Shutterbug Mama

Well, April has been true to her motto, and we've sure had our share of rainy days this month, that's for sure.

I'm not complaining, though, when I get treated to sights like this one. The magnolias bloomed late this year, but look how beautiful they are!

Hopefully, all the rain and somewhat chilly temps we've been having will mean abundant and glorious flowers for May and the rest of summer.

I took the photos above on Thursday evening before a show at the Lincoln Square Theatre (housed in Berry Church) that was curated by Berry's band-in-residence Anathallo. The show consisted of Lake, a band from Olympia, WA who was touring w/ Half-handed Cloud (John Ringhofer) who was the headliner and also included performances by the Think/Dance collective. The show was amazing. All 3 performances would've been worth the price of admission on their own. I'm really glad I went, even though it was on a weeknight. Sometimes, I just have to make myself get out of the house after a long day of work, or I'll miss out on memorable events like this one. This was totally worth the loss of sleep. Here are some of my favorite photos from the show:

And here's a photo of Cadence for good measure. Man, I love thrift stores.


You can see more folk's Best Shot's on Tracey' Mother May I.

Labels: anathallo, best.shots.monday, i.heart.berry.church, live.music, spring.fever, think.dance.collective

As you can see from this photo, our family is back to its late-night, partying-til-you-turn-into-a-pumpkin ways. Ted played a show Friday night, and we kept Cadence up until she lost her shoe, just like Cinderella.

My friends Ryan and Jan Hammer opened up with a very special Mystery/Shaddow Puppet version of Tales From Tuckaway. It was a loopty-looper visual and auditory treat. There were a lot of jaws on the floor once it was over.

I was also excited to see Ribbons of Song perform, and geewillickerswhizzo I was not disappointed. Ben, the frontman, accompanied by friends Pete (fellow Ben and Bruno-er) and Erica (of Anathallo) made music that made your heart want to explode onto canvas. And the fog machine? Totally rad. Especially in a church.

I hear Tim and the Boys and Gals played a good show too, but since Ted had to drum for that one, I spent most of their set chasing Cadence up and down the halls. Oh well. If all goes as planned, we'll be making a family road trip out of the upcoming Tim Lowly tour this summer. I just have to figure out just how much suffering and mayhem I'm willing to take.

Labels: live.music, ribbons.of.song, tim.lowly.ensemble

Thanks again for all your well wishes. I'm doing much better, although I still have a cough that seems to have taken up permanent residence in my lungs. Where the heck does all that gook come from?!

The big news around these here parts is that the band Ted drums in, the Tim Lowly Ensemble, got to open up for Rosie Thomas at North Park University. Rosie just happens to be one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Her latest album called These Friends of Mine is a collection of songs recorded pretty informally, mainly with her good friends Denison Witmer and Sufjan Stevens. It's probably my favorite album of hers to date.

Tim was missing his pianist, Maestro Matthew Ganong, and his violinist Ethan Adelsman (who's too busy playing for a gazillion other bands), but Danny Bracken from Anathallo joined in on mandolin, and Rebecca Miller added another guitar. I missed most of the set, as I was playing in the hallway with Cadence, who decided that it was a great time to pretend she was a barking dog while we were in the show.

Rosie's shows are always a mix of her beautiful and often serious and sad songs with her hilarious comedic antics and stories thrown in throughout the set. If you only listen to her CDs, you wouldn't think her shows would be this fun. It would kinda be like if Adam Sandler were performing an all Nick Drake concert, I suppose.

Rosie even performed what almost seemed like her own version of a burlesque show, except it was more like calisthenics and consisted of things like sit-ups, leg-lifts and the like. Only at a Rosie Thomas show will you witness something like that...

Cadence was actually in a good mood all throughout soundcheck (which started at 6:30p) pretty much until we went home close to 11pm. She didn't run amok as much as usual, and she actually did try to be quiet because she had told us she wanted to go to the show, and we'd told her she would have to be quiet. I think she spent so much time being quiet during soundcheck that when it was actually time for the show at 8pm, she was all quieted out and needed to do little kid things like crawl on all fours and bark. Totally understandable. Ted and Dave took Cadence outside to play during most of Rosie's set so I could enjoy the show without being self-conscious about my squirming-crawling-barking 3 year old.

Anyhoo, good times, good times...

Labels: live.music, rosie.thomas, tim.lowly.ensemble

Monday night was a special treat for us. Our friend Ian Moore was in town playing a CD release show with a full band(!), so we got Ted's bro Dave to babysit, and we had ourselves a bona fide date. Normally, we would take Cadence to see her Uncle Ian play, but I happened to know that his full band shows get LOUD. Plus, it was a later show than normal for Ian. We braved the rain and the traffic on Ashland, did a Trader Joe's run for some hummus and cheap wine (per Ian and the band's request), and made our way to Martyr's where the show was.

Ted got to get a very short game of pinball in right before the opening band started. I'm not sure why there is a pinball machine in the music room, as that whackety-wack can get pretty loud.

Local act Brice Woodall opened the show. We were quite surprised to see what looked like Jim Cooper (of the Detholz!, Baby Teeth, Bobby Conn, etc) on DRUMS. Turns out it's not Jim, but he sure could be his double if he wanted to be. I mean, down to the pattern that his facial hair made and everything.

Ted and I have seen Ian play his solo acoustic shows numerous times, and they are always amazing. With all the indie rockers saturating the music world these days, it can be hard to find someone who has passion, creativity AND true musical talent. That's why it's always such a treat to see Ian play.

We were excited to see a full-band show, as this is a rare occurrence here in the Midwest, since most of the folks who play with him live in Texas. I caught a full-band show down in Austin, TX back in 2002, but Ted had never seen one before last night, so he was especially expectant. And needless to say it was a totally awesome show.

Ian always amazes me with how full his sound is when he's playing solo or w/ just one backup musician. So with a full band, the sound is even more amazing. And the musicians traveling with him on this tour are really seasoned players.

Ian's latest CD 'To Be Loved' is out on Justice Records. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this album. It is Ian's best yet. I was happy to see that some of the songs he's been performing live for several years have finally made it onto an album version.

It was really great to be able to hear these songs live with a full band. I don't know when Ian will make it out to Chicago with a full band, so I'm glad Ted and I got the chance to see them.

The show was totally awesome. The thing I love about Ian's shows is that even as he performs, he is such a huge music fan himself, and he plays some really great cover songs. That's how I discovered the music of Neutral Milk Hotel and the solo work of Chris Bell (of Big Star). At this show, he also covered Teenage Fan Club's 'Start Again' from one of their older albums.

Here's something weird that happened during the show. While I was taking this photo above (which I have to credit Ian's Chicago merch man Gary Overstreet for asking me to take) from the merch booth, my cellphone began to vibrate. When I took it out of my pocket, the CallerID said it was Ian calling me. So there I was looking at Ian playing his encore on stage, and then I looked back to my phone which was telling me that Ian was calling me at that very moment. It was kinda surreal. I went out to take the call because I was too curious to see what would happen. Now here's the really crazy part. When I picked up, it was some woman talking. But she wasn't talking to me. She was carrying on a conversation with someone else. When I asked her who she was, it was obvious she couldn't hear me, which freaked me out and I hung up. It was like Ian's phone was chanelling this woman's phone conversation and sending it to my phone. Like how totally weird is that?!

I don't usually take photos at Ian's shows, since he normally plays at Schubas and although it's my favorite music room in the city, it kinda sucks for photos. Martyr's had better lighting, especially for a full band show.

After the show, we gave Ian his Trader Joe's loot, as well as a few bottles of Ted's homebrew. We had to hurry home to Cadence, so we couldn't hang out more, but it was good to get a chance to catch up a little. I can see that Ian is really happy with the new album and enjoying this tour, so that was good to see. It was also nice to have an evening out, just Ted and I.

You can see the rest of my photos from Ian's show over here.

Labels: friends.who.rock, ian.moore, live.music, photos

I guess I haven't quite recovered from Pitchfork yet. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought tickets for the WHOLE. FLIPPIN'. WEEKEND. when I knew I'd have Cadence in tow by myself.

Actually, Ted did accompany me Friday night for Sonic Youth's performance of Daydream Nation. We met up w/ my friend Sarah S-B and her daughter Eleanor, who drove in from Grand Rapids. I'm bummed I didn't have my good camera with me cuz Eleanor was dressed up in a Superman outfit. It was totally awesome!

I wish I had more photos to share with you of actual performances, but trying to keep up with Cadence prevented me from taking too many photos. Here's Iron and Wine on stage. Dang, Sam Beam's hair is getting long. I think Cadence's little buddy Rudden, who was there with his family, asked if that was Jesus. Ha ha!

That's right, folks. I went to a weekend-long festival of some of the best indie music out there, and I took photos of toddlers.

Can you blame me, though, when they're this adorable?

I have to say, I love this photo of Rudden as he reacts to the music of metal band Mastadon.

I did get to spend time with my friends Caleb and Kathy Maskell, who flew in from New Haven, CT for the festival. They hadn't seen Cadence for a year and a half, so I was glad they got a chance to see her budding personality.

I have some other photos on Ted's camera, but since I've been using my new cameras, I've misplaced the reader for the type of memory card it uses, so I haven't been able to get those photos onto a computer yet. They're probably no good. I did take one of Neko Case a woman who was filling in for Neko Case* as she played with The New Pornagraphers, whose set kicked some major booty. I've been enjoying their new album, so it was totally cool to hear some of the songs live.
*(Thanks to Caleb for the clarification. We were wondering why that woman looked nothing like Neko Case.)

Anyhoo, I'm totally out of steam. I'm extremely busy at work, and I'm helping plan a bachelorette party for Ted's sister next month in addition to getting all the other wedding details ready (shoes for Cadence, outfit for me, camera equipment, etc.) so you'll have to excuse me if I just post random photos every once in a while like this one:

Labels: live.music, music.festivals, photos, this.busy.life

It's been a busy weekend and then some around here. I took a lot of photos, and I'm just too plain tired, busy and lazy to say much about them, so please excuse me while I let my photos do most of the talking.

Labels: anathallo, get.up.johns, live.music, photos, think.dance.collective, this.busy.life, tim.lowly.ensemble

In honor of Father's Day, which was yesterday, here's a photo of Ted playing the drums at the Rogers Park Artists of the Wall Festival yesterday. What a hottie!

Labels: best.shots.monday, live.music, teddy

So on Sunday, our little family did something we've never done before--as individuals OR as a family. We went to Chicago's North Center Ribfest. Now, you may not think anything of it, but you have to understand that we're not really a rib-eating family, unless it's Korean Kalbi. Fortunately, there was a lot more than ribs going on at this festival.

Some people were apparently there for the free goodies.

Some people were there to sit around and enjoy a cig or two or three dozen.

I'm sure others were there for the drunken debauchery that is sure to ensue at events such as this one.

Other folks just wanted to chill out.

Still other were there to be cooler than thou.

But me?

I was there for the Rock 'n' Roll, baby! Like, DUH!

The Chamber Strings, whose recent reunion and old and new material have garnered much press and praise, were totally f*cking awesome.

Their songs are chock full of devastating beauty. You know--the kind of beauty that can silence a room and make your jaw drop and bring you to your knees as you thank God in heaven for being graced with that moment. Okay, maybe I exaggerate. But maybe not. You can find out for yourselves here, or check them out @ the Abbey Pub on Friday July 13th when they play with the marching band sensation Mucca Pazza (another Satellite band!). If I weren't going to Pitchfork Festival that night, I'd be there for sure. Heck, I may still try and make it.

You can see all my photos of the Chamber Strings from Ribfest here. Some of my favorite live music shots, I have to say...

I would've been totally happy to see just the Chamber Strings that night, but no...We were also treated to the retro pop yumminess of Chicago's superband Baby Teeth. I haven't seen these guys play since 2004. And they've come a long way since then, let me tell ya.

My friend Jim plays bass in Baby Teeth. It's a much different role for him than his other gig as the frontman of the Detholz!. Kinda like the difference between being an earthling and Klingon, I would imagine.

Baby Teeth shows are a great place for a first date. Their music is such that your date won't be able to keep himself/herself from dancing. And chances are, if they start dancing with you, you'll get to hold his/her hand. And the rest could be history.

If you don't live in Chicago but on the East Coast, you're in luck, as Baby Teeth will be doing their EC Tour the end of June through mid-July. Check out their shows page for more details.

And see more Baby Teeth photos here.

Cadence totally loved all the music and the crowds. She was dancing with herself and running around and charming everyone within visual range and having a grand ol' time.

Heck, even Ted thought the music was great, which is saying A LOT considering that most bands these days bore him to tears.

Anyhoo, the rest of the photos from ribfest are here. Good times, good times.

Labels: baby.teeth, i.heart.chicago, i.heart.summer, live.music, photos, the.chamber.strings

For y'alls coming here looking for photos from the Detholz! show last Thursday night, look at the post below from Saturday, June 2nd. Or just go see the slideshow of the photos on my Flickr.

I'm just posting this because a bulletin was sent out from the Detholz! myspace that directs folks to my homepage for the photos from their show, and I'd sure hate for folks too impatient to scroll down to be disappointed upon finding just photos of an extremely cute toddler.

Labels: detholz, live.music, photos, public.service.announcement

So the show Thursday night...was pretty damn long. Sticking to the green theme of the occasion, I took the 22 Clark bus to the Metro. Public transportation is an amazing thing, folks. I am thankful to live in a city that has it, even when it's pretty f*cked up at times.

There was a lot going on. For one thing, there were like a half a dozen acts on the bill. My lovely kickass friend Miss Mia was the host for the show. Okay, I'm just gonna summarize with a some photos cuz it's like way late and I'm still exhausted from last night.

This is Imelda de la Cruz. She was one of the winners of the Audio Emission contest to get her song on the i-go Compilation CD that will be in every i-go car.

This is the winner of the Hip Hop category, Animate Objects. I realize the photo doesn't show the whole group. That's not the point. The point is that this is an awesome photo and it took great skill to take.

Actually, it was totally an accident. Anyhoo, moving right along...

So there was actually a lot of time to kill in between sets. I used that time to people watch, of course. I spent a lot of that time spying on the Windy City Rollers who were at the show apparently as the hired dancers/rabble-rousers planted in the crowd. They seem like an awesome bunch of women. Damn. Roller derby. Another way I could totally get brain damage. Actually, I had no idea who these women were until this really hip-looking totally hot Asian girl (Shoot. I totally forgot her name. Sheena? Shawna? Dolores?) asked me if I knew who those women were and could they possibly be the Windy City Rollers? Then I remembered hearing that they were supposed to be there, and that's exactly who they turned out to be.

I suppose I could've somehow gotten to the "green room" to schmooze with my friends in the Detholz! but I suck at the schmooze so I kept myself occupied by taking a lot of really stupid photos and making up stories about the people around me and looking like I was totally content being alone. Which I was, actually, because that's how I generally operate when at shows with the purpose of taking some photos in addition to enjoying the rawk. I know, I know, I'm so antisocial.

The band that played before the Detholz! was called Palliard. Their influences are good old fashioned traditional country/blues and probably alcohol, and they sure do put on a good show.

Dude. They had not ONLY an upright bass, but a PEDAL STEEL GUITAR as well. If they'd had a banjo, I would have totally swooned.

You can see a slideshow of all the Palliard photos here.

The Detholz! were definitely worth the wait. I haven't seen them play live since they invited me out to their Urbana show w/ Wilco, which was over a year ago.

I have to be honest with you. I'm not totally thrilled with the photos I took. It was a learning experience, however, and I am still determined to convince the folks at Pitchfork to let me bring in my camera to the festival. God forbid I have to watch Sonic Youth and Cat Power while armed with only my Point 'n' Shoot.

The Detholz! setlist was largely new to me, although they did some of their oldies-but-goodies. It was as frenetic a show as ever.

Jim (Mr. Frontman) does stuff with his body that makes me concerned about his internal organs, and he did at one point end up a sweaty convulsing mass of flesh at the feet of his audience. I'm really not sure how he kept his flip-flops on through it all.

Speaking of flip-flops, the crowd was pretty docile (for a Detholz! show), but this here lady did hit Jonny AND Jim with her flip-flops towards the end of the show. I think she was "with the band."

You can see the rest of the Detholz! photos here.

You can see ALL the photos from the entire i-Go Audio Emissions CD Release Party here.

Oh! And I did finally get to meet in person my mutual lurker friend Elaine! We're totally gonna have coffee one of these days and laugh about all the dirty little details we know about each other's lives.

I also got to see my friends Derek and Linda Becker (Derek manages/books the Detholz! and many other fine bands). They're another couple of friends I really need to see more often, and outside music venues for a change.

Anyhoo, it was past midnight by the time I finally got home. Oh, and look! It's past midnight now! I'm totally done here, y'alls.

Labels: friends, friends.who.rock, live.music, photos, rock.n.roll

#1—I've been missing the Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle lately. Maybe it's the whole turning 35 thing. Maybe I'm just stupid. Whatever the reason, I've determined to start going to more shows. Granted, if I get to see 3 shows in a year, that would qualify as MORE, but I was thinking more along the lines of at least twice a month. Holy shit. That sounds like a lot.

Anyhoo, I've got this lovely new camera that I'm dying to use on Chicago's best-lit venues, so who better to call upon than my dear friends Derek Becker of Satellite Booking and the Detholz! It just so happens that the 'Holz are headlining the I-Go Audio Emissions CD Release Party at the Metro tonight. I asked Derek if I could get a media pass so I could shoot photos, and he was nice enough to put me on the guestlist AND get me a media pass! The Metro happens to have my favorite lights in the city, so I'm really excited about the show tonight. And my friend Miss Mia of Chic-a-go-go is hosting the show, so I hope she tells all the tall folks to get the hell out of my way! Stay tuned for the photos…

#2—Speaking of the Detholz! show, I am hopefully going to get to meet someone at the show whose blog (erg, actually her Myspace page) I've been lurking on for a few months, and who it turns out has also been lurking on my blog! HA HA! That gets me a-thinkin' about the power of the Internet to establish relationships between folks who would otherwise be too shy to express their mutual admiration for one another in person. It also shows how the Internet brings out the inner stalker in all of us. I totally admit to that one.

#3—Cadence is growing up so fast. No, really. It's become more noticeable in just the past week or so. She's actually occasionally rational now. I can say to her, "We can't eat cookies for breakfast, but you can have an apple or an apricot," and she'll actually choose one of the latter two without argument 5% of the time. Or when I come home and she demands a nursing session right away, I can now say to her, "We'll do ma-ma-ma (her word for nursing) after I pee and change into something more comfortable (e.g., sans bra), and she'll actually say, "Okay."

Then again, she did have that screaming session yesterday evening about something I can't even remember, and I had to plug my ears or totally seriously risk hearing loss. It was flippin' loud, folks. I don't see how she's not deaf herself.

But still, overall I'm noticing that when I can't give her what she wants, as long as I get down on her level and give her some sort of explanation in a gentle, empathic voice, she'll resort to screaming in retaliation much less than she used to.

She's also beginning to understand aspects of the bigger world outside our little family. It kind of shocked me the other day when we were talking about church, and she tilts her head, nodding it up and down, and says, "Blbublaubl God? Blbublaubl Eesus?" Wow. So she knows that going to church has something to do with God and Jesus. Up to this point, she always associated church with Rudden (her best friend and baby love) and her other friends. And Matt the pianist whom we pick up every Sunday.

And then when we were at my cousin's house on Tuesday night, Baby Eden was propped up on her boppy while we were eating, and she started crying. Cadence was next to her, and looking really concerned, she says to me, "Blbublaubl wanna ah-zhoo!" No, she wasn't sneezing. Ah'-zhoo is her word for "be held." She knew that the baby wanted to be held and was alerting us to that fact.

So yeah, she's becoming spiritual AND compassionate. Totally growing up so fast.

Labels: cadence, friends.rock, friends.who.rock, live.music, motherhood, parenting, random.photos, random.thoughts, three.thoughts.thursdays

Okay, so the show on Friday night was pretty awesome. Tim had one of his art students help with the lighting to transform Berry's sanctuary into a music venue for the evening. I had a pretty hard time taking photos with Cadence running around.

I enlisted my brother's help in keeping an eye on her, and Tom from church also said he'd look after her. Nevertheless, Cadence managed to run around like a little sprite during the shows, and I believe she was actually on stage at one point. Here are some of my favorite photos of Tim's set:

This was actually during sound check. This is Matthew on piano and Ethan on clay jug (he also plays violin, very well I might add). I like how Matt's looking over at Ethan, giving him the thumbs-up. He's actually holding a melodica, not a cordless phone. Similar, but not quite the same.

And this is Ryan "And-They-Will-Know-Him-By-The-Yellow-Knit-Hat" Hammer. I bet his lovely wife Janelle made that hat, which I have seldom seen Ryan without.

Matthew and Ethan's shadow. I love this photo for some reason.

I know the band's not totally in focus here, but hey, it's more about the perspective, okay?

The rest of the photos for Tim's set can be seen on my flickr here. Slideshow can be seen here.

In the middle of Tim's set, Ryan and Jan Hammer performed a couple songs they had written. It was very sweet, even though Ryan totally forgot the words to the second song (he wrote it a few hours before the show). One of the songs they performed, Goodnight Sunshine, can be heard on the Tales from Tuckaway Myspace page.

Ben and Bruno made it to the show by the latter half of Tim's set. They were driving from Grand Rapids, and probably hit some knarly traffic with all the crazy construction going on. I had never listened to their music before Friday night's show, and I admit that they were nothing like what I had expected. I don't know why I had any expectations of them at all, but for some reason I thought they'd be more emo and a bit on the loud side (compared to Tim Lowly's music, at least). I couldn't have been more wrong. One of my favorite experiences in life is to stumble upon a band that I'd never heard of previously but whose music just blows me away upon first listen. It's like finding a loose diamond while lounging on the beach, lazily combing your fingers through the sand. (More photos from Friday night's Ben and Bruno set here.)

Tim and the gang reciprocated Ben and Bruno's road trip by driving out to Grand Rapids to play a show with them on Saturday night. Cadence and I tagged along, and we made a minivacation of it. I don't want to go into all the details of the trip, so I'll just give you the photo highlights. All the photos can be seen on my flickr account here.

Driving for 3+ hours with a 2.5 year old can be taxing on one's sanity. We did see some interesting sights, though, like this tough-looking band of bikers. There are around a half dozen bikers behind this guy. If you look carefully, you can see his face in his mirror.

We stopped in Dutch Village in Holland, MI, which is considered Tulip City USA. The town was just starting their Tulip Festival, and sure enough, everywhere you looked, there were tulips.

Cadence had a blast, and no wonder. There were baby ducklings!

Goats!

Dancing!

Slides!

And her favorite, I believe, was the carousel. This was her first carousel ride, and she LOVED it!

There was also a ride that Cadence was thrilled to see cuz she was thinking it was the Most Ultimate Swingset Ever. Unfortunately, she was too little to ride.

So Daddy rode instead.

But Cadence enjoyed watching daddy flying by.

We had so much fun that it didn't matter that we had actually intended to go to Windmill Island, but never made it because the Yahoo Map directions suck big time.

We had just enough time to check into our hotel before we had to show up for a 5pm soundcheck at the church where the show was. It was a beautiful church, and I wish I'd taken more photos, but I was pretty busy chasing Cadence. I actually had technical difficulties with my memory card, and so I didn't get to take any photos of Tim Lowly's set. I deleted enough photos to be able to take a few shots of Ben and Bruno, though.

Ben (of Ben and Bruno) brought his wife, also named Sarah, and their 2 year old daughter Eleanor, so Cadence had a playmate for the evening. It turns out Sarah and I had a lot in common, such as carrying cameras, being on flickr, parenting philosophies, having charming and active toddlers who want to be with their dads especially when said dads happen to be performing on stage at the moment.

I didn't get to see much of the show, but I really enjoyed hanging out with Sarah and Eleanor and chasing Cadence. I did get a chance to take some photos of Ben and Bruno, which can be seen here.

On Sunday morning, we planned on relaxing at the hotel. Cadence decided the relaxing should begin at 6:30 am (5:30 Chicago time), so we ended up dragging ourselves down to our free kinda-hot breakfast by 7am. I'd been telling Cadence for a couple days that we would be going swimming in the pool, and she was excited (I think she thought there was gonna be fish involved).

When we actually got to the pool, however, Cadence refused to go in. She's a pretty cautious kid, and without any other little kids around to encourage her, there was no way she was gonna get in that water. Oh well.

After we checked out of the hotel, we met up for lunch with our friend Lori and her son Devin at the Grand Rapids Brewing Company. We had a very *cough* active *cough* lunch, thanks to our rambunctious youngsters. Cadence was having so much fun with Devin that she started crying when we had to go in separate cars to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. She quieted right down though once I got her to understand that we'd be meeting Devin at a big park where they could run around to their hearts' content.

The kids had a blast seeing butterflies, floating little boats on a miniature version of the Great Lakes, playing in a giant sandbox, climbing in the hug