Chicago: April 2008!

Arriving at O'Hare: one of my favorites things!  What what!!

We came to see our good friend, Scott, direct, and good friends Wenda and Jake perform in Wit, our church's Red Ink Productions play of this year. It's a one-woman show (with brief interruptions) about a woman dying of cancer.  Wenda was brilliant (and even shaved her head for the role!).   This is the 4th year a production has been put on, and this one is getting rave reviews.  Go this weekend!! 


The tulips are out!  The Chicago Theater in the distance...
We ate breakfast at The Golden Nugget, featured in NPR's This American Life.  Listen to the podcast, it's awesome!
Tracy, Scott, and Jake joined Tyler and I at Fireside the night we got there for a welcome-cap.
I want to eventually do a whole series on Chicago at night, specifically allies and by the lake, but this will have to do for now.
We ate with John & Heidi Fisher at Gulliver's, an eclectic italian restaurant on the far North Side.




My Co-Workers hosted a dinner for Tyler and I.  Thanks Belen and Drew for the awesome food.  Way to make it awesome within the realm of what Tyler will eat.  He now loves Lamb!
Poor Shaina, sorry for taunting you.  But it was fun!
L-R: Jen & Tyler, Drew & Belen, Nick & Shaina, not pictured: Gail.
One of the best parts of coming home: getting to try new martinis!  Check out the red one with the swirl in the next photo, too.
After the play Saturday night, Scott, Zach, Kate and Beth at Charlie's.  
Tracy, Me, and Tyler across the table.
We ended our trip with a trip to the Art Institute (a tradition of ours when we lived in Chicago, and one we are not going to let go of).  And this time was even better because Tyler LOVES Edward Hopper.  And there is a special Hopper exhibit (now until May 10), which we thoroughly enjoyed.  We have three prints hanging at home already and were anxious to get more now that we've seen his early work.

The Boys Next Door reunite!  Zach, Jim, Scott, and Tyler at church!
My favorite of them all! (Tracy, don't worry, I'll e-mail you a copy.)
I don't want to short change Marc & Kim Aneed.  Just because we have no photo (as often seems to be the case) doesn't mean that they didn't take time to visit and pray with us, which we always love.  And I want to thank the Carters for their abode and comfy air mattress.  Again, the lack of photos doesn't mean we didn't see them (thanks for lunch at one of our favorite spots: leona's).  There are more photos of Violet than them!  A situation that will be rectified this weekend, I'm sure...

Up Next: Thais' comes for a visit (she lands tonight, woo hoo!).

Violet Carter.

Tyler and I were in Chicago for a long weekend and stayed at our friend's, Heath & Thais' house. One morning I decided to photograph their Wheaten Terrier, Violet, for them. She is such an endearing dog, and that's saying a lot for this cat lover! I love how she matches the couch.





Stay tuned for the Chicago Trip blog!

Taft: Tyler's Thinking Spot!

I wanted to save this for it's very own entry so it didn't get mixed in with the rest. Tyler had a "thinking spot" as a child. Yep, that's right. My husband is adorable. We were walking around the exterior of his first house (see blog below) when he let out a huge gasp. It wasn't even on our radar. I'm so glad we got out of the car because these photos are priceless! Thanks for taking his photo there so many years ago, Deb!!

Different City Walk: Taft

Finally, after over a year here we were able to go 90 miles north to Taft, Calif. Tyler was born and raised here for about 7 years before making what would be the first of many moves over the course of his life. Now he's full-circle back in Cali and we celebrated with a trip back to his origins.

First things first, we drove to Tyler's very first house. He got his head stuck in the railing as a boy!





We visited the grave of Tyler's uncle...




And were pleased to see the old art deco theater up and running again. Apparently the inside is quite spectacular as well, but we weren't willing to see Prom Night to find out.



Tyler in front of his first grade school: Parkview Elementary.



And this is one of my favorites: This is the field that Matt, Tyler and some neighbor kids set on fire when they were little!


The next two photos are of Tyler's first church: the new one...



And the first building. Below is Tyler painting the inside as a kid!



Taft is an oil town. Tyler's dad worked for Texaco, which is why they lived there. While we were there we got a one-on-one tour from a nice lady of the Oil Museum. The makers of "There Will Be Blood" visited the museum and got the original blueprints to make their own wooden structure (like the one I am pictured with).

RSS and Google Reader!

Quite some time ago my computer-savvy friend, Zach Danielson, explained this new invention: RSS. I reread his blog yesterday and will never go back. Sick of clicking on each blog link to see what your friends are up to? Now you don't have to! Subscribe to them all in Google Reader! It'll tell you when one of your friends has a new post. And obviously you can subscribe via RSS to other cool stuff, too. I know it sounds like a commercial, but it is awesome. Google + Mac = Happy Jenny.

Photo Books

I have been creating photo books for a few years now because I have a mac, but now there are quite a few online resources for making your own photo book (the new scrapbook). And they are pc friendly. Check them out by clicking on the title of this blog, or check out my personal favorite (not mentioned in the link): My Publisher.

Spring Sports