Two Year Old Celie

Yes, Celie is two already. Time has flown by. Back in Texas her favorite things to do were play with Savanna, Jay, or other friends (and their toys), go to the park and swing, and dance class of course! She loved getting on her leotard for dance class. She would help everyone do what the teacher said (me) and it didn’t always turn out pleasant. Here in Peoria, Celie doesn’t have as many friends or places to go so she finds friendship in her library books, all 40 of them. New ones each week! She carries them all through the apartment. It is sweet to hear her read out loud. She loves to talk, a lot. I get told about every sound she hears, every sight she sees, and every tummy rumble she happens to feel; which is every few minutes. “I’m hungee mommy!”

Celie is one of the happiest kids I know. She handles “owies” very well and disappointments with fair understanding. She will be a helping hand with her baby brother that’s on his way. I know this because of the care and consideration she offers her baby Cella. Potty time is going well. She is staying dry most of the day. Today we were at the pool and she even held it until I ran her inside to go on the potty. Impressive! She can do anything she sets her mind to. I’ve even seen her clean up (correctly) all of her toys and messes in five minutes or less with out help. Of course, the reward was to watch 101 Dalmatians, the movie.

We are so proud of Celie and we feel so lucky to have her in our family. She keeps us laughing and corrects us when we fall short of our duties. Her prayers are sincere and sometimes very long. Blessing the bunnies, stickers, pool, doggie books, creams (ice cream), hopsicles (popsicles), movies, daddy wok (work), friends, bugs and the list goes on. We love her so much!

Trip to Chicago

On the weekend of our anniversary, May 29th, Marty, Celie and I went to visit JR, Shanna, and Karlie Benson in the Chicago area. This was the first time for both Marty and I to visit Chicago and actually remember it. We had so much fun. Mostly because we were with my brother and his family, of whom we don't see very often.

Our first train ride was a lot of fun and Celie seemed to enjoy the protection of her Daddy through the whole ride. We took a trolley everywhere to see the sites. We saw the main shopping strips, went up to one of the tallest buildings to look over all of Chicago, and saw the Bean of course! This thing is crazy. I don't know why they chose the bean shape, but they did. I think they redid the surface so the metal would be seamless. Amazing! I don't have a picture of what it looks like at a distance, but here are the Bensons in the midst of the reflection of Chicago. This next picture is from underneath the Bean! Pretty cool.

We also went to Navy Pier and saw the lake, a lot of boats and of course a great view of the tall buildings in Chicago. We had a great trip!

The rest of the story

Peoria! Yes, the biggest noise in Illinois (you'd have to have seen Calamity Jane to understand that joke). We packed up two cars full of what ever we thought we would need for the summer and left directly after Marty's last final. We did his incredibly stressfull thing because we wanted to make it to Ken's Law school graduation that weekend, and we did. It was good to visit Ken, Kristen, and sweet Ella in Indiana as well as Richard and Cleone. As Ken's family was moving back to Utah we were on our way to Illinois.

Now that we are here and Martys internship has started we feel settled and happy for all the time we have together. Marty loves his job so far and is learning a lot. I am finding my way around town, sun bathing at the pool, and getting a lot done on my scrapbooking (I'm starting to run out of supplies). Celie has had a bit of a harder time than the rest of us. She misses her friends and many activities she had in Texas, but she has found comfort in popcicles, wading in the pool, and library books!

We have already been to Chicago to visit JR, Shanna, and Karlie and to see the sites. We had so much fun with them. We also have been to a few BBQ's (or Grill-Out's as they say here) and I have even been to a baby shower. We are getting along just fine here in Peoria!

What state are we in now?

I decided to follow in my sister in-law's advice and start my own blog. I think this will work well for my journal writing for now since I have not been doing well at that lately.
First I'll write about our activities for last year or so. When Marty and I graduated from USU in May 2005 Celie was about a year old. We picked up from Providence, Utah and headed to Seth and Becky Allsop's house in Casper, WY for a summer internship in accounting with PMCH. We had a wonderful time the three sweet girls and getting to know the Seth Allsop family along with Becky's extended family. We went to the Billings, Montana temple, the Homestead (Burton's cabin), Mt. Rushmore, Martin's cove, boating, and much more. The internship was a great opportunity for Marty to learn about the auditing processes and it was wonderful to have a break from school stress, but not for long.
Richard and Cleone packed up our belongings that were left in Utah and met us in Casper to head off to Texas! Marty had signed up for more school. He is to get his MBA from Texas A&M in College Station by December 2006. We are loving it in Texas even with the heat (as long as our air conditioning works). The people are great and Marty is learning so much in his Masters program. We struggled through three intense, compact semesters and now he gets a summer break.
We were able to get a great accounting internship with Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois. So finals came and went and we were off again! This time to Peoria.
To be continued . . .