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!

Chicago Part III

Our first official day in Chicago was Saturday. We had a whole day planned of sight seeing, but Rob and I decided to start our day off with a run down by the lake. It was a fun atmosphere with really cool views. After we got showered up it was onto lunch at the Hancock Building. The only bummer thing is we woke up to horrible fog! My mom was super bummed and wanted to go a different day, but we had reservations and it was too late to cancel them.

Hancock Building

This is what it looked like a few days later when it was nicer weather.

A sweet lady in my parents ward {Sis. Carmen} met us for lunch. She is the cutest little lady from the Philippines. Every time anyone in the ward has family visit, Sister Carmen insists on taking them to the Hancock building for lunch. It was fun to visit with her and get to know her better. Even though it was foggy, the views were SPECTACULAR! The restaurant is on the 94 floor of building. We got the most perfect table right in the corner, so we had double the view!

A view of Navy Pier

The fancy restaurant

Rob and Me

The view out the other window...

and this is what it looks like on a clear day. I stole the picture below from my Dad. He took this on my Mom's bday.

The boys loved sitting in the window watching the tiny world below.

My mom told the restaurant we were celebrating our anniversay {which was a couple weeks away}, and this is what they brought us. It was delicious!

Although this is a part of the vacation I would like to forget, I'll tell it anyways for journaling purposes. Wesley got quite upset over some ice cream at the very end of lunch and started throwing a huge tantrum. Rob ended up taking him down to the lobby while the rest of us finished our desserts. After lunch we had planned on going to the Shedd Aquarium for the rest of the afternoon. Sister Carmen suggested we catch the bus right across from the Hancock and take it there. So we headed to the bus stop and while we waited, Wesley continued throwing a tantrum. After 10 minutes we had all had enough and decided to go back to the apartment until he calmed down. It was extremely frustrating and I was honestly regretting bringing him on the trip.

After we had time to calm down, we decided to try the Aquarium again. So we walked back to the bus stop by the Hancock building and caught the bus. Boy, was that a mistake! It took us almost an hour to go a few short miles. By the time we got to the Aquarium, it had started raining. Luckily we had our umbrellas! We walked to the front of the Aquarium and saw a huge line to get in! Fortunately we had a stroller and were directed to a shorter line for wheelchairs and strollers. It was insanely busy, but I have to say the Aquarium itself was pretty impressive. I didn't take a ton of pictures, with the exception of the jellies. They had a special exhibit going on and it was AMAZING!

I loved the polka dotted sting rays. I had never seen them before.

A bigger Manta Ray

JELLIES!

I learned quite a lot about jellies that I didn't know. For instance, jellyfish do everything out one hole. That's right folks...they eat, poop, and reproduce out the same hole. GROSS!

Upside Down Jellies

Rainbow Jellies

{My favorite!}

These were funky! I can't remember the name though

In my opinion, the jellies alone were worth the outrageous entrance fee!

Beckett and Grandma with the Penguins

Because it took us so long to get to the aquarium, we only got to spend a few hours before it closed. We didn't come close to seeing everything, but there is always next time right?

This isn't a picture of the Aquarium, it's another museum right next to it. I loved all the budings! You don't see architecture like this in Utah. As we headed home we decided to pick up Chinese take out for dinner and call it a night!

Sunday was pretty laid back. We woke up and got ready for church and headed out. We had to walk a few blocks to catch a subway and then walk a few blocks to the school where my parent's ward meets.

Playing the Wii before church

Waiting for the train

Attending church in Chicago was definitely a different experience. They hold Sacrament Meeting in the school's auditorium. Their ward is VERY young with most of it's members being students, interns, or doctors and lawyers. Their primary consisted of 10-15 {young} kids and a ton of nursery aged kids. It was fun to go to church with my parents friend Jasna. She is from Bosnia was recently baptized. It was really neat to see her get so excited when learning something new. What a sweet, sweet lady!

During church, it began POURING outside! There was thunder and lightning and my mom leaned over to me and asked if any of us brought our umbrellas. Whoops! It was a big NOPE! I told her she better start praying that it stop before church got out. Luckily it had and we started heading for the subway. As the subway approached, water was pouring off of it. I knew we were in trouble! When we got off the subway and headed towards the exit, there was a river running down the stairs! I don't think I've ever seen so much water in my life! We stayed in the station for a little bit deciding what to do. Finally, Jasna told us we should just make a run for it. My mom was super hesitant, but finally gave in. We all started hauling it up the stairs and within minutes we were soaked to the bone! People were standing up against buildings yelling for us to join them. They all thought we were crazy! The boys were jumping in puddles and there was so much water running down the streets and sidewalks that the manhole covers were being blown up and down! It was insane! You should have seen the look on the doorman's face when we walked into the lobby of my parents building. It was priceless! We really wish we would have taken a picture of all of us. We looked ridiculous! It is definitely a memory I will NEVER forget.

Later that night Jasna, and the Elder and Sister missionaries came over for dinner. It was great to finally meet the missionaries we had heard so much about! After dinner I looked out the window and this is what I saw:

A gorgeous sunset! The evening had turned beautiful and we all decided to walk down to the lake.

Sisters Maughn and Herr

{Sister Maughn had just had foot surgery so her sweet companion pushed her the whole way}

A blurry, but kind of cool picture

Wesley wrote his own name in the sand

On the beach

I just realized I wasn't very good at taking pictures. Most of the time I just let my Dad take the pictures because I thought it would be easier than both of us taking pictures of the same thing. Now that I'm going through these pictures, I'm realizing that I didn't get pictures of a lot of the people we met. For example, Sister Carmen, Jasna, and the Elders. Bummer!