Isabella Vettori's Blessing

This is our new little niece, Isabella. It's still really crazy for me to think that my little brother, Leo has a baby, and he's a father. Today they blessed little Isabella, and I hear Leo did a fantastic job. We were so sad that we couldn't be there. But we love you guys and miss you like crazy. And can't wait to hold and just squeeze my first little Vettori niece. I still it's not fair that she got a lot of dark brown hair. She probably has more hair than Jensen has now.

St. Patty's in Chicago

We were able to spend St. Patrick's Day in Chicago for Reed's spring break. We drove down (which wasn't too bad at all) and stayed at my friend Missy's house in Chicago. Unfortunately they weren't there, but we were still able to get a lot of fun things in the 4 days we were there.

We saw them dye the Chicago River on Saturday. It was quite an event. There were so many people and the day was really nice. We had a great time.


I was told that they dump gallons of orange dye in the river. Kind of weird, but the river is not exactly the cleanest thing you've ever seen. So I guess that's what works.


And Jensen would not sit still. He just wanted to run around and play.

This is the "bean" on Millenium Park. You can see skyline of the whole city looking at it. Unfortunately the person taking the picture thought our feet were more important than the really cool artistic bean.

We were also able to go to Lake Michigan. We went all along Lake Shore, which has a great jogging trail, and was just beautiful. And the weather was awesome 50-60's. Compared to Minnesota weather this was definitely a warm spring break.

We ate at some of the best restaurants ever. This was at Portillos that has the infamous Chicago hot dog and Italian beef. We also ate at Gino's East of Chicago that had incredible Chicago deep dish pizza. The cook it with the cheese on bottom and put the sauce on top.
And the crust is just to die for. We also ate at Twin Anchor which is famous for it's ribs. I'm not a huge rib person, but these were pretty dang good. This was also said to be Frank Sinatra's favorite place to eat.

We also went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a beautiful day and Jensen just loved to get out and run around. The animals were ok too.

We thought while we were in Illinois we should go a few hours south of Chicago and visit some of my family in Normal (that's right I said Normal).

Here's my beautiful Aunt Noeli with Jensen. He just loved her right away.

Sarah is my only cousin on both sides that is my age. When we lived in Illinois, she and I were very close. She's the closest thing I had to a sister.

We were able to be there for Zoe's 5th birthday (Sarah's little girl). She is just too cute for words.

Jesse, Zoe and Reed trying to entertain Jensen. I don't know that he's loving this.

Zoe's a little poser. I just had to put this picture in hear. Check out that form and pose. She's even got the head tilt down.

Jensen with Uncle Paul reading a book.

The Vettori's in Normal.

This is the house that we lived in here in Normal. We loved living here so close to family. We miss you guys and can't wait till you come visit us in MN.