Meet Me in Chicago

Yesterday was such a fun day! I got up bright and early and took the Amtrak train from Springfield to Chicago to meet up with my good friend Emily. The train was a really nice way to get to Chicago because I didn't have to mess with traffic, tolls, or just driving in general. Here is my first good view of the city from the train.

Emily was waiting for me at Union Station. It was so great to see her!!!! We were roommates back in 2003 when we spent a semester in Nauvoo with BYU Travel Study (I also want to give a shout-out to our other roommates Barb and Nicole--we talked A LOT about you girls yesterday, and we wished that you had been there with us!!!!). The four of us had a lot of fun together in Nauvoo back in the day :) Emily was passing through Illinois on her way to Utah, and I was so happy that we could get together! Our first stop for the morning was the Art Institute of Chicago.

We had fun looking at all of the paintings--but we had to pose with my very favorite painting: American Gothic! It was unusually difficult for me to keep a straight face (trying to look like the people in the painting). Emily was much better at it than I was. I just love this painting so much. I'm really glad that Mom and I ventured into the boonies of Iowa to find the house from the painting in the little town of Eldon back in 2008 :)

After we had our fill of art, we went to a fun place called Giordano's for some seriously deep Chicago-style deep dish pizza for lunch. The pizza was AMAZING! It was fun to catch up on each other's lives and reminisce about the good old days over some tasty pizza.

Then we went to Millennium Park to the big "bean" statue to take our picture.

At the bean again.

Then we walked to Navy Pier--one of the coolest places in Chicago!

At Navy Pier with the city behind us.

The view of the city from Navy Pier is so beautiful!

I had big plans that we would take the water taxi from Navy Pier back to downtown . . . but unfortunately the water taxi service ended too early, so we had to walk back to Union Station. But at least Chicago is an exciting/interesting place to walk. We enjoyed watching the strange/creepy "face fountains." The main feature of these fountains is that they "spit" water every few minutes. But the water and the faces were not lined up quite right, so it looked like the water was coming out of their lips--very strange.

The face fountains are much more pretty when you just get a picture of the water running off the top. It was such a beautiful day in the city!

On our way back to the train station we stopped for some ice cream and cookies, and then it was so sad when we had to say goodbye. But I am so glad that we got to spend such a fun day together in Chicago! As my train was leaving the city I was able to get a picture from the same place that I did when I was arriving in town :) Chicago really is a beautiful city, and Emily and I had such a fun day there together!

Flowers!

Even though spring pretty much started back in February around here, it took me until today to plant our flowers! But here they are--I used last year's planters and just bought new flowers to fill them. It adds some nice color to our patio, don't you think? In looking at these pictures, I realize that I need to go wipe some dirt off the planters!

Utah Trip!

Greg and I just returned from a WONDERFUL trip out to Utah. We went out to check on a couple of job options and to just spend time with family and friends. We got a bonus surprise on our way to Utah when we got to spend an extra evening with our fun friends David and Teal on their way to Washington. It turned out that we were both going to be staying in Wyoming the same night, so we booked rooms at the same hotel, had a fun pizza party together (we opted for pizza because pretty much our only other option in Rawlins, Wyoming was the Saloon/Laundromat up the road from our hotel!), and enjoyed breakfast together the next morning.

We arrived in Utah on Wednesday, April 25, and enjoyed visiting Grandma F.T., having dinner with Mom and Dad, and then going to visit the Barretts. It was funny that Ben, who had been pretty suspicious of me the last time I visited in January, wanted to sit on my lap and read books with Sid. They are so cute!

On Friday Greg, Mom, Dad and I went to Springville to visit Grandpa Taylor for his 94th birthday! What an achievement to reach age 94!! He looked really good, and his sense of humor was as funny as ever :)

Grandma Cathy's and Grandpa's cute puppy especially liked Greg.

And we got to visit their cute baby goats too! It was funny because while we were out visiting the goats, my childhood friend Stephanie, who now lives in Grandpa and Grandma's neighborhood, walked by. We hadn't seen each other for years, and it was great to see her! After our Grandpa visit, we picked up our favorite Luis Special from La Casita for lunch--yummmm!

That evening we had the Barrett girls over for a fun movie night. For dinner we had some yummy lil' smokie pigs in a blanket dipped in delicious J Dawg's sauce!

On Saturday Mom and I went to a fun baby shower for my cousin's wife while Greg went to visit his friends Colby and Michelle. Mom and I also stopped at one of our favorite stores: The Porch on Main in Springville!

On Sunday we had a nice day at church with Dad, Mom, and Rich. Greg took this picture of us after church--it was so beautiful outside!

That evening we picked Grandma F.T. up and went over to Lindy's for a fun and delicious homemade Cafe Rio dinner! It was wonderful to spend time with everyone.

Ben loved playing the piano with his sisters!

And watching helicopters with Grandpa!

And Greg and Nate had fun playing soccer with the kiddos.

Unfortunately we had to leave Utah on Monday morning :( It is always sad to leave. But at least Greg and I decided to drive back to Illinois a different way than usual so we could go to our first Colorado Rockies game in Denver on Monday evening.

Coors Field is a really nice stadium in a beautiful setting. The weather was perfect for a baseball game! The Rockies were playing the Dodgers, and the Rockies ended up winning the game.

And we got to meet up with Greg's fun cousin Ryan who lives in Denver! He met us at the game, and then we went out for pizza after. It was great to see him, and our stop in Denver was a fun addition to our trip back to Illinois. On Tuesday morning we left Denver and drove all the way back to Springfield. It made for a long day of driving, but the weather was really nice, and we made it home last night at about 10:00. Lily (who held down the fort at home and was checked in on by Greg's boss) was SO HAPPY to see us! The Spikes, who Greg picked up from the doggie hotel this morning, were also really glad that we are home. It was a WONDERFUL trip! Wait, earlier I wrote Happy Birthday to my cute nephew Leo today, but I am so confused about dates--I meant Happy Birthday tomorrow!!! Sorry--being on the road always throws off my date/time awareness. We hope Leo has a wonderful birthday tomorrow!

Just Like Old Times

This last weekend was a lot of fun (except that I got sick and lost my voice--but other than that it's been great!). Our wonderful friends David and Teal came to town on their way out to Washington state where they are moving. The top picture shows me with three of Lincoln Home's finest: Gary, Mike, and David, before we went out to dinner at Darcy's on Saturday. Those were the good days when we all worked at the Lincoln Home together. 

The next picture shows David and Teal at the museum visiting Santa Anna's leg. We really enjoyed having them here for a visit. It was so sad when they left to move to Atlanta in 2010! I first met David when I started working at the Lincoln Home. He had already been working there for a couple of years, and we quickly became friends. Then Greg and I met his fiance Teal, and we quickly became friends with her too! One of the highlights of 2011 was attending their wedding in Atlanta. They were seriously some of our very best Springfield friends, and it's hard to describe how sad we were when they left.  

Last night we were reminiscing about the day they left Springfield. It was my birthday, and Greg and I helped them pack boxes and furniture into their moving truck, then we all ate birthday cake and went out to dinner. It had been such a fun evening, but it was too sad to say goodbye to them. So it was fun that we could see them a few times this weekend, but it was sad to say goodbye again. But we are excited for their new jobs and the adventures that they'll have in Washington. For a brief time, it felt just like the good old days having them here!

Forget Me Not

Today I was remembering that last year at this time, my hopes were particularly high because of a job I had applied for out in Utah. It was the perfect job for me, and I had a very good job interview in May. Needless to say, when I didn't get the job, I was totally crushed. I thought for sure that was Greg's and my chance to get back to Utah, and I couldn't imagine why the job hadn't worked out. My attitude about living in Illinois became even worse than it already was, and I was not happy. Two months later, I was called into the Young Women program at church, and at first I was worried that it would be too stressful and too much work--just another reason to have a bad attitude. But slowly I started to notice my attitude changing a bit. The biggest change came in October when President Uchtdorf gave a talk at the General Relief Society meeting about the forget me not flower. Just as the forget me not has five petals, he gave five truths that we shouldn't forget. The one that stood out to me was "forget not to be happy now." He talked about the story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and how "people all over the world desperately yearn to find a golden ticket. Some feel that their entire future happiness depends on whether or not a golden ticket falls into their hands. In their anxiousness, people begin to forget the simple joy they used to find in a candy bar. The candy bar itself becomes an utter disappointment if it does not contain a golden ticket." As he was speaking, I thought to my self, "Uh-oh, this sounds like me!" He continued, "So many people today are waiting for their own golden ticket—the ticket that they believe holds the key to the happiness they have always dreamed about. . . . If we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us. This is not to say that we should abandon hope or temper our goals. Never stop striving for the best that is within you. Never stop hoping for all of the righteous desires of your heart. But don’t close your eyes and hearts to the simple and elegant beauties of each day’s ordinary moments that make up a rich, well-lived life. The happiest people I know are not those who find their golden ticket; they are those who, while in pursuit of worthy goals, discover and treasure the beauty and sweetness of the everyday moments. They are the ones who, thread by daily thread, weave a tapestry of gratitude and wonder throughout their lives. These are they who are truly happy." I realized that I was unhappy because I had been waiting for my golden ticket and hadn't truly been enjoying the little things around me. At that point I decided I was going to start looking at things differently and embrace the opportunities that I had. And since that time I have made some of my very best friends and had some wonderful experiences! As I look back and think about the things I would have missed out on if I had gotten that job, I realize that Heavenly Father really did know what was best for me--and I would be sad to have missed out on the priceless friendships and experiences I have gained over the last year. So the moral of this story is to not get discouraged if things aren't working out like you hoped they would. For sure keep hoping that things will work out as they should, and like President Uchtdorf said, continue to pursue your goals, but don't do what I did and get discouraged and sad--try to enjoy the good things around you. Well, those are my DayQuil-induced ramblings for the day :)