Sixteen months old - and into everything!  This guy amazes us all the time with the new skills he's picking up.  A couple of examples: Climbing onto a dining room chair to sit at the table Using a toy to reach something on a table that's out of his reach (reminds me of the tool-making crow) Putting on the shoes of anyone...

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And now the original reason why we came - the Notre Dame-Oklahoma game! On Friday night we arrived in Lockport, a Chicago suburb about an hour south of the city, to spend the night at Theresa's house.  Since she and Brady had been in Peoria with us for the last three days, we decided not to cook and to just order Chinese take-out. ...

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(Photo above is tentatively titled "Three Knuckleheads.") Where were we...oh yes!  We had just checked out of the Hotel Monaco in downtown Chicago, and were waiting for Grandpa Jim to come pick us up and take us back to Peoria, about 170 miles.  As agreed, Grandpa had shown up around 4:30 in his brand new 2014 Ford Fusio...

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Our long-awaited Chicago trip is here!  And it's over!  We took 535 photos, of which I've curated down to only 150, so we'll have to do this blog post in sections.  Part I: Chicago Round 1.  This is the part where we fly direct Cancun to Chicago, go to my sister Beth's house, then stay downtown two nights while I...

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