This is a random picture of Mckenna from earlier in March... messy after dinner with a hairdo to match! :)
Now onto the spring break pictures. Earlier this year, Cam, Linnea, Gwen, and Sonja moved from their condo in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood to a house in the close to Chicago suburb of Wilmette. When we stayed with them for a few days, they had just been there for a few weeks, but were still so willing to have us come and stay with them.
Gwen and Sonja share a really cute bedroom, complete with a fun new green paint job on the walls that I believe Gwen picked out special for their room. In one of the crawl/storage spaces in the room, Cam used his awesome skills to make a small "den" (as Gwen calls it) play room for the girls, with an easy chair, books, toys, and a cute little window looking into the den from the bedroom. Mckenna loved playing in here with her cousins!
You can't really see it very well, but Mckenna is wearing a shirt that says "Big Sister" on it. Matt and Cam's parents came over to visit while we were in Wilmette and brought Uncle Dave and the Grandmas - Fran and Harriet. We hadn't yet told anyone that we were expecting, so we changed Mckenna into this shirt and had her run into the room with everyone to show it off. I think it took a few seconds for the whole room to see it, but everyone was surprised and excited! I tried to get some cute pictures with her wearing this shirt that day, but none really turned out.
Linnea reading a book to all three girls. I thought this was an adorable photo op! Linnea is such an amazing mom... what a blessing for Gwen and Sonja to have such a wonderful mommy that loves them so very much. :)
I thought Gwen was really cute with the younger girls, helping them read books and play. So sweet!
On the afternoon of St. Patty's Day, we went to Tre Kroner (Swedish - not Irish!) for lunch - right across the street from North Park University and a few blocks from Swedish Covenant Hospital, where Cam works. Cam was able to meet us for lunch, and we all had a fun and yummy meal together. Gwen even got green pancakes and shared them with Sonja and Mckenna. Here is the group after lunch - it was a nice, sunny day - hard to smile for the camera when looking into the sun!
After lunch, Cam went back to work, Linnea and her girls went back to the house for nap time, and Matt, Mckenna and I went across the street from Tre Kroner to The Sweden Shop for a few minutes to look around. Mckenna had fun with the hats, books, and stuffed animals - go figure! We ended up getting her a small Pippi Longstocking doll (which is a Swedish story by Astrid Lindgren), which she loves.
Back at the house, and playing on the porch. The girls used this big moving box as a stage. I think we were singing a song here and these sweeties were dancing and clapping along - cute!
Fun in the backyard...
One of the days of our visit, Cam took the day off of work and we all went to the Lincoln Park zoo for the morning. On our drive there, we drove past Swedish Covenant's fitness center, and Cam pointed out that his picture was on one of the outside walls of the building! So I had to take a picture as we drove past - look at that stud! Cam mentioned that he wished he had been holding bigger weights when the picture was taken... Matt thought that was funny. :)
The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. I was so excited to go to the zoo! This was the first time that Mckenna had ever been to the zoo, so I was looking forward to seeing how she reacted to the animals. And I hadn't been to the zoo for years, and never to the Lincoln Park Zoo, so I was really happy to be there... I felt like a kid again!
The flamingos - love them!
Leopards - very sleek and cool.
Words can't express how fun it was for me to see Mckenna watching and pointing at the animals, smiling and "talking" at each stop. I loved it!
The seals - it was fun to watch them swim by and then circle around and come back near us.
The lions. Music from The Lion King kept running through my head when we were watching them - I love that movie. :)
Cool gal wearing daddy's sunglasses.
The giraffes...
...and the ostriches.
Then we moved on to the primate area. I thought their intertwined fuzzy tails were cute.
LOVE her! :)
In this picture Gwen had her hand up against the glass "giving five" to this big ape.
Look at that face - it hardly even looks real!
The girls were getting tired, so we packed up to head back to the house. Here is an out-the-window picture of Lake Michigan.
Cam and Linnea were kind enough to drive past the Bahai Temple on our way home, right on Lake Michigan. I always think it's cool to drive past this place - it's big and seems to come out of nowhere. This is my not so great picture from the car window.
Here is a much better picture from the internet. Isn't it cool looking?
Our tired, sweet baby girl, fast asleep on the car ride home. She fell asleep soon after we left the zoo, and so did her cousins.
I love those pink cheeks - what a cutie!
I think we were all tired after a fun day of walking around outside in the nice weather, including the adults! Right after taking this picture, I went to lay down and take a nap myself.
We started our trip in Elgin for a few days, and then after several fun days in Wilmette, went back to Elgin for a day to say goodbye to Craig and Karen before driving back to Minnesota. Overall, we had really nice weather during our visit, which was great because we could be outside a lot. Here are the grandparents taking Mckenna for a short walk. She is really on the move these days, so it's always nice to get outside and burn off some of her abundant toddler energy!
We always have such a great time on our visits to Illinois. We feel so lucky and blessed to have such wonderful family that we love to visit and see several times a year. We hope that our children can get to know their Johnson cousins well over the years and really be friends, like Matt and Cam were able to do with their cousins in Minnesota while growing up in Illinois. We look forward to seeing everyone again this summer at the cabin in Wisconsin for more fun times!
