Playtime in Chicago

After a few tough days after surgery, Aiden was coming around so we decided to make the best of our trip by getting out of the hotel and doing something fun! It was actually better for Aiden to be out looking at stuff rather than being stuck in the hotel.

Our first venture downtown was quite the adventure. We had decided to hang out with the Carraro family (other nevus family staying at the hotel) and go to the John Hancock Observatory. We had briefly discussed going the night before but nothing was set in stone. So in the morning, I messaged them letting them know that we would meet them at the train station. I never heard back from them, which I thought was odd but we still headed out. We were getting close to the train station and I noticed that I had a text message. It was Nadia....they had woke up LATE. In the meantime, we were trying to find a place to park and wasn't having any luck at all. Since I knew the other family was running late, we weren't rushing around too much trying to park. It's now 10:26...the time that the train is supposed to depart and its very apparent that we won't be catching this train. Then I get a message from Nadia that the train is late and they are wondering where we are at. OMG....the irony was hysterical. So, the family that woke up 10 minutes before they were supposed to leave makes the train while MY family misses the train! Then to add to everything, the next train doesn't leave until 11:26! It gave us a good laugh (although at the time, Michael wasn't laughing) and we joked about it for the rest of the day.

By the time we arrived in downtown Chicago, we had no idea where exactly our friends were so we started walking in the direction we needed to go. Why we didn't take a taxi to the John Hancock Observatory is beyond me but we didn't....so we ended up walking about 1.5 miles to our destination. We actually ended up making really good time because we were only about 20 minutes behind our friends. We ate some lunch at the Water Tower and then headed over to John Hancock. The views were pretty awesome and we all enjoyed ourselves very much! We actually decided to walk back to the train station to catch some of the views of Chicago that we missed on our first trip. It went much faster as a group! The only thing we completely forgot about was a group picture of all of us. Bummer!

The next day, Michael and I ventured downtown again and went to the Shedd Aquarium. We still took the train but didn't miss it this time! We did, however, take a taxi! This aquarium was pretty awesome. Aiden was so excited to look at everything and it made me so happy to see him doing so well out on the town. After we spent a majority of the day here, we went to eat at Gino's East for some traditional deep dish pizza. It was so yummy that we even brought some back to the hotel for our friends at the hotel.

On Michael's last day with us, we went out to breakfast (in the pouring rain) at Walker Bros, which was FANTASTIC and then took a road trip about an hour away from us to meet the King family, another nevus family. It was Austin's 4th birthday party! He is a very special little boy and it was great to finally get to meet him and all of his family. They are all so awesome!

The week went by so fast and before we knew it, Michael was flying back home and we were waiting for my family to arrive. My mom was flying in with my grandma while my cousin was driving in from Michigan with her family(Thanks so much to Grandma, Aunt Karen, Terra, Pete, Mia, Chase & Mateo for coming down). We had a blast with them. The rain changed our plans for one of the days so we made the most of the mall! The other day we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. If any of you are ever in Chicago, you should definitely visit this zoo. Its completely free to get in (except for parking) and its actually a very large zoo with a huge variety of animals. It was super hot and humid the day we went so we didn't get to explore very much of the zoo but the time we spent was a lot of fun! I definitely would love to go back!

After the zoo, we said goodbye to my family from Michigan as they headed back home and then killed some time before meeting up with a good friend of mine, Jennifer Wolohan. We went to grade school together back when I lived in Michigan and she nows lives in Chicago! It was so much fun catching up with her and her husband, Patrick. She even had my pictures for me that she took back in June for us. She is an AMAZING photographer. Check her website out at www.photographie51.com!!!!!!

I was so happy to be able to turn our long trip to Chicago into a little bit of fun. The Windy City is pretty cool! Here are some pictures of the fun times we had...

Looking out the window at the John Hancock Observatory

Aiden enjoyed looking at his reflection here!

At the Aquarium...of course Aiden was asleep when we decided to take this picture!

Austin at his birthday party! 

Mateo and Aiden 

Mia and Chase at the zoo

Eating at Gino's East! He loves his snacks!