Chicago Road Trip

My parents finished their mission in October. My sister Jenny and I got the opportunity {or were forced} to fly out to Chicago to help my parents pack up and move home. Although it wasn't the most enjoyable trip {mainly because of the hours and hours we spent in the car}, it was quite the adventure! One of my favorite parts of the trip were meeting and visiting with people my parents had taught or had an impact on. It was amazing! My parents are pretty incredible and have to be some of the greatest examples I know.

This is Agent Joseph Hope. He was an investigator my parents were working with and he was baptized by my Dad the week after this picture was taken. My parents gave him a Quad with his name on it. He couldn't stop beaming!

After visiting with Joseph, we headed to the Chicago Temple to do an endowment session.

Me with my Mom and Jenny.

{I look like a giant}

Me with my Dad

After an amazing afternoon spent in the Temple, we went and crossed off one of the items on my Dad's Chicago Bucket List. He wanted to visit Chicago's Leaning Tower and take a picture.

Check.

After driving {what seemed like forever} back to the city, we decided we needed some grub. We grabbed dinner at Ed Debevic's. Ed's is famous for their not so great service. They even insult you.

Here's my Mom in her cute hat. As our waiter was putting on our hats, he put mine on and it didn't fit. He then called me Chubby Head as he adjusted the hat to be bigger. :( It was actually pretty funny because Jenny and my Mom were talking earlier in the day about my huge head. It just proved their point.

Me and Jen at Ed's

While the atmosphere was fun, the food wasn't fantastic. We did eat the cutest desserts ever though. Ed's serves the World's Smallest Sundaes.

And that they were!

After dinner we met up with a few other converts my parents had taught for some ice cream. We ended up staying for hours and had a lengthy religious debate. It was an interesting experience, but I was glad I could be a part of it and share my testimony.

Our last day in Chicago we started off with some shopping. We stopped at H & M for a little hat shopping...

Then it was off to Navy Pier where we had some really neat CTR rings made.

Then we were off to Eduardo's for some delicious Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. After we got back to the apartment we got to work. We finished packing up the apartment and began loading the truck. Luckily my parents whole district and a few ward members showed up to help. It was quite the moving process. We had to load everything on luggage racks, then haul them to the freight elevators, go down 29 floors, then onto the loading dock. And repeat {100 times!}. Although my parents lived in a tiny apartment, it took us 3 hours to get everything out.

This is a picture of 10 people and a luggage cart crammed into an elevator. You can barely see my eyes in the top left corner. You can't even see Jenny who was squished behind me. It was hilarious to see the look on people's faces as the elevator doors opened on different floors.

After cleaning the empty apartment, we loaded into the car and truck and began our journey home. It was almost 8pm and we still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. It was a long drive {especially after a long day of shopping and packing}, but we made it to our first stop in Moline, IL. Good thing because if we had to go any further, I probably would have fell sleep at the wheel.

The next morning we were off again! This time Jenny was behind the wheel and it was nice to just be the passenger. We listened to "The Help" to make the time go by faster. There wasn't a whole lot of scenery to look at along the way. Mainly farmland and truck stops every once in a while.

"World's Largest Truckstop"

Our second stop was in Omaha, NE. We picked Omaha so we could visit Winter Quarters, a historical Church site.

My little Mom in a big chair

After checking into our hotel and freshening up a bit, we headed to Winter Quarters.

Me and my parents in front of the beautiful Temple!

We decided to check out the Cemetery and Visitor's Center before heading to the Temple.

Statue in the cemetery

View of the Temple from the cemetery

Statue in front of Visitor's Center

It was incredible to learn about the Saints who lived there and all that they sacrificed. Many lost their lives during the freezing winter months and I admire the courage the others had to keep moving forward. My great great grandmother lived in Winter Quarters. She had her son there and also lost her husband while living there. It amazes me the testimony she had to push on and make it to the Salt Lake Valley. What an amazing example!

After spending time at the visitors center, we headed over to the temple. It was very beautiful and unique inside. We were all so tired that night, but I'm glad we took the opportunity to go and participate in a few ordinances. It was worth it!

After another well rested night, we hit the road again! I do have to say that Nebraska is the most boring state I have ever driven through! This was our longest day in the car and I wanted to die! I drove the whole day and I think we were in the car from 12:30 pm to 11:30 pm. I was so glad when we reached our destination of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Not only was I glad to be out of the corn state, I was glad to be that much closer to home!

We thought this water tower looked like a lego head...or a baby.

This was our view for almost two days. Nothing but corn fields. For miles and miles and miles. No joke!

Our last day of driving was pretty uneventful. I realized that Wyoming doesn't offer much to look at either. I also realized that I take our beautiful scenery for granted. I missed our majestic mountains!

Our last pit stop {somewhere in Wyoming} before reaching home!

Although it was fun getting to spend some one on one time with my sister and my parents, I don't think I ever want to make that drive again! Rob always talks about how fun it would be to take a road trip across the country, but after driving only a third of the way, I think I'll pass! I'm so grateful my parents are home. We missed them dearly and hope they wait awhile before heading out on another mission!

Chicago: Last Day {Finally!}

Finally, our last day in Chicago! I am a little surprised that it didn't take me until Christmas to blog about our trip. Now maybe I can get caught up with the rest of summer before summer actually ends. Not that anyone even reads this anymore, but I count it as part of my journal.

Our last day in Chicago was kind of sad. I was dreading that day the whole trip and was sad to see it come. We spent the morning packing and then met Jasna for lunch. We went to a little restaurant across the street from my parents apartment.

Yay! A picture of Jasna, my Mom, and Wesley

Rob and Beckett

{The white building behind him is my parent's apt building}

Don't ask me why my son is poking himself in the eye with a knife and why we were allowing it!

I wish I would have taken a picture of our burgers. They were 12 0z of delicious beef on a scrumptious pretzel bun! The boys also got these yummy grilled cheese sandwiches served on a bread that had a donut consistency. They were the most delicious things I've ever eaten!

After we finished eating and said our goodbyes to Jasna, we headed off to the Museum of Science and Industry. Since we only had my parent's car to transport us and we didn't all fit, we had to split up and have half of us ride the subway. We decided that Rob, my mom, and myself should take the subway. The station we had to get off at was in kind of a scary neighborhood. I noticed as we got further away from the city we were the only white people on the train. It was the same case when we got off the train. We waited at a Wendy's for my Dad to come carpool us to the museum, and I was a little nervous to say the least!

The museum was AMAZING! Almost anyone I talked to that had been to Chicago suggested that we make it part of our trip. Lucky for us it was a free admission day!

This giraffe greeted us. It was part of the BodyWorlds exhibit.

The museum was HUGE with a lot of different areas. We decided to hit the little tot section first.

This was a floor piano without any keys. When you would step on the different colored lights, it would play the different notes.

Shadow Garden

We could have played at the shadow garden for hours! It was so cool to have the little pebbles fall around you and gather in any little nook.

I should have taken a video to demonstrate how cool it really was.

They had a U-505 Submarine Exhibit

Farming Exhibit

Transportation Exhibit

{That is a life size commercial airplane hanging from the ceiling!}

Steam Engine

Science Storms Exhibit

Funnel Cloud

Rainbows

Another cool Shadow Screen

After spending a few hours at the museum, we had to head to the airport. Once again we had to split up. Rob, my Dad, and the boys went in the car, while my mom and I rode the train. Once we got all of our luggage inside the airport, we said quick goodbyes and my Mom and Dad were off. Wesley cried the entire 20 minutes we stood in line to check our luggage. It was really heartbreaking! He did not want to go home! He had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa he didn't want to leave them. When checking in we discovered our plane was delayed AGAIN! I was majorly bummed because we could have spent an extra hour and a half with my parents. Oh well! I definitely wasn't ready to come home and could have spent another few weeks there. Now that I look back on the trip, I wish we would have had more down time to just hang out with my parents. Since we had never been to the windy city before, we spent almost every minute sight seeing. Looking back on these pictures really makes me miss my parents! Luckily they will be home in 3 short months!

Thanks again for the unforgettable vacation Mom and Dad! We had an amazing time!

Chicago Part IV

Monday was Memorial Day. I decided to start off the morning with another run before we took the boys swimming in my parents pool. The lake front was CROWDED! There were 10 times as many people there compared to Saturday morning. I'm sure everyone wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day. People were running, biking, playing beach volleyball, etc. I ran out to this little lighthouse and this was my view:

It was by far the hottest run I have ever ran. Not only was it already 80 degrees, it was HUMID!

After a quick swim in the pool {I think we were invading a frat party}, we got ready for the day and headed out. We decided to hit up the famous Navy Pier. It was only a mile or so walk to the pier, but by the time we got there we were sweating bullets! I think it was the hottest day of the year that day. It reached 90 degrees and with the humidity it felt like 100!

Beckett had fallen asleep in the stroller on the way and after we bought our tickets we decided to wake him up. I pulled him out of the stroller and noticed his pants were soaking wet. He had peed his pants while sleeping and I had no extra clothes. Awesome. With having no car to go back home or drive to a store, my mom and I went back into the main entrance to see if any of the gift shops had any kid shorts. The only thing we were able to find were a pair of $20 youth sweatpants that we ended up cutting the legs off. Luckily my mom had a huge safety pin on her jacket that we used to hold up the pants. Poor little guy had to go commando all day in a pair of sweats. Oh well, it was better than nothing!

Now onto the fun...

For being a holiday, the Pier wasn't insanely crowded like I thought it would be.

We rode the Ferris Wheel,

Views from the top

We played miniature golf,

and rode the Carousel.

My Dad and Us on the Pier

After using up all of our tickets, we were starving! We decided to try some famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. My parents had asked around and everyone told them Uno's was the best, so that's where we went.

Uno's is known for being the first place to serve Deep Dish. It was pretty tasty. Rob and I ordered a delicious Chicken and Pesto pizza, my parents had the Numero Uno, and the boys shared a cheese. We also ordered salad and cheesy garlic bread and the grand total was $95! Although the deep dish was pretty darn good, I don't think I could eat it all the time. It was ALOT of crust!

After we were so stuffed we could barely walk, we decided to call it a night and go back to the apartment and watch a movie. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

TUESDAY

On Tuesday we slept in {like every morning}, took the boys for another short swim, and then we were headed out on the town once more. If you haven't noticed, we were go, go, go every single day! We tried to pack as much into a day as we could. First stop that day was at the Westin Hotel. Some kind stranger had found our ipod in the car we rented and had left it at the front desk of his hotel. Talk about a miracle! Our boys would have been pretty sad if we would have only had one ipod for the flight home. I was extremely grateful for the honestly of that nice guy from Malaysia!

My mom and I then had to make a stop at H & M. It is one of my favorite stores and I couldn't leave Chicago without stopping there. The boys weren't too excited about the stop, so they continued on to Mickey D's and grabbed a bite to eat while they waited for us.

The boys sharing a ice cream cone while we waited for it to stop raining.

Mcdonald's had these funny statues outside. Rob couldn't resist a picture with them.

Then Wesley and Beckett had to join in on the fun...

Gross!

We then took the subway to Millennium Park.

Crown Fountain

The Famous Cloud or Bean

{The real name is Cloud, but all of the locals call it the Bean because it looks like a bean}

This was taken from underneath the bean looking up into the middle. Pretty cool! I could have stayed there all day taking pictures. It was pretty fun!

The Missionaries with Wes

{and Rob picking his nose :) }

It started raining shortly after we had all our fun taking pictures. The boys needed a potty break and when my mom and I came back, no one was around the Bean. I guess if there is ever lightning, they have to evacuate everyone away from the bean. It was a rare picture opportunity.

My cute Parents

Some Whackos!

{Love my Mom's face!}

Boys checking out some ducks

view of the river

The Chicago Tribune Tower

Cool Story: Before the tower was built, journalists for the Tribune would bring back stones and bricks from different places all over the world. They incorporated these bricks on the lower levels of the building and labeled where they came from. Some of them included: the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramid, Great Wall of China and...

THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE!

I thought it was pretty cool.

We ended the day at the movies. We took the boys to see Kung Fu Panda 2 and we LOVED it!