Well, sorry to leave you all on such a sour note and for so long! As usual, life has been a tad bit hectic. Ben started with his new daycare and has been adjusting. He's done well, but I think the whole situation was a little traumatic for him. Last weekend he wasn't feeling so hot, so I took him to the doc and he had an ear infection. My old roommate Jen had been staying with us because she had to be up here for work, and because Ben had a fever, he wasn't allowed to go to daycare Tuesday, so luckily Jen was able to stay here with him that day to watch him for us. We are so lucky to have such great friends. I feel very blessed to have them since I am so far away from family.
Wednesday of last week we headed on our LONG drive to Chicago to visit my sister Delinda for Thanksgiving. We hoped to leave by about 2:30 or 3 that afternoon, but with the way things panned out we didn't get on the road until 4pm and that's an 11 hour drive WITH OUT stops. On top of the ear infection, Ben is also sprouting teeth... somewhere. I think it's his canine teeth in the front, but I'm not a 100% sure. So anyway he was grumpy and tired for the first couple hours. Luckily he fell asleep after Chattanooga and then slept the entire rest of the way there, except for the few stops we made.
We made it Chicago at about 4am their time, which means it was 5am our time. We were past the point of exhaustion and then had to find a parking spot and carry our stuff to her place in the COLD WINDY RAIN. We didn't get to fall asleep until 4:45am and then of course Ben woke up right around 2 hours later. That brings us to Thanksgiving. We went to breakfast that morning at the Golden Nugget close to where Delinda and Jen live and had yummy pancakes and other yummy things. A quick stop at The Market and then we went back to their house to start cooking! The area she lives in is really cool! And there you walk everywhere you need to go. So we parked the car and didn't use it until we left to come home. After our morning activities, we cooked the rest of the day and rested and enjoyed each others company. Ben was a little bit of a pill that day, but I think he was still pretty worn out from the ride and not feeling great. And neither was I, I had gotten a little bit of a cold before we left to go there and it just didn't get better. Ryan took him outside for a little while to walk around and get some fresh air while we were cooking. He took this with his phone, this is the street Delinda lives on. So cool! 
Thanksgiving dinner was DELICIOUS. We had Turkey, Ham, mac and cheese, sweet potato souffle, squash casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and for dessert I made my Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. YUM! 
That night we took Delinda's dog Kidder for a walk to get out and got to walk near Lake Michigan, she's like 2 blocks away from the water. And it was COOOOOLLLLDDDD but really fun. Ben loves Kidder (now) and so he enjoyed watching her run around and I enjoyed seeing the city from a distance in the dark.
Friday we woke up and Delinda took us on the bus to The Art Institute of Chicago Museum. It was SOOOOOO neat! The transit system there is great and clean and very easy. Seriously, you just don't need to drive your car while you're there. So we got to see the building she teaches in and then got to go in the Museum for free and saw Monet and Van Gogh as well as other famous paintings. 
After we were done there we ate lunch at Benningan's across the street 
and then walked down the busy streets of Chicago along the Miracle Mile and visited Jen at work at Zara and went in a couple other shops and passed the Macy's Christmas Window displays. Ben fell asleep in his stroller. He was so bundled up his little arms stuck out! He definitely was a trooper! I tell you what, there are some interesting characters on those streets! Lots of people begging for money in all sorts of ways; simply shaking their cup at you or twirling lasso's, the Silver Man, playing drums on old buckets, puppet shoes, really just about anything to get some change. There were people preaching with their megaphones and little sound systems, there were people protesting fur... it was so interesting and exciting! The city in comparison to Atlanta is clean and lively. 
That night we went to eat at Renaldi's, a pizza joint, and found a threadless store! We were SO excited, I love their stuff and order it online for Ben and Ryan often and it was cool to go in to an actual store, so we got some stuff there. We took a taxi (which was an experience in itself) to the Lincoln Park Zoo and got in for free to the Zoo Lights they had going on there.
That was fun, but luckily it was free because we didn't last long. We were all pretty worn out. But we saw lots of pretty lights, and well... just some penguins and a sea lion and that's about it for the animals. Saturday we didn't head out until after Ben's nap, we went back to town and stopped off at Millennium Park and saw some of the sculptures and art pieces there. 
My favorite was The Cloud Gate (or giant silver jelly bean) and the pavilion there was really cool too.
From there we took the bus to the Field Museum where we got in free as well, it pays to have a Professor for a sister! We saw a lot of dead animals there. 
Ryan and Ben enjoyed it... I liked the dinosaur skeleton Sue. :)the building itself was pretty impressive too... but again, I'm glad it was free!
I got some pretty cool shots of the city from the steps though at sun down and the planes flying "Sears Tower". 
We walked to the bus again and rode down to meet up with Jen for dinner at a pub where I ate YUMMY fish and chips. I could go for that again... anyway, after dinner we walked to see the tree lit up somewhere down there.
I was SO pooped by that point, my throat was killing me and I was stressed out about Ben being a little bit of a stinker. BUT I did have fun, and I enjoyed everything we did and saw that night. Ryan was a gem and took good care of me and Ben. I sure love my husband... more than anything in this whole wide world. We ate ice cream and talked that night at the apartment. We left Sunday around noon and made it home 14 hours later! Blah... long drive. But luckily we both had yesterday off, and me again today. So we've rested and now it's back to reality. POOP. I am glad I have Christmas to look forward to. And only 22 days until my parental figures arrive for the festivities! So Chicago was SUPER cool, I wouldn't really want to live there I don't think. But I will love to go back and visit ANY TIME and get to see more of it's coolness. I am grateful for Jen and Delinda putting us up and enduring the whining and crying and all of our crap everywhere. It was such a fun trip and I'm REALLY glad we could do it!
Hopefully we will be able to get our Christmas tree soon and get some decorations up! Being around all the Christmassy stuff in Chicago got me really excited!
Wednesday of last week we headed on our LONG drive to Chicago to visit my sister Delinda for Thanksgiving. We hoped to leave by about 2:30 or 3 that afternoon, but with the way things panned out we didn't get on the road until 4pm and that's an 11 hour drive WITH OUT stops. On top of the ear infection, Ben is also sprouting teeth... somewhere. I think it's his canine teeth in the front, but I'm not a 100% sure. So anyway he was grumpy and tired for the first couple hours. Luckily he fell asleep after Chattanooga and then slept the entire rest of the way there, except for the few stops we made.
We made it Chicago at about 4am their time, which means it was 5am our time. We were past the point of exhaustion and then had to find a parking spot and carry our stuff to her place in the COLD WINDY RAIN. We didn't get to fall asleep until 4:45am and then of course Ben woke up right around 2 hours later. That brings us to Thanksgiving. We went to breakfast that morning at the Golden Nugget close to where Delinda and Jen live and had yummy pancakes and other yummy things. A quick stop at The Market and then we went back to their house to start cooking! The area she lives in is really cool! And there you walk everywhere you need to go. So we parked the car and didn't use it until we left to come home. After our morning activities, we cooked the rest of the day and rested and enjoyed each others company. Ben was a little bit of a pill that day, but I think he was still pretty worn out from the ride and not feeling great. And neither was I, I had gotten a little bit of a cold before we left to go there and it just didn't get better. Ryan took him outside for a little while to walk around and get some fresh air while we were cooking. He took this with his phone, this is the street Delinda lives on. So cool! 
Thanksgiving dinner was DELICIOUS. We had Turkey, Ham, mac and cheese, sweet potato souffle, squash casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and for dessert I made my Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. YUM! 
That night we took Delinda's dog Kidder for a walk to get out and got to walk near Lake Michigan, she's like 2 blocks away from the water. And it was COOOOOLLLLDDDD but really fun. Ben loves Kidder (now) and so he enjoyed watching her run around and I enjoyed seeing the city from a distance in the dark.
Friday we woke up and Delinda took us on the bus to The Art Institute of Chicago Museum. It was SOOOOOO neat! The transit system there is great and clean and very easy. Seriously, you just don't need to drive your car while you're there. So we got to see the building she teaches in and then got to go in the Museum for free and saw Monet and Van Gogh as well as other famous paintings. 
After we were done there we ate lunch at Benningan's across the street and then walked down the busy streets of Chicago along the Miracle Mile and visited Jen at work at Zara and went in a couple other shops and passed the Macy's Christmas Window displays. Ben fell asleep in his stroller. He was so bundled up his little arms stuck out! He definitely was a trooper! I tell you what, there are some interesting characters on those streets! Lots of people begging for money in all sorts of ways; simply shaking their cup at you or twirling lasso's, the Silver Man, playing drums on old buckets, puppet shoes, really just about anything to get some change. There were people preaching with their megaphones and little sound systems, there were people protesting fur... it was so interesting and exciting! The city in comparison to Atlanta is clean and lively. 
That night we went to eat at Renaldi's, a pizza joint, and found a threadless store! We were SO excited, I love their stuff and order it online for Ben and Ryan often and it was cool to go in to an actual store, so we got some stuff there. We took a taxi (which was an experience in itself) to the Lincoln Park Zoo and got in for free to the Zoo Lights they had going on there.
That was fun, but luckily it was free because we didn't last long. We were all pretty worn out. But we saw lots of pretty lights, and well... just some penguins and a sea lion and that's about it for the animals. Saturday we didn't head out until after Ben's nap, we went back to town and stopped off at Millennium Park and saw some of the sculptures and art pieces there. 
My favorite was The Cloud Gate (or giant silver jelly bean) and the pavilion there was really cool too.
From there we took the bus to the Field Museum where we got in free as well, it pays to have a Professor for a sister! We saw a lot of dead animals there. 
Ryan and Ben enjoyed it... I liked the dinosaur skeleton Sue. :)the building itself was pretty impressive too... but again, I'm glad it was free!
I got some pretty cool shots of the city from the steps though at sun down and the planes flying "Sears Tower". 
We walked to the bus again and rode down to meet up with Jen for dinner at a pub where I ate YUMMY fish and chips. I could go for that again... anyway, after dinner we walked to see the tree lit up somewhere down there.
I was SO pooped by that point, my throat was killing me and I was stressed out about Ben being a little bit of a stinker. BUT I did have fun, and I enjoyed everything we did and saw that night. Ryan was a gem and took good care of me and Ben. I sure love my husband... more than anything in this whole wide world. We ate ice cream and talked that night at the apartment. We left Sunday around noon and made it home 14 hours later! Blah... long drive. But luckily we both had yesterday off, and me again today. So we've rested and now it's back to reality. POOP. I am glad I have Christmas to look forward to. And only 22 days until my parental figures arrive for the festivities! So Chicago was SUPER cool, I wouldn't really want to live there I don't think. But I will love to go back and visit ANY TIME and get to see more of it's coolness. I am grateful for Jen and Delinda putting us up and enduring the whining and crying and all of our crap everywhere. It was such a fun trip and I'm REALLY glad we could do it!
Hopefully we will be able to get our Christmas tree soon and get some decorations up! Being around all the Christmassy stuff in Chicago got me really excited!
4 comments:
It sounds like you had fun. You and the Bakes were making the same trek at the same time. We haven't gotten to explore Chicago very much but we have enjoyed the field museum and the good food Chicago has to offer.
beautiful shots. so much holiday fun!
xoxoxo
Love the pictures! Ben gets more handsome each day and I love your hair! We can't wait to see you guys again. I wish we could go there to visit soon! Maybe next fall?
What a fun trip! I'm jealous:)
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