Chris' Magical Meatball Sub

Chris made this the other night. I can't tell you his recipe because it's a deep dark secret. So why am I even posting this, you ask? Because it was oh so good.

Our trip to Chicago

First of all, the weather was perfectly fall and we love love loved it. The leaves were colorful and falling. Sometimes we could smell burning leaves, sometimes we could smell wet leaves, either way it was wonderful and nostalgic. We wore sweaters and jeans, and put our girls in the same. I didn't realize how much I love (and now miss) the landscape there, especially in comparison to Havasu. Lisa's family livesin Crystal Lake, and their town couldn't be anycuter. Lovely old houses with tons of character, a quaint downtown, but still plenty of shoppingand other resources, and the Metra to take you right into the city. We really loved it. Here's how the whole thing went down:

We flew out of Vegas on Wednesday evening, and the flight was as much of a nightmare as you can imagine it being with 2 babies in tow. We couldn't sit together, so that was tough. Lucy actually did OK. She was sleepy in my arms for the first hour or so. Olive was screaming and

contorting in Chris' arms for that time. After a while we traded kids and seats, and Lucy fell asleep in Chris' arms for the rest of the flight. Olive did some more screaming and contorting, but also made friends with some other kids and was a little bit playful for a while. But mostly, she screamed and contorted. We got into Chicago very late, had some difficulty and frustration getting our rental car and baggage and finding our way out of dumpy Cicero. We landed at Lisa's house at some unsightly hour, and she and Morgan got out of bed to greet us before we all crashed into bed.

On Thursday Lisa's family all had to go to work and school, so we let the girls sleep as long as they could and then decided to drive to the city. We drove along Lake Michigan up Lake Shore

Drive and saw Soldier Field, the Shedd

Aquarium, and Buckingham Fountain. We could see the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it whatever it is now) and the Hancock and Navy Pier. Then we drove out of the city a little bit in search of the Frank Lloyd Wright museum in Oak Park. Except we took a wrong turn and ended up in Niles where we had some delicious gyros at a little Greek dive. Yum! We made our way back to Oak Park and got to the Frank Lloyd Wright house just as the last tour of the day was wrapping up. Darn it. Still, we walked around and took pictures and enjoyed it. It was 3:30 by this time, and we had reservations at the Lou's in Crystal Lake at 6:00 with Lisa's family and Sadie and Gabe. You'd think we had plenty of time to get out there, right? Wrong. Traffic was ridiculous. I remember experiencing it when I lived there, but that was 10 years ago and traffic has pretty much become a foreign concept to me since then. There we were inching our way down 290, cramped in this awful tiny Toyota Matrix rental, and doing our best to resist getting totally grouchy. We made it to Lou's just after 6:00. The pizza was just as good as I remembered it. And it was delightful being with everyone. Afterwards we went back to Lisa's where she made everyone these huge ice cream sundaes. I was sufficiently full of good food, and plenty sleepy, by the end of the night.

Friday was my favorite day. Lisa and Morgan both took the day off, and we all went to Goebbert's. Goebbert's is the pumpkin farm that I grew up going to with my family every year. We saw lots of animals, most of which Olive had an aversion to. Lisa bought her tickets to ride the

camels and the ponies, and she pitched a fit over both of them. So I took her ticket to ride the camel and went on with Morgan. It was funny. As for the ponies, Morgan just walked around holding Olive next to them because she refused to get on. We picked a couple of tiny pumpkins for Olive and Lucy, had some apple cider donuts, and took some fun pictures. From there we grabbed Portillo's for lunch. Chris had a Chicago dog, and I had a variation of the same. I won't admit how I changed it up because it will rob me of any Chicago-bred dignity I have. We drove around Palatine and Barrington and showed Chris all of our old houses, and did some reminiscing. It was sad and sweet and funny. After all that fun, we let the girls take an afternoon nap and then it was time to gear up for Nick's football game. I had t-shirts made for all of us, including the girls. I put them in their feet pajamas and then jeans and shirts over them. It was cold that night - somewhere in the 40s - and we downed a ton of hot chocolate at the game. Sadie was sweet enough to drive out and meet us at the game. I can always count on her to be a superfan with me. The girls did pretty well. Lucy was bundled in the Baby Bjorn all night, and stayed pretty quiet. Olive was entertained by Morgan and her buddy the whole time. It was such a thrill to watch Nick play. He's so talented. We're really proud of him. His team won 31-0! Chris was rallying the crowd like crazy. I was slightly embarrassed but mostly just so amused. It was a fun night, and such a great day in all.

On Saturday Morgan had a volleyball tournament. She's a tough little cookie! She's really competitive, a little too hard on herself, and such a pretty girl. Her team went all the way to the championship game and came in 2nd place. We were super proud of her. Immediately after her last game, she jumped in the car with Chris and me and the girls, and we met Sadie and Gabe at Wrigley. We had tickets to tour the park at 1:30 (the last tour of the year) and barely made it on time. The tour was really interesting, and it was fun to be there. Chris' favorite part was the press box, mine was the dugouts. After the game, we went around the corner to Gino's East. I wanted Chris to compare Gino's to Lou's and decide which one he liked better. Trouble was, Olive was pretty delirious with exhaustion by that point, so she was kind of tough to manage. Then she took a really bad fall and got a huge knot on her forehead. After that, she was totally inconsolable. We had to call it quits at Gino's, say bye to Sadie and Gabe there, and make our way back to Lisa's. I was bummed that Chris didn't get to try Gino's, but Olive really needed to rest. We ended up grabbing Portillo's for dinner (Chris and I both got Italian beefs - so good), and laying low at Lisa's for the rest of the night.

I decided we should really just lay low on Sunday, too. We had planned on going out to Arlington Heights for church to see who we could see there. But the girls had been carted all over creation, and I thought it best for everyone's health and sanity that we just take it easy. It was a nice day. Morgan took Olive out on her little electric moped, and Olive absolutely loved it. It was pretty funny to watch. We took a long walk with Lisa. We grilled burgers and brats, and ate out on the deck. Olive wanted to help Lisa clean up after dinner, but she walked right into the iron patio table and gave herself a black eye. So now she's got a big bruised forehead, and a black eye! I think she looks cute; pitiful, but cute. We talked, and laughed, snacked, watched football, and I made cookies. It was a nice quiet day.

On Monday morning, I got us all packed and ready to go. We stopped by Lisa's office and Morgan's school, and said bye to them. I hated saying bye. From there we drove to a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Crystal Lake and looked around. Then we got on Northwest Highway and took it almost all the way to the city. When we passed through Palatine, I showed Chris some more nostalgic spots. We were going to go to the original McDonald's in Des Plaines, but missed the turn and decided to just keep going. We went to Navy Pier, walked up and down the pier, took pictures, had Garrett's, and rode the ferris wheel. From there we drove up Michigan Avenue so Chris could see the famous Magnificent Mile, got to see Millenium Park and Buckingham Fountain again, and then hit the road for the airport. We grabbed sandwiches at Potbelly's, and they were tasty tasty. We returned the awful car, got through the airport madness, and girded up our loins for another daunting flight. It wasn't as bad as the first flight, but it wasn't fun either. Olive finally crashed in my arms as soon as the plane started its initial descent into Vegas. Needless to say, she wasn't too thrilled when she was woken up by us trying to make our way off the plane. We were tired and hungry and grubby and ready to sleep for days. It was stressful and crazy, but delightful and memorable and lovely. We miss Lisa's family, and we love Chicago. Wanna go back!

Our First Time on Lake Havasu

Thanks to our generous friends, the Jensens, we finally got out on the lake for the first time yesterday! Here are some pictures to prove it:

Lake Havasu really is so lovely. How have you not come to visit us yet?

We Really Are That Happy

Chris and I were asked to do a little lesson/discussion at last night's Relief Society Back to School activity. We talked about how getting back to basics is so important to the strength of our marriage and family. Here are the basics:

1. Daily prayer (personal, couple, family)

2. Daily study of the Book of Mormon (personal, couple, family)

3. Regular temple attendance

4. Service

5. Family night/date night/quality time together

6. Weekly inventory

Prayer and scripture study are obvious, aren't they? But so vital to the life and strength of a marriage and family. We originally just kept saying "scripture study", but as we got further in our preparation of the lesson we knew we had to specify the Book of Mormon. There is an undeniable power and influence that comes into your life as you are elbow-deep in the Book of Mormon each day. Other scriptures and conference talks, etc, should come into play as well.

Temple attendance is another rattled-off answer that weighs so much. Regular temple attendance is a real safeguard to our marriage and family. And it is very easy to say that because the temple is 2 hours away and because we have 2 little girls that "this just isn't our season to be regular temple attenders." But it's never not anyone's season to make every sacrifice necessary to be in the temple regularly. We're told to be in the temple as often as our circumstances permit, and I believe our circumstances can permit a little more than we're permitting them to right now. We need it that badly.

Selflessness facilitates spiritual progression. It's important for us to be serving each other within the marriage and family. When Chris and I got married we were given the advice to always put each other on a pedestal. If we could just remember that all the time, and serve each other accordingly, our dynamic would be even more harmonious than it already is. Also, serving others together as a family helps us feel the spirit together and draw much strength from that. Selfless service is as important to our strength of spirituality as any of these other elements.

Family night, date night, and quality time together as a family are obviously big contributors to our strength and success as a family. For us, we make sure we're laughing and getting out and mixing it up as much as we can. All of us need that excitement.

Chris and I try to bookend each week with a Sunday night inventory. It's always begun and ended with a prayer, otherwise who knows what direction it might go. We take that opportunity to see where each of us is at spiritually and emotionally. It's a needed and fantastic opportunity for good communication.

We had a really good time putting this together, and we challenged the Acoma ladies to apply the basics and then testify about their experience doing so in the next testimony meeting. I'm eager to see how it goes. In our own family, I know every one of these elements is so important. And I'm thrilled to have a husband I don't have to drag along to be on the same page with me about them. It's why we're as happy as we are.

Havasu Has a Hold

Boulder City is one of the cutest towns I could imagine. Historic, small, green (-er than anywhere else nearby), cool (-er than most places around here), far enough from Vegas not to feel like Vegas but close enough to have access to the minimum shopping requirements... It's the kind of place we'd hand-pick; just totally us. The bulk of Chris' clients are in Henderson which means he has to be up there 2-3 days a week. It gets old. So we would casually watch for places in Boulder City to come available, but the thing is they rarely do. We wanted a historic house that had been redone in the heart of the city and in our price range. If it didn't meet all those criteria, it wasn't worth it. Well, last week I found a place. I couldn't believe it when I found it, it was perfect! When Chris got home that day I ran to the door to meet him and tell him all about it. He was excited too, and we jumped in the car and drove up there. The house is great, adorable and neat with tons of character. And it's within walking distance of the cute downtown area and a couple of lovely parks and the church. We loved it. On the drive back home all I did was imagine our stuff in that house, and how great it would be living there. The only obstacle we would have to get past was talking with our landlords about getting out of our lease early. I did that, and they said it wouldn't be tough to do at all. So it should've been a cinch, right? The trouble was I kept feeling a tug on my heart about leaving our ward here. But being that the situation in Boulder City was almost perfect, I couldn't sort out my feelings all the way. I sat on it for a few days, and then yesterday we went back to see the house. We loved it again, and the agent was really aggressive about showing her interest in us. It should've been a slam dunk. But when Chris and I got in the car to mull it over, we shortly came to the conclusion that it just wasn't right. We both felt, in our individual ways, that the spirit was telling us we belong here in Havasu, and more specifically, in the Acoma Ward. We're not sad; I mean, who knows how complicated we would've made things if we had ignored those feelings because of our excitement about Boulder City. We love the Acoma Ward. And we feel like this is where we belong right now. We're happy to stay put.

Elders Quorum FHE

Chris had this idea to have the Elders Quorum host Family Home Evening last night at the park. I'll admit, I was a little worried about the turnout because it didn't seem like it was communicated very well. But there ended up being a great turnout, and it was really fun! Here are some pictures:

Chris & the Brown men playing bocce ball.

Olive & Ethan going for a ride.

Some of the guys playing ultimate frisbee.

Roasting wuff-'ems.

Hanging out.

We had a great time. Word on the street is we're going to do it on the 2nd Monday of every month, so you should come next time!

Hip hip...George!

I made this silly promise to Chris at the beginning of this Yankees' season that if Jorge Posada hit 30 homeruns this year, I would get pregnant again before the end of 2010. What, 12 is almost 30, isn't it?

It's true. You heard me, IT'S TRUE! Pick your jaw up off the floor buddy, cuz we're having another baby!

I'm sure you can imagine the slew of inappropriate jokes and judgmental comments we've heard so far. I'll actually be holding a contest to see who can come up with the most original one, so please don't bore us with your "That was fast" or "You guys didn't waste any time" nonsense. So far, Mike Pionke's in a strong lead with his, "Congratulations on getting pregnant for the 6th time this year," followed by genuine spontaneous laughter. I LOL'd on that one. A close 2nd place was Oatsie's, "Oh Brooke your poor body," to which I replied, "Hey, you did it this way too," to which she replied, "Yeah, but I was in my 20s!" Ha!

In all seriousness, we're really thrilled about this. I'd be lying if I said there was no worry or wondering going on, but Chris and I both love this adventure of a life we're creating. We'd honestly have it no other way.

Oh, and I'm calling it now: it's a boy. I know it. His name is George.