Summer fun

Lena's new favorite hangout is the water sculpture downtown. There are two towers like the one above that face eachother. The faces are video installations that "spit" water on the brave big kids. The area between the towers is flooded and perfect for little ones.

Our friend Becca valiantly trying to shield Lena from this big splashing girl. In reality, Lena was loving it. It's neat how bigger kids are so interested in babies. The boys especially can be really sweet.


California dreamin'...

Chompers!! She's got six of them now.


Riley and Lena remain best friends. Last night he meowed into the room in the middle of the night and Lena sat up and said "cat".

Music class

The three of us participated in music class this past quarter through the family resource center at the university. Here Morgan and Lena play the guitar. In the background is Lena's friend Rosie who was born on the same day as Lena. The two of them have gotten to be good friends.

Lena's first camping trip

Yesterday afternoon we drove an hour southeast of Chicago to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to camp for the night. The weather was spectacular and we spent the afternoon/evening along the shores of Lake Michigan.

The lakeshore isn't always the most appealing (look for the smoke stack from the local steel mill in the background), but it's fairly close to Chicago and we'll take what we can get.

A short film of Lena dipping her feet in the great lake.

Sunset from a nearby stretch of beach where we had a picnic dinner.

If you look closely you can see Chicago in the background rising from the water.

Our picnic - kiwis, celery and peanut butter, yellow dog, the essentials.

Camping went well and Lena loved the tent! Here are Morgan and Lena this morning.

Lena not long after exploring the nooks and crannies of our temporary bedroom.

Paul and Lena looking at a spider on the wall of the tent.

June is here

Today we celebrated the start of June, the first month of summer, with many trips to the park.

Here Lena works here choppers on a wooden bowl. She's teething like it's going out of style.