Chicago

I would love having my parents living in AZ so we could see them more often, but Chicago is a great alternative! It's been so much fun visiting them each summer and this time was the best visit yet. Chance and Angela live a few blocks from my parents so we were able to see them daily as well. Angela had the "privilege" of spending most days with us!! Thanks Angela for carrying Emmet and Emery, pushing strollers, playing Mario Kart and entertaining kids. What makes the trip to Chicago so exciting for the kids is all of the modes of transportation they took.

First we took the bus, almost daily. There are still very considerate people in the world who would stand up so Emmet and Emery could have a seat, because the bus was always packed!


My parents have a great view of the river and the lake. My kids are constantly watching the boats, so it was pretty exciting when we took a water taxi to Navy Pier. Fortunately it wasn't raining that afternoon.

Emmet has always loved trains so of course we had to take the subway. We took the underground subway and later in the week took the elevated train. The lull of the train almost put Emery to sleep. Emmet and I enjoined being able to look into people's offices because the elevated train travels so close to buildings.


We took taxi's often and my kids loved that they didn't have to be buckled!! Don't worry we never were in them longer than five minutes, but sometimes it was nice to not get wet or our feet were too tired to of walking.
One afternoon we also took a carriage ride down Michigan Avenue, Rush Street and along the Michigan Lake. I enjoyed that ride the most. We went slow enough I could really see what was going on. There is always so much to look at.

I can't forget the airplane ride to and from Phoenix to Chicago. They were awesome and are such seasoned travelers. Such an improvement from even two years ago.

I want to write a quick over view of what we did so that I don't forget. We had so much fun and rarely sat still that it's hard to remember. My parents live right by Millennium and Grant Parks. So we were constantly heading that direction to listen to concerts in the park, visiting the bean, the "spitting" fountain, and they had a great kids area set up under a tent. We went to the Taste of Chicago the first day we got there. We ate the most delicious peach cobbler. We didn't enjoy it as much as we could have because a seagull pooped on my mom twice and it was so gross I was dry heaving as I was trying to clean it off of her!!

It rained often and we didn't come prepared for cool weather. Thankfully I brought sweatshirt jackets. Some days it felt colder that it does in AZ during the winter!
This is our first visit to the "spitting" fountain. I know it has another name, but I have no idea what it is.

We returned on a sunnier day, but they were still cold!

Emmet would tell you his favorite part about our visit was going to the Lego store. He had no idea such a store existed. I've kept it a secret from him on purpose. He now thinks there is only one store and it's in Chicago!! He's in love with Lego Star Wars.

Emery would tell you her favorite part of our trip was visiting the American Girl Place. She would've spent hours in there pointing out everything she wants for Christmas. She wanted anything sparkly and pink!

My favorite part was being with family. That was the longest continuous days I've been with Chance since before his mission. I loved playing with Angela. It was the longest amount of time we've ever spent together and I felt like I've known her forever!! But what was really fun was doing the PX90 Yoga! It was a crack-up. It was quite hard. We pushed the furniture back and just laughed.

We ate out a lot and I enjoyed that. One night Chance and Angela watch Emmet and Emery so my parents and I could enjoy a fun dinner together.

But my favorite place we ate at was called The Bongo Room. We had "brunch" there and ate the best pancake ever. It was a pretzel, caramel, and white chocolate pancake. I wished I had taken a picture of it. It sounds weird, but it was delicious!!
Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny day on July 3rd (which is when many cities in the mid-west have their fire work shows!) In the morning we headed to the "beach"! Yes, it was actually a pretty beach and if you didn't know any different by the pictures you would think it was the ocean the lake is huge. But there are no waves and no smell of salt.


This was the first time Emery had ever seen fireworks. We only walked five minutes from my parents apartment. That is the way to go. No fuss fireworks. It was a great show too! Emery had a hard time staying awake during them and Emmet was nervous the entire time. He was afraid they were too close to us. The noise of the fireworks echoed off the building around the lake so you would hear more than one boom. At times it got really loud!

We had such a great time. I loved having adult interaction everyday. That's the hardest about being home, it gets lonely being the only adult in the house. Thanks mom, dad, Chance and Angela for a great and memorable trip.