(Sorry in advance for all of the collages, it was just easier to get as many pictures in as possible)
My sister Delinda moved from her first apartment she lived in Chicago, to a new one this Summer and because we had so much fun last year and wanted to see her new place- we asked if we could come for Thanksgiving again this year and she said "yes!" Sadly Jen couldn't be there, we switched places with her and she came here to visit her family.
We left noon on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for the long drive. I had the day off but Ryan had to work so Ben and I dropped him off in the morning and then got some things taken care of before we picked Ryan back up and jumped right on the road. The drive from here to Chicago is supposed to take 12 hours, but with a 2 year old, potty stops and a stop to pick up the new camera ON TOP of pretty awful rain downpours in Indiana... it took us 14 hours. We got there at 2am. Better than 5am like last year though. So, we took a look around the apartment which is schnazzy and then went to sleep. Thanksgiving day we mostly took it easy besides cooking, and even that wasn't a big deal. Delinda and I had to run to the store but other than that we stayed in. It was chilly! 
Ben was a little bit of a stinker that day. I attempted to cut his hair and he wouldn't sit still and was kind of a poop head about it. So he ended up with a not-so-cute hair cut. I mean, he was just probably tired from the trip and was in a new place and so he was cranky. Anyway, Ryan had asked if maybe we could try something different for Thanksgiving this year. He was sort of sick of the typical turkey dinner. DJ and I still wanted Turkey so we still made that and then I made Ryan a Baked Ziti. Delinda made the turkey and I helped with the sides and made a Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. The food was DELISH! I even managed to make (from memory) my dad's Creamed Corn. I was pretty proud of myself. There are two pass downs from my dad that we've got to keep going and that's Creamed Corn and his famous Fudge. Thanksgiving night we watched a movie and just hung out.
Friday, we bundled up and ventured out in to the city. Ben was super excited to ride the bus and the train. We even got to see a REAL "choo choo" when we were waiting for the train in to the city. The conductor even tooted his horn and dinged his bell for Ben. It was pretty awesome. Once we got to the city we mostly just walked around and did a little shopping. We ran in to some Fur Protesters, AGAIN (we saw them last year too), and saw the windows at Macy's and went in Macy's for a minute. 
We mostly walked around, it was pretty darn cold though so we stopped in a Dunkin Donuts at one point for something warm to drink and a snack. Before we went in, a man who was asking for helping asked for some change to get a cup of hot coffee. Delinda decided to just buy him a cup and took it out to him. He came in a little while and was very grateful to her and then went out to see what else he could ask for. I was very touched when from watching inside I say a man stop to give him some money, and when choosing between a $1 bill and a $10 bill- he chose the 10. The man asking for the money I think was taken back by it too said a million thank you's shook the mans hand and then they hugged. Delinda and I watched the whole thing and just got so misty eyed. It was neat that he didn't even hold back, didn't ask why, didn't say he didn't have anything- he just did it. I thought it was neat and wanted to remember that. After the donut shop we attempted to walk up the see the river, but got across the street from it but the wind was SO strong and COOOOOOLLLLDDDD that we turned right back around and headed for the "Bean" and the Art Institute of Chicago Museum instead. We'd even thought about taking a tour of the city on a boat the next day, but it was just too cold and Ben was still getting over his respiratory stuff and we thought it might not be a good idea. Anyway, we saw the bean and museum last year- but it's still terrific, and free. :) It's always nice to have connections! 
We spent a good amount of time in the museum, luckily Ben was pretty well behaved and he even enjoyed it I think. He was quiet when he needed to be and didn't touch when he wasn't supposed to. Only thing was he wanted to be held... like ALL the time. I think he liked the Mayan exhibit the best. If you look carefully in the collage of the things we saw there, you'll see the room that was in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Cameron is staring at that HUGE painting on the wall. 
After the museum, it started to get somewhat late so we went to get some Chicago deep dish pizza at Exchequer and Ryan got a deep dish pizza. I had a piece it was pretty delish! There was the most awesomeness waiter there with highlighted hair and those sunglasses/glasses with the jewels on top? He was so charismatic and sure of himself. Delinda and I got a kick out of him. 
After that we were all pooped and tired from walking so we got back on the train and rode home. Ben sat by DJ and it was cute to see him looking like a pro city boy sitting on the metro with his Auntie.
Pictures from our day.
A picture from the train station.
Saturday we decided to stay as warm as possible, so we took a drive up Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan and saw a bunch of different parts of town. We got up to Northwestern University and a cool light house not too far from there. 
There was a playground so we decided to stop for Benny. It was too cold to stay out for too long though, and Ben was pretty ticked that we had to leave the play ground and one of my "keep myself sane" tactics is to walk away and ignore (kind of, I'm not really- I'm just pretending because really who can ignore screaming and carrying on like that?)... so I did this, Delinda beside me and Ryan ahead. Ryan turned around and yelled "Heather! Ben!" I turned around and the poor kid is standing in the FREEZING cold with his pants down around his ankles! I felt SO horrible, but it was pretty funny too. He "chilled out" after that, hahaha! We got him in the WARM car quickly with daddy while Delinda and I explored a little more...well, for as long as we could stand the cold anyway.
We headed back home, trying to find a good hot dog place like HotDoug's, but the stupid people were closed for the weekend. So we went somewhere else and it was just "meh", not super great. Drove around some more, went through China Town and then went back to DJ's place to do some family photos for literally like 10 mins. It was TOOOOOOO COLD. We got a couple cute ones. 
That night we went downtown to the Christkindlmarket (which is SUPER busy and crowded and crazy). It was fun...just too crowded. But I wanted to get some ornaments, we saw the nativity scene and then left. But it was also nice to have that feeling of Christmas all around us.
We watched a movie and ate popcorn and went to bed early, we had a long drive home Sunday. Which actually went quite well except for the the 30 min tantrum in slow moving traffic in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. This was a quiet moment, which there weren't very many of. Ben hardly slept at all for a 12 hour drive. 
We made it home safe and sound. Had a lovely time, and can't wait to go back. We really enjoy Chicago!
We left noon on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for the long drive. I had the day off but Ryan had to work so Ben and I dropped him off in the morning and then got some things taken care of before we picked Ryan back up and jumped right on the road. The drive from here to Chicago is supposed to take 12 hours, but with a 2 year old, potty stops and a stop to pick up the new camera ON TOP of pretty awful rain downpours in Indiana... it took us 14 hours. We got there at 2am. Better than 5am like last year though. So, we took a look around the apartment which is schnazzy and then went to sleep. Thanksgiving day we mostly took it easy besides cooking, and even that wasn't a big deal. Delinda and I had to run to the store but other than that we stayed in. It was chilly! Ben was a little bit of a stinker that day. I attempted to cut his hair and he wouldn't sit still and was kind of a poop head about it. So he ended up with a not-so-cute hair cut. I mean, he was just probably tired from the trip and was in a new place and so he was cranky. Anyway, Ryan had asked if maybe we could try something different for Thanksgiving this year. He was sort of sick of the typical turkey dinner. DJ and I still wanted Turkey so we still made that and then I made Ryan a Baked Ziti. Delinda made the turkey and I helped with the sides and made a Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. The food was DELISH! I even managed to make (from memory) my dad's Creamed Corn. I was pretty proud of myself. There are two pass downs from my dad that we've got to keep going and that's Creamed Corn and his famous Fudge. Thanksgiving night we watched a movie and just hung out.Friday, we bundled up and ventured out in to the city. Ben was super excited to ride the bus and the train. We even got to see a REAL "choo choo" when we were waiting for the train in to the city. The conductor even tooted his horn and dinged his bell for Ben. It was pretty awesome. Once we got to the city we mostly just walked around and did a little shopping. We ran in to some Fur Protesters, AGAIN (we saw them last year too), and saw the windows at Macy's and went in Macy's for a minute. 
We mostly walked around, it was pretty darn cold though so we stopped in a Dunkin Donuts at one point for something warm to drink and a snack. Before we went in, a man who was asking for helping asked for some change to get a cup of hot coffee. Delinda decided to just buy him a cup and took it out to him. He came in a little while and was very grateful to her and then went out to see what else he could ask for. I was very touched when from watching inside I say a man stop to give him some money, and when choosing between a $1 bill and a $10 bill- he chose the 10. The man asking for the money I think was taken back by it too said a million thank you's shook the mans hand and then they hugged. Delinda and I watched the whole thing and just got so misty eyed. It was neat that he didn't even hold back, didn't ask why, didn't say he didn't have anything- he just did it. I thought it was neat and wanted to remember that. After the donut shop we attempted to walk up the see the river, but got across the street from it but the wind was SO strong and COOOOOOLLLLDDDD that we turned right back around and headed for the "Bean" and the Art Institute of Chicago Museum instead. We'd even thought about taking a tour of the city on a boat the next day, but it was just too cold and Ben was still getting over his respiratory stuff and we thought it might not be a good idea. Anyway, we saw the bean and museum last year- but it's still terrific, and free. :) It's always nice to have connections! 
We spent a good amount of time in the museum, luckily Ben was pretty well behaved and he even enjoyed it I think. He was quiet when he needed to be and didn't touch when he wasn't supposed to. Only thing was he wanted to be held... like ALL the time. I think he liked the Mayan exhibit the best. If you look carefully in the collage of the things we saw there, you'll see the room that was in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Cameron is staring at that HUGE painting on the wall. 
After the museum, it started to get somewhat late so we went to get some Chicago deep dish pizza at Exchequer and Ryan got a deep dish pizza. I had a piece it was pretty delish! There was the most awesomeness waiter there with highlighted hair and those sunglasses/glasses with the jewels on top? He was so charismatic and sure of himself. Delinda and I got a kick out of him. 
After that we were all pooped and tired from walking so we got back on the train and rode home. Ben sat by DJ and it was cute to see him looking like a pro city boy sitting on the metro with his Auntie.Pictures from our day.
A picture from the train station.
Saturday we decided to stay as warm as possible, so we took a drive up Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan and saw a bunch of different parts of town. We got up to Northwestern University and a cool light house not too far from there. 
There was a playground so we decided to stop for Benny. It was too cold to stay out for too long though, and Ben was pretty ticked that we had to leave the play ground and one of my "keep myself sane" tactics is to walk away and ignore (kind of, I'm not really- I'm just pretending because really who can ignore screaming and carrying on like that?)... so I did this, Delinda beside me and Ryan ahead. Ryan turned around and yelled "Heather! Ben!" I turned around and the poor kid is standing in the FREEZING cold with his pants down around his ankles! I felt SO horrible, but it was pretty funny too. He "chilled out" after that, hahaha! We got him in the WARM car quickly with daddy while Delinda and I explored a little more...well, for as long as we could stand the cold anyway.
We headed back home, trying to find a good hot dog place like HotDoug's, but the stupid people were closed for the weekend. So we went somewhere else and it was just "meh", not super great. Drove around some more, went through China Town and then went back to DJ's place to do some family photos for literally like 10 mins. It was TOOOOOOO COLD. We got a couple cute ones. 
That night we went downtown to the Christkindlmarket (which is SUPER busy and crowded and crazy). It was fun...just too crowded. But I wanted to get some ornaments, we saw the nativity scene and then left. But it was also nice to have that feeling of Christmas all around us.
We watched a movie and ate popcorn and went to bed early, we had a long drive home Sunday. Which actually went quite well except for the the 30 min tantrum in slow moving traffic in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. This was a quiet moment, which there weren't very many of. Ben hardly slept at all for a 12 hour drive. We made it home safe and sound. Had a lovely time, and can't wait to go back. We really enjoy Chicago!
No comments:
Post a Comment