Halloween

Katrina the Baltimore Hon (pronounced hun)

The Mad Scientist going a bit mad

The cutest cowgirl ever

Finally Downtown

We finally made it downtown Chicago a few weeks ago. Macy was so excited! She had been begging for a ride on the train and so we took the El down to Millenium park and wandered about. I think our favorite part was what is known as the Bean. A giant reflective sculpture of bean-like shape.

Break-In

So Somebody decided that our car radio was worth more to them than to us. They broke the passenger window, and appears, through brute force, took away our radio. How nice of them!

CRASH

A lady hit Tyler literally a half block from our house. Tyler had the green light, unfortunately, the lady claims she had the green light, too. There were no witnesses who stayed. Hopefully our insurance won't go up too much :(

Ironically, when Tyler was hit, he was on his way to test drive cars. This is speeding up the process of acquiring a new car . Too bad we were planning on keeping this car and getting rid of the other!

House Quest

So, now that we have bikes, our next quest (well, that is our long standing quest) is a new house. We just found this beautiful place and it happens to be close enough to our price range that, maybe, just maybe....We haven't looked at it yet and is too far for Tyler to reasonably walk to the lab (3.3 miles). But we do enjoy dreaming.

The Bike Quest has ended

So Katrina finally found a bike, its a KHS green. Fenders, rack, internal hub, etc.... We did have to struggle to get a seat for Macy, but as you can see...she loves it!

My Bike Quest

Lately I've been thinking it would be really nice to have a bike. The type of bike I envision would be light enough for me to get up and down stairs, have a bike seat attached for Macy, some fenders for when it rains, an enclosed chain guard and dynamo hub generated light so I could ride it to work, a basket in front for grocery shopping, going to the beach, etc, and it should also look really cute. I did the research, and I've found a perfect bike . . . except you can't get them in the United States (except if you live in Seattle or Portland, where bike riding is a very green/cool thing to do). There are actually a few bikes that I like.

Here is a Pashley bike from England.

A Batavus bike from the Netherlands

It seems that people in the European countries use their bike for everything, and because of it have really useful, utilitarian bikes. These bikes can be left out in the rain and are fine. They even have a key that you use to "unlock" the back wheel before you can ride it as a theft deterrent. Check out these pictures of how bikes are used in Amsterdam. I think that it could be a pretty fun lifestyle. Notice how the women are wearing skirts while riding!

By the way, I really like the bakfiet (box bike) shown above and to the side. Maybe one day we'll trade in one of our cars!

Nauvoo

As Joseph Smith and his brother left their families, homes, and fellow Saints for the last time on their way to Carthage, Joseph looked back at the unfinished temple and the city of Nauvoo and said, "This is the loveliest place. . . under the heavens." After spending the last few days there, I have to agree.

We just returned from a trip to Nauvoo with Macy and Tyler's parents. It was one of the most enjoyable vacations we have taken since having Macy. She was old enough to ride in the car for the 5+ hours it took to get there without too much complaining, and there was lots for her to do when we got there. We beat the summer crowds, and had beautiful weather the whole time.