COUSINS!!!
OMG! THEY CAME AT US FROM EVERY DIRECTION!!!
For the first time, Malaren finally met cousins. You'd think that would happen before 9 years of age, but the Florida Years have been eccentric.
During Christmas Break in Ringwood, we went downtown to Chicago and joined the grand Sedlack Christmas celebration/migration. It was something of a first for me, too, since it had been so long since I'd seen many of them, some of them for the first time.
The cousin connection goes like this: My mother's big sister is Ellen. Aunt Ellen married Bob Sedlack and have two children, Catherine and Robert. Catherine & Robert are my first cousins (and my closests cousins).
Catherine married Tom and they had two kids, Ellen (18) and Tommy (16). Robert married Teresa and they have two kids, Emma (10) and Trey (6).
Which means those kids are Malaren's second cousins. She had a blast.

Thank you all who were involved for Malaren's first ever meeting of cousins. Malaren fell in love with you all.
Maybe I did, too.

 
     

FULL ASSEMBLY of cousins: Emma, Ellen, Mal, Tommy, Trey all standing in
front of the most complete T Rex in the world at the Field Museum in Chicago.

 

I just LOVE this photo!

 

 

 

 

Me & my little buddy in front of the museum. The purple velvet jacket wore like armor.

 

After the museum, we went to a family gathering of Catherine & Robert's first cousins, hosted by John & Genevieve Waller.
Malaren fell right in with them, too, but mostly hung with Emma.

The ladies were not to be outshone by their kids and stepped up for a shot, too. That's Catherine, Annie, mom,
Cathy Sedlack (Bob's brother's wife) and one of her two lovely daughters, Genevieve, the hostess. .

 

 

Then we all just got nutsy.

 

The two artists touched base...

 

Annie got us a room at the Chicago Hilton and we awoke to this: The Sears Tower, once the tallest building in the world.
(Now it's the Willis Tower, and it's like the 13th tallest.) Malaren just had to see it. So we went ... to the top!

 

Here the cousins are standing on a GLASS BALCONY about 1,000 feet above the city in the Sears Tower.
You can see the video here: http://youtu.be/JxXiXF24lnY
Make sure you click back when you're done!

 

 

Walking along the busy streets of Chicago, you'll find some weird "art-chitecture". These granite blocks made the perfect
setting for an avant garde album cover. "Everyone, look artsy!"

 

Gummy Bear!

 

Millenium Park was built to celebrate the 21st Century. And the cousins. As you can see, Malaren was so happy to be
a part of the familial spirit.

 

 


And now to The Bean. For info click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate
This thing is bizarro. It's amazing how it makes you reflect on it, on yourself, and on existence. We just giggled.

 

This is why the Bean's so cool...

 

Gummy Bear!

 

Malaren offering peace, love & flowers to the great Bean god.

 

Once the festivities were over, we went home and Malaren got some quality time in with Hugo ---but he doesn't like Angry Birds.