Make me a match

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy. I was in Folsom for work and then went straight to Utah for a family vacation. We stopped in Vegas to see Jason's friend, Chris, from high school. Chris' wife Whitney took some pictures of Jason and Luke that I thought were cute.

I love my boys

I love Jason's face here

Also, Chris and Whitney have a daughter 2 months older than Luke. Jason and Chris are already planning their pending nupitals. Poor kids.

Look how they're already holding hands!

My .5 Seconds of Fame

I'm famous! Sort of. Pause this video at 4:08 and you'll see the side of my face on the left side of the screen. You'll also get a full view of Jason and Luke.

Call Me Master

Well, call Jason a master. He graduated today with a master's degree in public relations and advertising from DePaul University. He's so excited to be finished with school for now. He may be going back for a second next January, but he still needs to be accepted. For now though, we're glad he's reached such a great milestone.

Finally!

Back when I first created this blog, before I met Jason, I went to Disney World and blogged about it. If you recall, we were going to go somewhere more exotic, but then I remembered that my passport had expired. So we vacationed domestically.

Fast forward a few years. Jason and I love being parents. We also love spending time together without Luke. Thanks to Jason's mom, who has generously agreed to babysit while we go play, we're finally going somewhere exotic:

And we're excited!

Old News

So this is a few weeks late in coming, but I thought I'd share these pictures. We went to a Cubs game with some friends of ours. Luke wore this cute little baseball outfit, and even though it looks like a Yankees outfit, he was kind of a hit with everyone around us. Everything else are just cute pictures of Luke.

Panorama of Wrigley

Jason loves to smile without teeth. I'm making fun of him here and he's making fun of me making fun of him

Luke was a huge hit with this outfit. All the neighboring fans wanted a picture of him.

He loves to suck on his index finger

See?

This is his "I'm ridiculously excited" face

Memorial Day

We've together been in Chicago for a year and a half and for that entire time we've talked about going to visit Nauvoo. We finally made it over Memorial Day weekend. The Chicago Sky (the WNBA team that Jason works for) had their season opener Friday night, so we left early Saturday morning. We stopped in Carthage on the way down. I had a difficult time understanding our tour guide and Jason stopped trying after the guy spoke for 10 seconds because he couldn't understand a word. But, we still could feel the spirit of the place and were glad we went.

The lower jail

The cell where Willard Richards hid John Taylor after Joseph and Hyrum were shot

The window that Joseph fell out of. Also, check out the Tron-themed Baby Bjorn

The bullet hole through the door that killed Hyrum (well, the door didn't kill him, but the bullet that went through the hole in that door did...)

Outside view of the window that Joseph fell out of

Family picture, view of the jail, statue of Joseph and Hyrum

Most of the rest of this will be a bit of a picture dump. I figure that's what people want to see more of anyway. Right? Right.

This is a classic Luke face: a little dazed and confused. But look at those big blues!

This is one of the groves of trees that the early Mormons would go to to listen to Joseph Smith preach.

Another view of the same grove. Jason is being pensive.

Nauvoo Temple. "I'm going there someday..."

Dad was really good to carry all 16 pounds of Luke around during the day so we didn't have to try to bring the modern stroller into itty bitty 1840s houses with narrow hallways and steep staircases.

Look at that smile!

Jason thought it would be cool to hold Luke up to the Temple like Rafiki did with Simba. I can't quite articulate the analogy Jason gave, but it made sense to him. Also, isn't that an impressively cool building?

Luke LOVES his dad. Also, he is still in his jammies. Because I'm a bad mom.

Eternal family

Mom and Luke. This statue is of Hyrum and Joseph in front of the temple. You can see the Mississippi behind us.

Luke was so good on this trip. He didn't sleep nearly enough, but he isn't embarrassingly grumpy when he is tired. I thought this was a cute picture of one of the few times he did sleep.

At the blacksmiths shop

Luke at the Smith Family Cemetery

Both Jason's and my family usually visits graves of our grandparents on Memorial Day. Since we were nowhere near family, we thought it fitting to pay tribute to the graves of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith (Emma is behind Jason) on Memorial Day

We're so glad we finally went to Nauvoo!