Chicago, Yer Treatin' Me Good

*******UPDATE SEE BOTTOM FOR ADDITIONS*******

I'm not sure exactly what I love so much about my new home... Maybe it's that every morning I look out my window and see this:

Or it could be that I live in a HUGE apartment in this cool, old building:

And that it's graduate student housing so every tenant is mange-free and a potential BFF.

Or maybe it's that the manager is a jolly man from Croatia who, no matter what emotion he's feeling... excited, frustrated, startled, amazed... turns beet red and shouts, "Wot de hick!? You son offa beach!" I'm pretty sure he doesn't know it's not exactly polite...

Possibly it's that pretty much every building on the University of Chicago campus looks like this:

It could be that everyone here is seems to be especially jovial and friendly. Or that every single street is covered by a canopy of lush, green trees and speckled with vine-covered brownstones. Or that I've been checked on by like 10 people in my ward already to see if we're doing OK and getting settled in.

Or perhaps it's that my bishop is from Blackfoot (near Idaho Falls) and during our introductory meeting with the bishopric posed the question to his two Utahn couselors, "why is Idaho so windy?" and then replied, "cause Utah sucks!" and high-fived me across his desk. I jumped up for a chest bump but I don't think he planned on taking it that far and it got a little awkward.

Maybe it's not Chicago at all... maybe it's just that I have a bebe who looks like this:

And another bebe who looks like this:

Hmmmm... I'll have to think about it....

In the mean time... MORE PICTURES!

I'm sorry, I love this pic. She got ahold of an earring and was standing just like this for like 5 minutes straight.... inspecting and buffing...

Nothing quite so glorious as when your child gets to the age that you can turn to the tube for some free babysitting.

And a little final Utah recap:

I can't even begin to describe how much I love every single thing about this photo.

Luckily Leah stopped being so threatening and Mera stopped being so terrified and they made up.

I can't really say anything about that little face.

Leah really hated getting her diaper changed. Lucy really loved Leah getting her diaper changed. This was the scene every time.

This little sequence pretty much sums up our entire relationship:

What could have caused such a dramatic change? Maybe I licked his face, maybe I didn't.

Oh little Loofy, Leah is going to miss you almost as much as I'm going to miss your mother.

Thanks to everyone who made our summer in Utah/Idaho/South Dakota the best!

******UPDATE******

I forgot to include this little tid bit above because the pics were on Sam's phone. But really, it would be a sacrilege not to document....

We went to the US vs El Salvador world cup qualifier at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy.

I was feeling so supportive I even wore a little red hat. Truthfully it was Kathy's, too big, and wool so it made an exit immediately following this picture.

We were sitting among what seemed to be a sea of El Salvadorians. And it was nice and cozy because they like to roll like this:

That's right. You are seeing overlapping glutes. There was a family of six sitting in front of us... crammed into 4 seats. Don't ask me how they got through the front gates. Maybe it's a cultural thing because I ended up asking the gentleman sitting next to me if he was trying to sit on my lap (not kidding) and gave him a good elbow shove.

Sam was so thrilled to be attending that he wasn't even phased by the $90 speeding ticket he was issued on the way there. I guess, all in all, it was worth it. A night Leah-free with the hub, getting hoarse from so much "in yo facing" directed at the little puke pictured above on the left, and beating El Salv 2 to 1. Worth it, indeed.