Troy Boy

Troy has had a wonderful summer. He continues to grow and learn how to annoy his older sisters. He has really loved having a boy next door to us who is the same age as he is. They have become great buddies and love to hang out together. He has also been enjoying being part of a soccer camp at the rec center here in town. The coach has been great and its hilarious to watch 4 and 5 year olds learn soccer skills.

Troy and his buddy Mitchell.
Troy and friends receiving instruction.
Paying close attention!?
They thought two goalies would be better.We decided Troy will make a good defender. He usually hangs back from the pack a bit and stands ready.

Another Outing

Today we ventured out to visit the Museum of Science and Industry near downtown Chicago. (It's their 75th anniversary and kids get in free!) We did pretty well reaching our destination this time, although we did drive through some neighborhoods where I feared for our safety a bit. This is a great museum and we could have stayed longer but had to get home for Troy's soccer camp.

This plane was hanging from the ceiling somehow. You could go in it and check everything out.
The kids mastered this climbing wall.

This was a neat model of downtown Chicago.
They had a huge model train set up. It showed the route between Chicago and Seattle.
Troy and Kam exploring the inside of a train.
We pretended we were in San Francisco riding a cable car.

Troy loved this tractor. The kids could climb up and try it out.

Thought this would make our Visalia friends proud!

A (most of the) group photo.

Future astronauts.

This is the longest pinball machine. Very cool.
Kamryn watching balls fly.

A teachable moment.
Katie is standing infront of this German submarine that was captured during WW2. They transported it here and built this part of the museum around it. Incredible!
Scott loves this stuff!
Kamryn, Troy and a few friends.
Another shot of the huge sub.

Fun at the Park

We have continued to have beautiful weather here and have enjoyed taking walks/ bike rides around the neighborhood we are living in. We found this park and hung out for awhile the other night.

Day Trip Frustration

Scott had some time off on Friday so we thought we would take a leisurely drive up the lakeshore. We ended up hitting horrible construction traffic and spent much of our day on the road. We did stop in Evanston which is a beautiful university town with really neat buildings and homes. We found a pretty beach to spend a quick half hour on before we had to head back into the traffic nightmare to get home.

These pictures are some shots of how our time has been spent this summer on a typical day. Our internet access is only available in the sun room, so usually you can find one of us sitting there. We only have Scott's laptop, so we all mob him when he gets home from church in the afternoon for a chance to use it. We have a 1000 piece puzzle going which gets worked on occasionally and I also found the kids playing a game together on a rainy evening the other day.

Some Updates

Many of you have been telling me that you are impressed with how much we have been doing around the Chicago area. I guess we just want to take advantage of seeing a lot while we are here. There are so many neat things here! The past few days we have just been sticking close to home. We are enjoying eating meals outside in the backyard and seeing more around Palos Heights. This week Scott and I were able to tour Elim Christian School and we will get a tour tomorrow of Trinity Christian College. We are very impressed with these local institutions. I had heard of Elim, but came to realize it is a wonderful place and resource for many people. On July 5th we did venture downtown to check out the "beach". Being from California, I guess we were not too impressed, but enjoyed the experience. Here is a hodgepodge of recent pictures.

Katie, Kam, Troy and I checked out this waterfall park near our house. Other families came to feed the ducks, but I would have no part of that!

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This is one of the beaches along Lake Michigan. These little patches of sand were packed with people trying to enjoy some summer sunshine on a beautiful Chicago day. We were amazed at how many different languages we heard being spoken as we walked along. Unfortunately, the sand was covered with trash and leftover fireworks from the night before.


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We are making good use of our host's beautiful backyard. It's been so nice to have dinner outside. We were laughing at Troy who was downing the watermelon like crazy.
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Last night we enjoyed some ice cream at the local parlor, The Plush Horse. (I still don't know the reason for that name!) Outside they have this cut-out thing to help support your team. (As I said before everyone here is either a Cubs or Sox fan.) Troy has declared his loyalty to the Cubs and Kam the Sox (as you can see by her new hat).