a few days), we took a picnic up to the Snowies on a gorgeous afternoon.

Nora is having a great time with her grandma! And she continues to get bigger and bigger.

Dress and shoes are family heirlooms -- I wore them when I was a baby!

Loves the swing at the park!

Figuring out the chain -- with tongue out.

It's great living across the street from the park. Here's Nora in the sandbox.

Squinting up at Mom after eating a little dirt.

Allerton Park

What a beautiful fall day -- today was perfect for spending time outside. Michael and I went to Allerton Park, in Monticello (about 40 minutes from Chambana). Allerton Park is the estate of a very wealthy Illinoisan who donated the property to the University of Illinois in 1946. There's a working, diversified farm; many formal gardens with extensive statuary; a Georgian mansion built in 1900; and miles of hiking trails through woods and gardens. We spent a few hours there hiking the "yellow trail" and seeing what we could see.

Michael at the pillars at the end of the cross surrounding "Death of the Last Centaur" statue

Death of the Last Centaur

Collection of Foo Dogs, seen from upper-level of House of the Golden Buddhas

Melissa on the upper level of House of the Golden Buddhas

This is a hedge apple -- something we'd never heard of until today. They're gooey and heavy, and may have shattered that rear window in the picture. (Don't worry, that's not our car.)

Girl with Scarf. (This Allerton guy must have had a thing for boobs.)

The mansion, which is now used as a conference center.

Foo Dog!

Meet Me In St. Louis

We had a great day in St. Louis yesterday; we went to the temple for a session and then went to Forest Park and to the St. Louis zoo.


There were not many people at the temple at all. We couldn't even find anyone to take our photo!

Forest Park is a huge, lovely place with all kinds of (free) attractions. This is the Jewel Box, a giant greenhouse that was built in the 1930s:

The St. Louis Zoo is touted as America's #1 zoo. I don't know how they gathered their data, but I would rate the zoo pretty highly. We had a great time riding the train, seeing Big Cat Country, and just wandering around to see the different animals.

The ostriches

The tiger

On an entirely different topic, our old dryer gave up the ghost (it emitted sparks and a burning smell when operating for the last time) and we have a new dryer. Here's the old appliance, sitting out in our front yard in classic "white trash" fashion (it's been there for a whole week now):
And here's the new dryer:
And some sad news: Dobler has been missing since Tuesday morning. We've canvassed the neighborhood with his photo plus our phone number, but it seems that no one has seen him. We're sincerely hoping that he's just on a little kitty vacation and will be back soon. So if you're the praying type, please think of Dobler.

Mike took this picture of us last Sunday.