A Visit from Family

This last week we had a visit from my sister-in-law Emily and her almost 2-yr-old daughter Adele, who is one of Eli's 14 cousins. They flew in from California and stayed in our small place... it was interesting having Emily, Adele, and Eli all sleeping in the same room! Adele cried every night for about an hour before falling asleep, and then any time Eli made a noise in the night Emily would grab him and bring him in to me or I would run in there and pick him up before he woke up Adele. We made it work, but I look forward to when we have more space someday so our visitors are more comfortable! Adele was a good sport about being quiet while Eli napped, which is impressive for a toddler.

Here is a picture of the fun quilt that Emily made for Eli (with help from our mother-in-law, Cheryl and Ben's sister, Danielle and others) - thank you!:

And here are some pictures from the places we went during the week -

Cozy Noodle, one of my favorite Thai restaurants in Evanston that has a huge collection of Pez dispensers and license plates along the wall:

Lincoln Park Zoo, one of only a few free zoos in the country:

Chicago Children's Museum (we didn't take any pictures there, unfortunately) & afterward we walked around The Magnificent Mile for a while since the kids had fallen asleep in their strollers (we stopped here at the Tribune Tower to see the piece from the Salt Lake Temple that is in the side of the building). The only glitch in our plan was that we were near a hospital, so the occasional (LOUD) ambulance would go down the street...

It was fun for Eli to have a cousin to play with (or just watch while she played):