Fergus' Favourite iTouch Game Apps

This post is for the offspring of Loucks' and Allards' and other families of the iPhone/iTouch persuasion who will enjoy this new way of gaming and/or distraction for a long journey or a never-ending wait at the store. Well, Fergus has been having a blast with them anyway! But I have been wishing for a friend's blog post where I could just go and find 10 or so really cool game suggestions and avoid all the hassle of reading reviews and trying to sort out a million different game recommendations!

So here it is, Fergus' list of favourite game apps after a dedicated 3 days worth of game play by a six year old.

Biases up front - we do seem to prefer games that have lots of ways to solve the puzzle, ones with replay and goof around value rather than just solve it and be done with it. Most of these are either Free or have Free lite or demo versions so you can try them out and see which ones are destined to be your favourites!

JellyCar
(JellyCar = Free or JellyCar2 = $0.99)
A truly wacky rolly poly squishy car game where you literally "jelly" your way down the track trying to reach the finish spot. You can make your car big for a limited time to traverse certain perilous obstacles, but the game controls are otherwise simple, just touch the screen in the right half to go forward or in the left half to go backward, tap the car to toggle from big to small. The car gets squished and flung and tumbles down slopes - they call it "soft-body physics", but Fergus just calls it hilarious laugh-out-loud fun! Beware, you will be back to buy the $0.99 version before the day is out, it is that cute and intriguing.

You Tube link: JellyCar


Ragdoll Blaster
(Ragdoll Blaster Lite = Free or Ragdoll Blaster = $1.99)
OK, does it get any cooler than firing limp floppy rag dolls out of an imposing looking cannon trying to aim them just right so that they hit the red bulls eye target?! I think not. Just the floppy dolls will get you as their arms and legs flap when they hit something or splat. So far this has been Fergus' absolute favourite - he powered through the 18 free levels in one afternoon and we happily revisited the iTunes App Store to pay up our $1.99 for the 100-level full version. Fergus solved the puzzles, but he had almost as much fun just indiscriminately firing rag dolls and piling them up or watching them hit things. If you are anything like me you will want to wrench the iTouch/iPhone from your offspring's hand so you can play this one yourself!

You Tube link: Ragdoll Blaster


iBlast Moki
(iBlast Moki Lite = Free or iBlast Moki = $1.99)
Like cannons? Well how about bombs? In iBlast Moki you place bombs in the place(s) you think you will need them to detonate in order to blast your cute sleeping "Moki" to the swirly red target. As the levels get harder, you get more bombs and have to set timers on them to blow sequentially so that "Moki" continues to move toward the target. Though the levels seem to get hard pretty quick, and Fergus isn't quite adept enough to time the bombs without help, you can repeat levels and tweak your bomb locations and timing as many times as you like, and just blowing things up seems to be pretty entertaining to a six year old!

You Tube link: iBlast Moki


Trace
(Trace = Free)
Kudos to the brothers who developed this app and have offered the complete version, all 120 levels of it, completely free!

This is another game with pretty basic controls - you can go forward, backward, and jump. The aim is to walk your guy to the sunburst at the end of the course. The fun comes when you have to draw in your own paths and platforms to help you get from A to B. Every solution can be different, depending on what you draw. The drawing part can be a bit frustrating when you are Fergus trying to draw a tiny platform in just the right spot, but you can erase and do them over. There is no time limit, and you can try again as many times as you want. And it is totally free - you can't go wrong with this one, it is imaginative and creative.

I haven't tried it yet, but these same brothers have another game out now called Gomi that they are marketing the more usual way with a Gomi free demo and $2.99 Gomi full version.


You Tube link: Trace


Tiki Towers
(Tiki Towers Lite = Free or Tiki Towers = $0.99)
Jibbering monkeys leaping all over your fragile bamboo bridges. You build structures to get your monkeys from their box to the Tiki Tower, then you let the monkeys out and they leap onto your structure and it sags and sometimes breaks. You get extra points if your monkeys not only get to the Tiki Tower, but also get bananas on the way. We've had fun with this one, the monkeys are funny you can make different structures, so there is no "right" way to solve each puzzle. The free lite version has the first 9 of 45 levels.

You Tube link: Tiki Towers


Toki Tori
(Toki Tori Lite = Free or Toki Tori = $4.99)
Your little bird needs to find his eggs, he uses bridges and other "gifts" to navigate his puzzle and reach all the eggs. Mildly frustrating in that when you die you have to start over and get all the eggs, not just the ones you haven't gotten, but it plays just like most platform games and so was intuitive and easy for Fergus to figure out given his experience with mario and other similar type games. Cute birdie. But we haven't played it nearly enough to need to decide about the steeply priced $4.99 full version.

You Tube link: Toki Tori


Sway
(Sway Lite = Free or Sway = $4.99)
This is such a wacky game Fergus petitioned to have it included - you control "Lizzie" the frog's grasp on the wall he is hanging from by putting down and lifting up your left and right thumbs, and sliding your thumbs to sway "Lizzie" back and forth so she gets momentum to leap to another part of the wall. It takes some getting used to, but is so unusual it sort of sucks you in. We have died a lot, but Fergus managed to swing enough to get all the little pink thingys you have to collect and reach the goal of the first level at least. Not sure we'll ever get good enough to justify a full version at $4.99 though.

You Tube link: Sway


Spikey's Bounce Around
(Spikey's Bounce Around Lite = Free or Spikey's Bounce Around = $1.99)
Spikey is a sticky blue guy who needs to free the butterfly jars from the gardens so they'll smash and free his friends the butterflies. He sticks to walls, but bounces off the blue and yellow bouncer circles, so things can get a little crazy. It is another one of those games you can solve differently each time you play. The free version has 9 of 50 levels.

You Tube link: Spikey's Bounce Around


Enigmo $1.99
Here's one with no lite/demo version, I bought the 50 level full game straight out for $1.99. You redirect the flow of water droplets with various provided instruments like pans, funnels, etc. This makes for numerous ways to solve each puzzle, and great news for siblings, there are spots to save 5 different games so everyone can have their own saved file to come back to. This gets pretty challenging, but as with some of the others, just spraying water all around can be pretty entertaining!

You Tube link: Enigmo


Soosiz
(Soosiz Lite = Free or Soosiz = $0.99)
Fergus likes moving this wacky bird around collecting coins and defying gravity. I see some other reviews call this a trickier more polished version of Gomi (by the makers of Trace).

You Tube link: Soosiz


Rolando
(Rolando Lite = Free or Rolando = $2.99)
This is a rolling, avoid-the-bad-guys game, but it is complicated by bizarre landscapes and balls that can roll together or separately depending on how you group them. Wacky, and gets great reviews.

You Tube link: Rolando


That should keep you busy for a few days anyway. I can see the iTouch being a great boon on long journeys as new and different apps abound so you can load up a swack just before you leave and keep folks busy trying out new things for hours. The Touch itself isn't cheap I guess, but the games sure are! Compare them to the price of a DS game! The challenge seems to be to keep the darn thing charged up long enough.

Sunny Day Down At The Shore

Christmas Day Images

the cousins...

The Official Familial this-is-as-formal-as-it-gets Christmas card of electronic electronicness

Merry Christmas!

For year-in-review details, see any of our 180-odd blog entries from 2009. Of course, in reality, things were far noisier, smellier and grumpier than such postings reveal (so... ha, ha, ha... fooled you all!!!).

A brief synopsis...

Fergus continues to enjoy building things, destroying things, being read stories to, holding court while on the toilet, Grandma’s cookies, power cuddles, being Luigi and Mario, legos, slinking around the house under a blanket as if we have no idea who it could possibly be, bouncing off walls, and “emitting wind from his anus”.

Effie discovered a new found appreciation for money and enjoys American Girl dolls, Star Wars, hanging out with friends of all ages, playing Carcassonne, holding/ cuddling/ smiling at (and hogging) babies, working on any and all art projects, and watching period dramas, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Road To Avonlea and MacGyver . Most of all, Effie dreams of one day having her parents get off their lazy asses and transform the middle room into her very own bedroom as promised, like, months ago.

Gillian spent the year attending weekly spa appointments, teaching the pleasant children their respective curricular necessities, and generally finding plenty of time for herself. When not developing and expanding upon her passions, she could be found relaxing on the couch with a bottle of wine and a box of bonbons while perusing the eBays.

As for me, my chi kung practitioner informed me recently that not only did I have lovely skin but that my muscles were well defined, glistening and bulging in all the right places (so you can see how I can’t remember anything else about the past year). Actually, those may not have been the adjectives she used but there was something positive in there somewhere, so I ran with it. Them crazy, complimentary chi kung practitioners!!! To balance things off, my physiotherapist (yeah, it’s been one of those years) informed me that my MRI results revealed that I have the spinal column of a 55 year old. Bastard.

Christmas Music

Music Of The Year

Since I spend 365 days a year researching this stuff, I’m pretty confident that my lists of the top musical moments and best songs of 2009 are complete, definitive and beyond reproach. And I’m not opinionated in the least!

So, hop on over to the Furrowed Brow and say to yourself “huh, wha?”

Furrowed Brow Smile :: Top 28 Moments in Music :: 2009
Furrowed Brow Smile :: Top Songs from the 73 Best Artists of 2009

Compilation requests accepted

The Hunt

Thinking we didn't have a suitable tree ready for the taking this year, I had my eye on a nice, shapely fir on the marina property down the trail. Although the tree was in an area desperate for thinning and the marina deserved to give me a tree given all the environmental destruction they've accomplished this past year, my family filled me with too much guilt to complete the plunder. Anyways, Gillian figured the property in question was actually owned not by the marina, but by the Department of National Defense... and they shoot people.

Last night we went and re-checked our property. We found a few possibilities and Fergus practiced his sawing:


Today... Ferg was very proud to be the official carrier of the saw:




Success:





The Effie Tree:


Ooooooh....

Ferg's lunch bag...

And... Ferg heard I was hungry so he quickly fixed me a snack: pringles and a chocolate milk w/ whipped cream & ice cream.

We were promised snow

This is all we got...



Gingerbread house making at G&G's




Approx. 12 seconds after returning home:

Wild Flower

Leverage

We are having such a great time with MJ and Ronnie that it turns out their visit has evolved into a bit of a hostage situation. And it’s not just their joyful, infectious nature and stimulating conversation that has brought about this crisis. Both our kids have new bed-mates and are in no particular mood to relinquish them.

So, this should buy us a couple more days...

Dearest Frank:

Assuming you wish to see the swift return of two fourths of your family back over the border tomorrow, please contact UPS and arrange for immediate delivery of the following items to our home: 6 ice cream pales of your finest homemade jambalaya (no skimping on the sausage!), a frying pan’s worth of them rum n’ buttered bananas (preferably still warm), your movie collection, a few of your swords and, finally, that dancing/ singing dog toy thing. Oh, better throw in Chloe’s bass guitar while you’re at it. Thanks. And remember, their car is parked on the other side of the straight.

Ferg and MJ form an awesome Raving Rabbids duo:


Ronnie and Effie work on some doll clothes:


Effcicle:


Ella!


Rafael came up the hill to play some blues and eat cake:



Concoctions of course:

Hmmm...

Not much happening today...



EXCEPT...



A wee visit from...



Two of our favorite people!!!

Weekend action

After our four different types of bbq meal the kids made up a song... "no more meat for an entire week"...


New apple, peeler, corer, slicer - woo hoo:


Ferg making bbq pizza (good for power outages):


Oh look! The power went out... we had to resort to Stars Wars Trivial Pursuit:


Everybody helped dig (and refill) a water line ditch for the "cabin":


Eff helped rescue and bring back to life a stray cat (yikes):


We ran out of ice cream and are resorting to whipped cream cones:

Happy Birthday Dinner Craig!

Two Mile Diet

Lobster mushrooms from forest to stomach...

The Eternal Harmony

Last night we left the kiddos with Helen and headed off to church...



In what turned out to be one of the best concerts we have ever attended, things got off to a raucous start with Bucan Bucan (Victoria’s number 1 gypsy marching band, so says they) and the equally eclectic and bizarre Meatdraw!


Tour opener Gentleman Reg then took the stage. Oh yeah... we had good seats pew!


The main event on this night was The Hidden Cameras... Canada’s premier indie-pop band and makers of many a tune I have stolen for familial video purposes (such as Effie's Eighth Birthday Movie)





Pretty decent setlist, though sadly no “Awoo”. And although I would have enjoyed hearing it, it is probably for the best that they did not include “I Want Another Enema” (my body is an exit wound”) given the band’s penchant for performance art.


Snippets (including coveted video of Gillian dancing)...

Vital Brady Bunch Update

No tv program has brought the four of us together, crumpled on the couch the way The Brady Bunch has. That Alice - what a hoot! We should be through all 117 episodes in a couple of weeks!!!

The other exciting thing around here (!) is that I showed Ferg my coin catching trick... the one where you stack coins on your elbow and then flip your arm down and catch them with your hand (as popularized in that Happy Days episode). He thought I was pretty cool! Apparently he was practicing this one night after I went to sleep cause he woke me up at midnight to ask me which elbow, the right one or the left one, he was supposed to use.

Mail Delivery Postmarked 1970

Isn't it strange, the things we spend our airmiles on!?! It's all Shannon's fault.

Yup, that's green shag carpet on the Brady Bunch Complete Series box!

Peter's finest moment...

Adventures

Recently...

Ferg's drawing of himself as a baby (w/ Mama):


A break in the weather:


Rain=creek=good times:


Yikes...


'mallow roast:


Ferg continues to have some issues with footwear and his outings and activities have been a bit limited now that we have shifted into the soggy-ground season. Then I downloaded the camera and realized he has actually been rather adventurous these past few days...



Ever wonder what a constipated drummer looks like? Well, be curious no longer – there’s a photo of one over at Memet’s blog (Rock Soup) highlighting our recent evening of soup n' song.

Remembrance Day Walk

Effie and I went for a little walk in the direction of the ocean today.


Oh look! What have we here? Remnants of a vehicle fire perhaps?? Look how close it came to endangering the sleeping inhabitants of our house!


Here's Eff with a spot-on impression of her Dad's grump face at the sight of the new "trail-o-destruction" that the marina has plugged in from the road.


This bridge has been affected by some floods and no longer fills us with confidence at its keeping-us-dry capabilities. A good quality in a bridge that.


Some of Eff's photos of the scenery...

Bizzaro Morning

Advice for the masses :: if you are awoken to the sound of an explosion at seven o'clock on a saturday morning and then you look outside to see a massive fireball coming from the direction of the road and then you rush, half-naked, down to said road and notice a vehicle on the shoulder completely engulfed in flames with nary a soul around and then you scurry back up the hill to your house to call in the fire department and then you race back down, completely clothed this time, to check that the fire hasn't spread from the car and the grass to your trees... do not as a next step - and this is the advice bit - do not wake up your blissfully ignorant and slumbering spouse to inform them that they should not be alarmed when a squadron of fire trucks suddenly shut off their sirens outside your driveway.

Apparently it is not necessary or appropriate and furthermore, NO ONE CARES about your little so called emergencies!

You have been warned.

Random recent photos of a non-explosive nature...

Chicagoland vacation video

Planes, trains, automobiles, boats and pigeons...

From Olivia Newton John to Fungus

Effie’s wild Sunday of genre-flipping, movie watching madness consisted of 1980’s bizarre roller-disco trompe de Olvia Newton-John, Xanadu, followed by the 1951 version of Show Boat, then Bride and Prejudice - the bollywood-esque remake of Pride and Prejudice - and finally, BBC period piece/ mini-series, Cranford.

By the time she said good night she had perfected a spot-on middle class English accent circa 1840. I’m so grateful that she watched Cranford last as opposed to Xanadu!

Eff did manage to take a mid-movie marathon break and go on a mushroom hunt. I won’t post all 160 (ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY!) of the mushroom and assorted Fall scenes photos that she took, but here are a few:

Biggest Haul Ever

We came out of our seasonal yuck just in time for Halloween. At one point the yuck found both Gillian and I zonked out during the daytime. To this, Fergus compassionately observed: "If you guys are just going to sleep all day why did you bother having kids anyway?"

We finally found the strength to carve our pumpkins this morning:


For trick or treating, Effie wore the wolf costume Grannie made 30 plus years ago! Yeah Grannie!!!
Gillian went as Anders Flanders from Detektivbyrån:


See! (Anders Flanders, far right)...


Our regular plans for a halloween trip up-island had been cancelled so we joined a group of fellow rural dwellers and hit a particularly active subdivision in town. This was the first time I had ever heard of trick or treating while it was still light out but it seemed to work. We actually had a rain free, warmish, full-moon night.

Here's the embarrassing haul. These pics also show the different styles between these two - one likes to sort and admire, the other likes to eat and ask questions later:

Pick a Pumpkin

...but only if it's a small one! Rules!?! Next year we're invading Kristal's catapult-yer-pumpkin-at-a-cow patch - even if she doesn't invite us:

Travel

Not only are we fortunate enough to have great Chicagoian friends willing to host and hang out with us for ten days but we also have great Everettonian friends eager to feed us and drive us to and from the airport at all hours. THANK YOU!!! Ahhh, unshcooling!

Sport -of-the-future: bench-cushion sliding...



Ferg got off the plane exploding with energy and had one agenda: concoctions with Ronnie...


Frank has great guitar playing concentration abilities:

Flying

Now is the time for a shout-out to all those parents who experience air travel with their kiddos. Gillian, for one, impresses the hell out of me with her negotiating skills, patience and constant attention to our kids during the several medium-haul flights we have made as a family. Just like an average day at home then! Meanwhile, when flying, I’m reduced to a mere observer - a product of trial and error familial seat assignments: Ferg on the window, Gillian in the middle, Effie on the aisle... lonely ol’ me across the way. And there I sit listening to my ipod and reading magazines (and blissfully passing around what turns out to be the last remnants of our family’s anti-air-pressure-chewing-gum to my fellow row passengers). And although on our last flight, Chicago to Seattle, I did play some American Girl Go Fish (who knew?) with Effie and helped Ferg build a K’nex motorcycle this really is nothing compared to the continuous attention Gillian gives to Fergus.

For some reason Ferg has never been the type to sit back and watch a movie on the plane. He prefers building/playing with stuff and looking at books, all with Gillian constantly assisting him and pulling out new items from a seemingly bottomless supply of surprise in-air distractions. It is impressive, though I’m sure disheartening to Gillian, that Fergus can put together a Bionicle in under five minutes. I need a nap just thinking about how much work this is for her.

Cramming anyone into such a tightly confined space as a plane seat for four hours is annoying and uncomfortable. For someone as peripatetic as Fergus it is just plain cruel. However, Gillian has developed a rhythm that seems to work for our kids. Which is why it was a little deflating to have the lady in front of Ferg announce to us, immediately upon Ferg’s joyful arrival at his window seat, that she was very tired and needed her sleep and that we had to be quiet. It was 7:15 pm! Actually it wasn’t deflating at all – it was shockingly funny and, bwahaha, a call to arms.

At one or two moments during the flight I would say that Ferg wasn’t exactly playing “quietly” - he was, after all, deeply involved in a battle between two opposing transformers - but still, to hear him shushed several times by grumpy-puss was rather hilarious. Hilarious because it is not in Ferg’s make-up to even remotely hear “shhhhhh” let alone respond to it and, oh by the way lady, you should see him when he isn’t happy on a plane (Ferg bests Tim Booth)! And hilarious, as opposed to annoying, because little did she know that we had just spent ten straight days listening to many a strangers’ need to comment on his feet and you know what, poopy pants, we’re kinda hardened to all that now so why don’t you just shut up, plug some headphones in your ears and join our little society. We’ll continue having fun and meeting our kids needs here in the back.

Woops, this was supposed to be a kudos post and looky here, it’s turned into a rant. Must work on that.

Warmer day

On our last day in Chicago the sun made an appearance and we took full advantage with a lengthy session in the playground and a trip to Margie's Candies - an old fashioned ice cream parlor. We even fit in some El Cid tacos at the 11th hour.



Rachel certainly gave Margie's its props but she failed to mention that they have hosted both Al Capone and The Beatles during their 90 years at the same location. I would have lifted my head up from my delicious milkshake more often.



It was nice enough out for the street vendors to do decent business as the school bells rang (pork rinds and cotton candy!?!):

Signs of Chicagoland

Great combo:


Run Freedom Run:


Cute, cuddly AND fits in your purse:


Aaaaw:


"We've been spending most our lives/
Living in a munchies paradise":


Not quite:

Ferg Thoughts

Fergus: "When I'm an adult like you, I'm going to live here"
Me: "Here? In Chicago?"
Fergus: "Yeah, in Chicago"
Me: "Okay. But you'll be so far away from me"
Fergus: "Why, where will you live when I'm an adult?"
Me: "I'm not sure. Hopefully still in our house back home"
Fergus: "Yeah, I'd live there... but I think it will be too worn out by the time I'm an adult"

Winding down in the windy city

A trip to Chicago's chinatown was always an option and then yesterday Ferg really got it in his head to go there. Turned out today was a nice day for a boat ride to Chinatown down the river...

There is so much cool architecture and so many bridges along the river that it made my neck ache:







Chinatown:









The fancy Chinatown water taxi stop:


I've taken more darn pictures of the Sears tower than anything on this trip:


Here's a shot of the 103rd floor Sears tower skydeck balconies where you can look through the glass floor to the street below. We did not do this.


Here is Martin's office building (centre, with the boats at its base):


Along the river at sunset:


We made a full day of it by going to see the evening performance of Blue Man which has a residence in Chicago...

Chicagwegian Food

Hachi's Kitchen is a most excellent local sushi place frequented by our hosts - we ordered take out from here twice:




Snail Thai Food in South Chicago - Obama's neighborhood Rachel says.


Rachel and Martin live, in seems to my rural west coast eyes, in a very ethnic community. Latino most notably. I had some excellent steak tacos the other night after a play I went to with Martin (the play featured their friend Wendi... it's from the writers of award winning Urinetown... hey, want good quality wackiness? check it out: Yeast Nation - "the world's first family, a colony of salt-eating yeasts, floats in the brine of the primordial soup under the rule of a tyrannical baritone"). Anyway, I went on and on to Gillian about the great authentic steak tacos Chicago has to offer and made us all stop in at a taco-type place down the street from Rachel and Martin's house (which they had never been to before). This place was out of steak. In fact, steak was thawing in a large vat in front of us on the counter (that, and the sign out front, should have been warning enough). So the taco filling options were down to tongue or goat's meat so obviously the three of us willing enough chose goat. Three of us got sick. I'm just saying...



We also went here a few times:


But, when it comes right down to it, our kids are not really all that well suited to the restaurant experience at the moment. We keep trying but one in particular is just too mobile and too busy. So Rachel fed us at home a lot and boy did we eat goooood!!!

Sites

Rain


Flamingo


Soldier Field (home of da Bears)


Navy Pier


Willis (Sears) Tower from the Shedd Aquarium




Shedd


Gillian: "oh look, snapping turtles... like the one Grandad once shot"

Quake

Rachel was right, this is the best store around for collectables - Effie tripled her star wars collection after a couple of trips to their massive bin o' used figures. Dave, Mr. Quake, is our new best friend. I guess it looks like we've been doing a lot of shopping while in Chicago, but Eff has been saving for this trip for over a year. Besides, we are doing other things as well. Like eating.

This is the inside of Quake. That's Dave on the right behind the counter. He gives us lots of free stuff. Dave is like a drug dealer and we are his junkies. The guy on the left is trying to cover his face from the camera cause he says he is wanted in Canada.


New dudes:

Chicago's MSI and Millennium Park

Yes, it's still cold here. Today it was good to get out and do lots of running around - for Fergus especially since he had enjoyed an indoor day yesterday while Gillian, Effie and I went downtown to American Girl and the Lego store.

Catching the train:


The Museum of Science and Industry:






Millennium Park - running around Crown Fountain in front of the 50 foot people towers (in warmer weather, water shoots out their mouths):



The Bean at Millennium Park:





Pavilion art-work-thingy...


Pizza on the way home:

Trip to American Girl store

Waiting for the train downtown:


Riding the 'L'


Outside the massive mega-store o' dolls:


Inside:


Negotiations:


Success:

Happy Thanksgiving

...our second consecutive Canadian thanksgiving spent in the states. It's Columbus Day here - which doesn't seem to mean much to anybody. Martin has the day off, not because of Columbus but rather since it is Max's birthday! He turned 8 today - woo hoo!!!

Rachel has been planning our trip for quite a while. I think we have a 14 day itinerary and we are here for 10. We have knocked very little off the list so far but that suits us fine cause we're going at a pace that accounts for much at-home star wars and lego playing time. We haven't made it downtown yet but that will come quick enough because Eff's itching to get to the American Girl store.

Yesterday we tried going to a playground - it was locked:



Fergus' contribution to the photo journal - the bum tree:


Logan Square


We've been hearing about this restaurant for a looong time and it was as good as advertised. Rachel and Martin's favorite neighborhood restaurant - Lula:



Frolicking in a park:




Ferg got a new Mario outfit...



Max's Leaning Tower of Pisa birthday cake:


Lego seance


And here's Rachel and Martin's 100 plus year-old super cool house - in mid-attic reno mode:

Rush... live in chicago!

...that'd be folk legend Tom Rush - touring his first studio album in 35 years!! He was pretty good. A nostalgia trip for Gillian. The two of us saw him at the Old Town Music School. We were the youngest people there.


Tom's guitar!


Mr. Rush and a fan:

Welcome to...

...unseasonably cold Chicago! It dipped to 4 celsius here today. Never mind, we're enjoying the big city sights and the big city food options greatly. Not to mention our big city friends and their awesome home. Some fool wore shorts out today...