Coldest winter

So this winter has gone down on record as tied for the coldest winter recorded here in Chicago.  And boy do I agree.  So I thought I'd just show you our everyday life during the past few months while stuck inside.

We'd play hide and go seek with a baby Jaguar (that's what Cora was for the day).

Gotcha!

Wear snow pants while watching TV.  It's the latest style, didn't you know?

Have a snack while sitting on the radiator.

Help Dad cook dinner.

Take a nap in the nice warm car while waiting to pick up Will from school.

Decorate.

Dream of buying an Aston-Martin while letting the kids run around in McDonalds.

Take swim classes.

Deal with this threenager going from this...

To this...(Jeremy's face in the background is priceless!)

Back to this within 5 minutes. 

Have sneak attacks.

Go bowling at Tivoli bowling.  We should have walked there, but it was cold!

This is pretty blurry, but Will beat me by 1.  That kid can bowl!

And make marshmallow catapults.  A month later I am still finding those marshmallows.

Match Day

Every year the fate of 4th year med students is decided on what is called "Match Day".  It determines what kind of doctor you'll be, where you'll live the next 4 years and is a huge life changer.  How it basically works, the student puts in their top picks for residencies, and the hospitals/offices that have residencies put in their top picks for the students they would like.  They give these to some outside company with a crazy computer system to match them up.  And then they let you know on a certain date usually around 10 or 11am.  For Jeremy and other DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) students this year it was on February 9th.  The MD's do it in March, which next year they are combining the two, but that is a completely different subject that I don't really want to go into.  So for weeks after these picks are put in, we just had to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  And not get much sleep in the meantime.  The Sunday night before, we went over to our friends house to have dessert.  I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't great talking about the match, we were nervous as it was, but it was great to have something to take our minds off of it for a minute.  Then that night we tried to sleep.  I think I fell asleep around 2 and I have no idea when Jeremy did.  But at 7, Jeremy woke me up with a huge grin and a "WE MATCHED!"
 Me, "Cool!" and then I laid back down.  Then it dawned on me after I heard him go back downstairs.  Where?  So naturally I yelled after him, "Where?"
"Kingman, AZ!"
This was his first choice, so we are pretty excited.  Naturally we went out that night to celebrate to Lou Malnati's.

You can tell Jeremy was feeling more himself at this point.

I am excited Jeremy got his first choice, but the more I look into where we are going I realize how much I am going to miss it here.  The record breaking cold (maybe not so much!), the restaurants, shopping, zoos and all the perks of a nice big clean city.  But I'm sure new adventures await us in Kingman as well!

Will's First Pinewood Derby

On February 6th, Will had his first Pinewood Derby with Troop 86.  

As you can see, he was pretty stoked about it.

Cora found her "prince" Mason (seriously cutest boy ever!) and happily ran around with him until the noise finally got to her around 8 and she required one of us to hold her with our hands over her ears.  

Will's car didn't place for speed, but he did win an award for best paint job.  Guess making it into a fireball had its perks!

Will with his buddies Trevor and Nolan.  Yes this is the best picture I have.  You try to make 3 7 year olds hold still during a scout event.

The car, the award and the boy.

Sledding

This winter in Chicago was tied for the coldest one on record.  Yes, we stayed inside and watched a lot of TV.  But there were two times when we weren't sick and it was warm enough and we were actually able to get out and go sledding.

The first time was just us at Ty-Warner Park.  This was a Saturday morning and it was 10 with the wind chill.  Maybe that is why we had the hill to ourselves.  Sure was nice!

The second time we went with some of Will's friends to Gilbert Park.  It was nice that the hill was a slope that they could pull the tubes up themselves. 

My friend April helped Will try out his friends snowboard.  He actually did pretty good and made it down the to the bottom of the hill without falling on his second try!

This one pulled the tube up the hill herself and went down by herself too.

Then she would stop for a snow eating break.

Will and some friends.  Jack, Nolan, Will and Noah.

And my little lady.