Vacation 2015

We decided to take advantage of one more free flight for Zander (lap sit) before he turned 2 so we took a long weekend over the President's Day holiday to visit San Antonio, Texas. We were more than happy to leave behind the freezing temperatures of the Midwest to soak up some Texas sun! Zander was really good on the flights and seemed to enjoy watching all that was happening at the airport as well as the take off/landing and flying through the clouds (although at one point he really realized we were no longer on the ground and got scared and repeatedly said "down, down"). We had a lot of family fun as well as a lot of good food! It was a great trip and we are now even more restless waiting for spring to arrive. Here's an overview of our trip in photos:

We had fun hanging out at the hotel pool and got to do some swimming. Zander loved wearing his sunglasses!

We had so much fun just being outside and spent some time having fun at the playground and soaking up some sunshine!

We spent most of the day Saturday at the San Antonio zoo and Zander loved seeing the animals we read about in our books and know a lot of the names of the animals. We all really loved watching the monkey's play!

 





The highlight of Zander's trip was the 3 mile miniature train ride around the park. Zander loves trains and had so much fun. He pointed out every train gate he saw go up and down and screamed "tunnel!!!!!" when we passed through the tunnels. We were hoping to take him for another ride on our last day, but we got rained out.

We ran a (somewhat rainy) 5K race at the art museum which was a lot of fun and a good way to meet new people. Zeb lead the Gilliam family and pushed Zander in the stroller including up and down the hill  and helped me place first in my age group (he finished 5th in his which was great impressive as he pushed the stroller and talked to Zander the whole time!)

 

We had a lot of fun on a boat ride through the river, it was a good way to see the whole river walk and down town area as we were not able to walk the whole thing

 

 

We also made a visit to the Alamo

 

We got rained out on our last day in San Antonio but ended up having  a lot of fun at the Children's museum before flying back to Chicago

 

Watching the planes!

 

Snow Day!!

Super Bowl Sunday brought us the blizzard of 2015. We were lucky enough to be bundled up at home to watch the snow fall all day. The total brought us 19 inches of snow!! Zeb and Jasmine shoveled about 4 times during the day just to keep up with the amount of snow which only followed by a night of wind blowing and drifting to do it all over again on Monday morning. Luckily, CPS cancelled school so Zander and mom got to stay home for an extra snow day! We had some time to play in the snow both days, but there is only so much you can do with 19 inches of snow and a 3 foot toddler and a 12 pound dog! We had fun anyway....but now can't wait for it to melt. Maybe then we can make a snowman:)

 

We hope our new tree (Murray the Maple) makes it through this winter

 

 

We woke up to drifts of snow in our backyard

Having some fun all bundled up

Merry Christmas 2014!!

The Gilliam Family had an amazing Holiday season this year. Zander is older now and was starting to understand Santa and Christmas. He got really excited about Santa bringing presents. He loved decorating the house and got into the holiday spirit by wearing a necklace he made at daycare everyday (he asked for his necklace as soon as we entered his room in the morning!). We were lucky the December weather had been pretty mild and we got to enjoy some activities around the city including a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights and riding the Santa "L" train. We started a family tradition by celebrating as a family on the Sunday before Christmas by having a pajama morning with a holiday breakfast and exchanging presents. Zander was very excited to get a train set that he played with for hours that morning. We then went to Wisconsin to spend Christmas eve and Christmas with the Ranum family and some friends followed by a trip to Iowa over the weekend to see Zeb's family and our many friends. It was an eventful and wonderful holiday. We're looking forward to our 2015!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Zoo Lights

Decorating the Christmas tree and showing off his cool necklace

His favorite gift this year was the train set (he LOVES trains!)

 

Leaving Santa his cookies and beer (Wisconsin Santa drinks beer instead of milk....of course!)

Great Grandpa Kruser was giving Zander some carpentry tips

The Santa Train

Lucky Number 8

Zander has been learning to count and we have found he loves the number 8! It comes out at least 3 times when he is counting to 10 (even after several weeks of practice).  He also likes to find the 8 and stand on it on the hopscotch board at the school playground!

Haircut

It was finally time to get Zander's first hair cut. His curls were very cute and we held onto them for as long as we could. With the change in the weather and the introduction of hats again, his hair had been getting out of control....it was time. He was very nervous when we walked into the local kid cuts salon. By the time it was his turn to get in the chair, he had a meltdown. The cut was completed with Zander sitting in mom's lap. He screamed and fought it the best he could, but in the end the hair cut was completed (a little crooked in spots) and he looks like a very handsome, grown up little boy!

He survived and got a sucker as a reward (maybe to bribe him for the next  time!)

Halloween 2014

Happy Halloween! We celebrated the holiday with a festival in Roscoe Village (our old neighborhood) with friends as well as Zander's first time to go Trick or Treat (we only went for a little while due to coldy/windy/snowy weather, ) followed by handing out candy at our house (I think this is what Zander had the most fun doing). He dressed up as a monkey this year. We had a hard time deciding on a costume as most costumes require a hat and he has been rejecting hats for the most part, although on Halloween night he had no problem wearing the hat once he realized how cold it was and how much attention he got while wearing it!  He was a pretty cute little Monkey!

Zander with his buddy, Kai at the Halloween festival

He was not happy about the monkey hat the first time!! (but loved the balloon)

Parker thought he would get away with not dressing up......haha!

Z with his pumpkins!

Daycare has been doing "pre-school" activities with the kids....he was very excited to show me this one!

Trick or Treat at aunt Nellie's

Fall Fun

We have all adjusted back to a normal routine now that school has started and Jazzie is back at work full time. Even with a busy schedule, we have managed to enjoy many beautiful fall days. Zander is at a very fun age where he likes to be busy and learn new things. He picks up on a lot of new things and knows a lot of animals and the sounds they make. He is starting to count and know some numbers. He also is starting to learn his letters (although most letters he calls "e" or "d"). He also continues to be in love with anything that goes and loves to watch the trains go by every day and can spot a car, truck, bus, airplane or garbage  truck just about everywhere we go! Here are a few pictures from some of our fun fall activities.

We took Zander on the "L" that he loves to watch everyday and he had fun riding on the train and waving to the conductor as the train pulled into the station

Zander had fun painting pumpkins in our backyard. He is very proud of the crafts he makes

Zander had a day off day care and we spent a morning in a park watching the trains go by


Visiting the Farm: We spent a weekend in Wisconsin hanging out with family (Zander had a very fun day with his 2nd cousins while we went to a Badger game) and we ended the weekend with a trip to great grandpa Kruser's farm and Zander loved everything about it!

He is such as cute little guy!!

We spent this past weekend with Aunt Maggie at a pumpkin farm and petting zoo including  a train ride and some time in a bounce house (which he then refused to leave and mom had to climb in after him!)

 We ended the weekend with a visit to All Aboard Diner near Maggie's house where the food was delivered by trains and there were lots of trains to watch and ride......perfect for the little boy who said "choo choo" as his first word!