We took off late Wednesday night to go to Covenant Point. It was family camp week, so the Rill's were up there and we didn't want to miss out on all the fun. One of the nights, the adults ate a fancy dinner while all the counselors watched the kids. Uncle Colby took care of Caleb and even brought him over to the costume closet for a little fun. He is such a great uncle!
Caleb loved the beach...or maybe just the sand! After a few handfuls of sand he quickly realized that it did not taste good. He had a great time playing in the sand and swimming in the lake. I posted this last picture because his facial expression really reminds me of my niece, Kira. She smiles like this all the time...they are definitely cousins!
Caleb and I got to spend the WHOLE day together. We had so much fun. In the morning we went to the park for a picnic lunch. After his afternoon nap we went to the water park but Caleb was more interested in playing with the fence! His new thing is to turn around in his stroller and look at me while I'm pushing him. This is the wonderful view from my perspective.
Now that Caleb is the big 10 months this is how he sucks his thumb. I guess his arm is starting to get tired and in need of a little extra support.
Caleb has been enjoying playing with the house in our backyard. He loves to open and close the shutters. By the way, we have all been a little sick lately so we took Caleb to the doctor on Thursday to make sure eveything was okay. He has a little cough and a runny nose, but nothing too serious. He weighed in at 18 pounds 9 ounces. He has two more teeth coming in, so soon you will see a smile with five teeth.
We went swimming toady because it was so hot outside. Caleb enjoyed being out of the water and splashing more than being in the water! We've also been working on "high five"...here are some shots of him giving Daddy a "high five".
This is Caleb playing "Peek-A-Boo" by our coffee table.
There was a big rain storm today and we couldn't resist taking Caleb out to play in the puddles. Look how adorable my two boys are! 
After the race, we all went over to Wendy's house for lunch. Erik and I got ready, left Caleb with Wendy and went to Jed and Anne's wedding. It was a long day for both of us, but we had so much fun. Jed and Anne looked amazing and were obviously having so much fun.
This is me coming into the finish of the bike. The bike was really hard because it was so windy. This year I had a road bike and my time was slower than when I rode a mountain bike! UGH! I was still able to beat my time from 2 years ago by a few seconds and I finsihed in the top 8%!
Exhausted!
"Go Mommy, Go!"
As usual, I was so proud of my mom. She is 57 years old and has done 2 mini-triathlons! I don't know how many daughters can say that about their mom! I love you mom!
This is the day before our race. We had to go out to the race site, pick up all our registration stuff and rack our bikes. There are a bunch of raffles and giveaway items...we were drooling over this bike...i am still waiting for the phone call telling me I won it! It has polka dots!
We came back and I wrote moms numbers for her. In the morning her sheets were covered with marker! Now onto the race!
Here is Brooke walking in to her surprise party...not so surprised! She totally new something was up when some friends weren't returning her phone calls and people were just acting suspicious. She said she had practiced "acting surprised", but it didn't work. (That is her boyfriend, Mike, in the background.)
So cute!
We went out to Hinsdale for the 4th of July parade...a Strom family tradition. Here is Caleb and Nana in patriotic colors.
We started our day playing in the puddles. Caleb was splashing and crawling all through the puddles and then started clapping. That is his newest trick...clapping. He claps a lot and is so proud of himself when he does it.
Then we packed up and took the train (for the first time!) down to Grant Park for the fireworks. As you can see he really enjoyed himself on the train. He was just staring out the window and smiling at all the people getting on and off the train.
Here's the three of us at Grant Park. It was rainy this morning, so we came prepared for anything, but it turned out to be a great day.
Caleb worked so hard helping with the tent that he needed to take a little nap. He slept for about 45 minutes and then was up and ready to watch the fireworks!
When the fireworks started he just looked up in the sky, staring at them! He was not sure what to make of it, I guess. It was so adorable. He wasn't scared at all and actually after a few minutes was bored with them and wanted to crawl around!
