Our trip to Chicago!

Well, it seems like Kyle has been gone this whole semester between a dental service trip to Mexico, looking for practices in Colorado, and taking all kinds of exams and completing graduation requirements--whew! Things are going well and we're glad he works so hard, but boy will it be fun to have him home more someday. For the first week of one of Kyle's two week stints away, my mom came to keep me company and so we went to Chicago for my first time! (I decided this was on my "bucket list" of things I want to do before we move from Indiana, so it was kind of now or never.)

Here's a recap of some of the fun stuff we did!

Yes, it was windy. The forecast said 57 and sunny. 42 and cloudy does not feel the same as 57 and sunny, but we had fun anyway.

We walked across a cool silver bridge to get to Millennium Park

This is an amphitheater, right in the middle of the city. Pretty neat.

Here's the famous kidney bean, as we were approaching...

An adorable and goofy little boy... (who yeah, really isn't a baby at all anymore)

...and the close-ups of us seeing our crazy reflections in the bean! I had no idea this sculpture would be so entertaining.

The view from underneath...it was kind of like a kaleidoscope, and you could see yourself in about 6 different places on the ceiling.

Don't look at these ones too long, or you might get dizzy...

Okay, yeah. Those last 3 I flipped up-side down just to trip you up. :)

This one is us taking a picture of ourselves. Next time we'll turn off the flash!

Jake had a ball chasing the birds.
(and in the warmer months, this guy's mouth spits water to play in!)

Nana did her job of spoiling the boys.

Yum!

Uh-0h! All gone!

We swam at the hotel and then put the boys in a trance in one of their first experiences with cable television. Ethan, as you can see, is holding the remote. He's a guy. Already.

The next day we rode the "el!" (elevated train). So cheap and yet so much fun. This fulfilled my craving to get to see the real setting of "While You Were Sleeping." :)

And, you can't see it in these pictures, but Ethan was ecstatic to be on a train, up above the street, looking out the windows. He kept saying, "Wow, Mom! This is so cool! We're up high!" Or, "look at all the windows on that THAT building!" The other riders smiled at us and seemed entertained to be around someone who thought a ride on the el was such a special event.

We got off by the river to look around. It was so much warmer and sunnier than the day before!

And, of course, we had to catch the view from the top of the Sears Tower!
(Which, just for the record, is actually called the Willis Tower, now. We had a map of the city and knew about where the Sears Tower was, just a few blocks from the hotel. As we passed the Willis tower, we thought, "okay, it should be around here somewhere....Hmmm..." After awhile we finally went in and I felt really dumb asking them, "uh, so is this the Sears Tower?" But it is. And whoever the Willis Company is probably paid Sears a whole bunch of money to get their name on the side and confuse a bunch of tourists.)


Here's my "postcard view" from the very top!

And Ethan looking down...
He's been asking a lot of questions about skyscrapers lately and things like that, so he really liked getting to see them from up high.

One of the whole crew!

This was called "the ledge," where you stand on a plexiglassish slab that extends out of the tower over the street. It's like a little room, kind of. Totally safe, of course, but I will admit that I got a little woozy looking down...

Ethan said, "it doesn't scare me at all."
I thought, "well of course it doesn't. Because you have no concept of how high up you are, or how hard gravity really pulls, son."



Lots of revolving doors. Fun and a little bit unnerving with small children.

So, it was short and sweet and hectic and exhausting and fun! Thanks, Nana, for the great trip!