Thursday...our downtown day!

Navy Pier had a Thomas the Train ride and Joe got to drive the train with this little girl, who he kept calling "lady" after the ride was over, and I think I almost enjoyed it more than he did. He did ask a few times though, "mom, can I go ride the train with the lady again?"
It was my 3rd time to visit the family in Chicago and we finally made it downtown! O my goodness...isn't that sight just wonderful!
Here are my boys on the ferris wheel that takes 7 minutes to go around so hope you do ok with heights since you are barely moving!
We took a picture on the anchor at Navy Pier...even though Joe wanted a picture by himself, we snuck ourselves in
Brad and Andrea came along for the quick city trip...it needed to be quick with Joe's attention span and quicker for Brad's :) He is not a city person!
Here we are at the end of Navy Pier. We made it to Navy Pier and we were going to go to the Sears Tower also but because of the time issue I chose H&M instead...I know I might have my priorities a little skewed, but I wanted to at least see some of Michigan Avenue and this H&M is 3 stories! Incredible! Steve parked somewhere that was $17 per hour so I was SO pressed for time and we made it out with 2 minutes to spare. I was hurrying with my bags, and my son who only wanted to be held by me and luckily we made it, otherwise I'm sure I would've gotten the look from my husband for the price going up!
When we pulled into the city, I almost started crying...yes I am emotional and pregnant but it just reminded me of the hustle and bustle of the city and how much we miss it! Yes it was expensive, and our apartment was small with no washer and dryer, but I was never bored and it was so beautiful! We had the best most supportive friends and I have been horrible at keeping in touch but I miss them all tons! If you can tell, Phoenix is not my favorite place! After seeing downtown I was sold, I told my hubby let's move here next! Someone asked me if I knew how cold it got there during the winter, and I was like um...yes do you know how hot it gets here?! Hopefully I can post the last 2 days tomorrow because they were filled with more family activities prior to the wedding, but I am too tired tonight!

Wednesday

Look at my adorable farm boy...Somehow he managed to snag those boots from Porter :) and knows to put his helmet on before the 4 wheeler ride
Wednesday...Bev and Steve were doing dinner for the family at Papa's house and I offered to do dessert...It is never the same when you don't have your own kitchen! I was a stress case and luckily Aunt Ann let me use her kitchen for the morning and I made chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate raspberry blondies, and chocolate peanut butter rice krispy treats. I think Katie and Kristen took over and watched Joe for me and I appreciate it sooo much! I felt like I was cooking all day!
The dinner was so good and then the boys brought out this toy. Luke got a few turns...
Joe took a lot of turns...and I even did it a few times challenging my husband and beating him once getting the apple the furthest! Woo hoo! Katie was such a good sport helping Joe do it and he even shot some pretty far. Poor Adam and his cousin having to hold it for all of us!
What did my husband get to do today while I was cooking? He got to play golf at Big Run with his dad! Such a fun day even though the course kicked his booty!
In the evening we had a girls night going to see The Proposal for my 2nd time! I love that movie! It is so cute and I died laughing both times!

Tuesday

Of course the morning started out with some tractor/4 wheeler rides courtesy of daddy
Luke asking if he could be in a picture with his Superman cape
And in the evening we were invited over to Stacey & Brian's house (Steve's cousin) for dinner. They just built this absolutely gorgeous house and were so nice to have us all over. They got this fun bounce house for the boys to play in even though they had everything a boy could ever want already.
The dads were super nice to go in and play with the kids after Joe got bounced around a little roughly :)
Me, Jamie, Bev and Stacey as we were leaving. Such a super fun night!

Monday

Monday morning started with the boys riding the tractor in their matching orange shirts, perfect photo op!
Joe loved the tractors! He could not get enough of them...except he did watch his grandpa very carefully and figured out how to turn this one on!
Luke, Porter and Joe-this picture shows their personalities so well...Luke the super serious one, Porter the mellow happy one, and Joe the cheesy happy one. Bev, Jamie and I then left the boys with Grandpa and dad and went and got manicures and pedicures for the wedding. We won't even go into that...let's just say Bev's and Jamie's turned out great and it took my guy an hour to do a manicure and this was no Citron Spa manicure. This was let's file your nails down to nubs after you worked so hard to grow them out and let's make the clear-pink color you picked out look like a hideous milky pink...enough said
For dinner we got to go to Aunt Ann's and it was delicious! The boys even got to feed the horses some apples after dinner. Here is Megan helping Luke...
Aunt Ann who was helping Joe...who was having none of it once these huge horses started actually walking towards him
Joe with our cousin John...who Joe dubbed as his best friend. Thanks for letting him eat a popsicle on your lap! Joe went right into Aunt Ann in the kitchen and asked for popsicles. Thanks Aunt Ann for spoiling our son!
John didn't realize that Joe wouldn't want him to stop after starting nor that everyone else would want to be thrown also.
Joe just hanging out with Aunt Ann and Uncle Jim in their beautiful new patio area.
I tried to scare Jamie with a frog...didn't work she is way too used to the farmland in Chicago.
We actually got Joe to hold the frog for one second. I was very impressed!

I love Chicago! Sunday the fun begins...

We have been looking forward to this trip since we found out Megan (Steve's cousin got engaged) and the family started planning the trip. We got off the airplane and oh my goodness the weather was fabulous! Got to the farm to find out this poor little chicken had died, I forget how, but anyways my father in law decided we needed to use it as bait along with a dead deer to attract coyotes. I get very excited to show my Annie Oakley, outdoorsy side, when we go to the farm and Steve's family gets a kick out of it.
We hopped on the 4 wheeler tied the chicken to the back and started our way to the deer.
The deer lay down there and we put the chicken somewhat by it and got excited to wait for some coyotes. Steve (f-i-l) had been sitting up in Jamie's room for the past couple nights coyote hunting and I was super anxious to watch with him!
The group when we got back, Luke & Katie, Megan & Porter, Jamie, Steve, Joe, me and Bev.
Joe was in heaven with all of the tractors and 4 wheelers
Lucky boy got to go on a ride when Porter went...
and then again when Luke went. I guess we get pretty spoiled when we haven't had as much time there as everyone else had.
Jamie, Steve, me and Papa. Love love love this man! He loves me too...for the week I'm there, and then he is ready for his space back!
Blowing bubbles with Grandma
Needed to relax a minute and found just the person to do it with. Plopped down right with papa before he was on to his next adventure.
My 4 Generation picture! I love it! Joe is the 1st "Jurca" great grandson...did I word that right? There are obviously other great grandchildren, but he will be the first to carry on the Jurca name.
Picking the sour apples with grandma to give to the chickens
Luke and Joe's little squabble over the white bucket...Luke's got the advantage...
Nope Joe's got the advantage...Luckily there were 2 blue buckets and both the boys were satisfied
Smiles, Porter is a very happy kid. He was laughing in the chicken area while the 2 crazy boys were fighting
We had a very fun 1st day and needed to get nice and clean for the next day. This is the only bath that I got Joe to get into. He likes his baths to be calm with not a lot of splashing so to keep him appeased he took his baths alone.

Valencia trip...lots of pictures

I can not get enough of my sweet family + Chelsea who was missing unfortunately. Joe and I went home for a week and then Steve came to join us for a long weekend. We got to see a ton of our sweet friends that we miss so much like....
Samantha who we became friends with in San Francisco and then she moved first to Southern California for her daddy to go to school
Don't pay attention to the fact that I have on NO makeup, they actually showed up on time. Rachelle visit taught me and Brandon was Steve's home teaching companion. I love Rachelle, she is the most genuine person ever and they were nice enough to make the 1 plus drive to see us. O yeah, and she is 8.5 months pregnant and has no extra weight in her face...lucky girl...
Then Jessica came and saw us for a little bit up from Thousand Oaks and we love seeing her when her schedule can fit us in
We spent a lot of time at Uncle JK and Uncle Ben's passing tournaments. This one was great because is had a "bed" for Joe to jump on. My friend Chelsea's dad is in the picture with Chelsea's little girl Tylie. Funny story, Joe told Dan he was going to fly (we like to fly around our house, I'm a really good example of being safe :) and Dan was like ok go for it! Joe jumped off the bed hoping to fly and landed on his face in the astroturf stuff and got up with his face covered in little black pellets. Poor boy was shocked, I think, that he couldn't fly! Nice going mom!
My friend/neighbor from the age of 0-6, Jill, moved back to California from Arizona pretty much right after we got here. I finally got to meet Landon her 6 month old. O my goodness he is so cute and the most mellow baby I have ever seen. He just sat wrapped up in a towel in the pool to keep cool and I don't even think he was sleeping just relaxing for hours!
The main reason we went on this little trip was because my parents are moving their business to a new location and even though I am pretty much useless in the moving department I tried to be there for moral support and made sure Steve was there to help unpack the 82 boxes of furniture that came in, I know I am a great wife. Lucky for me Steve is a fabulous sport and wanted to be there and got it taken care of. Chelsea's husband and dad came to help so Joe and I got to play with Tylie. Joe liked pushing Tylie around on the tractor. He is a true gentleman and didn't want her to lift a finger :) Notice Joe's socks and sandals, I did the socks and told him to get his shoes and this is what he literally RAN out of the house wearing.
Joe helping grandpa bring over some accessories, my dad is such a cutie. I'm sure with Joe's help it took double the time, but thanks for letting us stick around.
This would be man time...JK, Ben and Joe wrestling. Joe got pretty into this and chucked a few things at Ben that he was not ready for. I'm shocked that he didn't get an elbow to the face or mouth because these boys didn't lighten up. Thanks boys for the wrestling and endless games of hide and seek.
If Joe wasn't wrestling or hiding he was being thrown like a rag doll from JK to Ben...
3 seconds to breathe and then from Ben to JK. They threw him so high and he would come up saying do it again...So Jill here is my proof that he was acting not himself in the pool with us!
Almost out of my camera lens...It's a good thing JK was as nervous about catching him as I was
Uncle JK would throw him out in front of him and then dive in and get him...yes crazy I almost had a heart attack a few times. Especially when JK would say that he would dive in and could see Joe just kind of chilling and waiting to be brought up from under water!
He also loved the backflips, front flips and twist jumps
My cute parents in their 4th of July outfits.
Our fam on the way back from watching fireworks, Joe was exhausted.
Watching them with Grandma. He thought the fireworks were cool for about 2 seconds until there was a choo choo train that was going under the bridge we were on and he wanted to watch that instead.

During the day my brother Steve and Tina and their 3 kids came up to hang out and celebrate the 4th and Tina's bday. I have a picture of me, Tina and my mom but will not post it until I crop a bit of it...(maternity bathing suit), but here is the rest of the fam. Joe had so much fun with his cousins and was NOT happy to see them go. Thanks for the fun trip family, can't wait to see you again soon!