Grandpa Jim and Grandma Mila were in town for Christmas and spent a few days at our house. I didn't get to take very many pictures, mainly because Carolyn plays best with them when I am not in the room, but am happy to share that she did great. They colored, read books and played with her toys. Carolyn especially loved Grandma Mila's cooking. She actually asked for more rice and beef steak about five times.
An early morning downpour gave way to a gorgeous sunny day so we made our way out to the beach (yesterday was icky so only made it to the pool for about 20 minutes). Carolyn plopped right down in the sand and started playing. After a little while we got up and went to the edge of the water. The waves were pretty rough so we didn't go in very far, even though the little one tried to worm herself away from me to go in deeper.
One of my favorite parts about visiting places where Desi is working is seeing a lot of the places that he tells me about on the phone (his office, the hotel where he usually stays, restaurants, grocery stores, etc). For his b-day dinner he took us to an Italian restaurant on Palm Beach Island that he really likes. It was delicious and the staff couldn't stop fawning over Carolyn. She got a balloon, crayons and a million smiles and compliments. All of which she eats right up!
I can only upload photos without text from my phone, thus some of the longer blog titles (but Desi is letting me jump on his computer right now to add some commentary). The view is nicer than this picture shows, particularly with the knowledge that it is snowing at home. I'm excited to go sledding and all of that good stuff, but we have months of that ahead, so we'll appreciate the sun and sand while we can.
After a mom served graham crackers at playgroup last Monday, Carolyn has been hooked. They are wonderful at keeping her occupied and content for a good 10-15 minutes. This was especially useful on our plane ride. Thankfully the plane was fairly empty so we had the whole row to ourselves. Carolyn spent much of the flight climbing up and down from her seat. She is a great flier.
Carolyn's ability to do hand motions with songs started with the Itsy Bitsy Spider (which she refuses to do on camera for some reason) and has continued to the Wheels on the Bus. I had to break the video into two parts to get Blogger to upload it, but it is worth a watch.
Part 1
Part 2
Last weekend Auntie Courtie, Uncle Charles, Grandma Dolly and Papa Chuck came over to help us trim our tree. We got the season started with some Oberweis eggnog and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown. Carolyn loved dancing along to the movie.
We spent Thanksgiving in Louisville again this year with Desi's family.
(there are three new posts today so be sure to scroll down)
I planned my first little kids Halloween party for Newcomers on Saturday. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of all of the cute kids, but here are some of Carolyn. She showed off her monkey climbing skills getting onto and off of this chair several times while we waited for the other guests to arrive.
We only went to two houses, our neighbors across the street and next door. 
Our neighbors, Mitchell (in the middle) and Logan came over to play in the giant leaf pile last Thursday. The kids had a great time burying each other, running and jumping in and just generally throwing the leaves everywhere.
The Western Springs Halloween Hoopla event was last Wednesday at the Rec Center. The games were aimed toward kids a little older than Carolyn, but we had fun walking around with our neighbors. Before heading to the party we played in the backyard.
