Chicago Trip with Mom

A few months of ago my mom asked me if I wanted to do a trip to Chicago to hang out together. I answered with an immediate "YES!" and we made it happen last weekend while Justin was on his spring break. I am so grateful to Justin for helping make this weekend possible. I flew by myself (such a unique and calming experience these days) and met my mom in St. Louis to help host Alex's bridal shower. After watching my mom play bells at church on Sunday morning, we headed up to Chicago! Here are some of our fantastic adventures! 

Dinner with IWU Friends and Moms

It was such  great day to go into Chicago to the home of Mike and Katie Bragg. I got to see their new house and play with sweet Jane for a bit before heading out to dinner. With four girls and five moms, the evening could have lasted FOREVER! It was so refreshing to chat about our new lives as moms and wives. New topics but same beautiful girls and friendships. It is amazing how quickly we pick up where we left off. I often say that I would like to live around people, but it is true and these three ladies would be at the top of my list. The Lord has blessed me with great friends. The moms didn't miss a beat either. After many hours and even days at track meets together, they were happy to see each other as well. I hope we can do this again sometime! 

 

Welcome to the Windy (and Rainy) City

Our first day in Chicago was a bit chilly, not the gorgeous spring day that we had planned for. As we went for our morning walk downtown, the weather got worse and worse until we walked backwards home to keep our faces out of the blowing rain. None the less, it was a great memory with my mom….because everything with mom can be made enjoyable when we are together! 

 

Visiting Friends

Our sweet family friend Kelly lives in downtown Chicago and we were able to go see her precious new twin girls while we were there. City living is quite different and it was great to see what a condo looks like with babies - beautiful! 

We also met up with Jennifer Russell for breakfast to meet her new little one, Everett! He was so animated and I was grateful that she drove up from Indiana to see us. What a great friend that has been so precious to me even though I think I have seen her two or three times since we both got married in 2006. 

 

As we were shopping, we kept saying, "I can't believe we haven't seen anyone that we know yet!" Since I went to school with many people that now live in Chicago, I thought maybe I would see someone up there randomly (how many people are in Chicago??? really????). As we walked around on our final day, we walked right past the lovely Allison Kearns, a classmate from high school! It was awesome and so fun to see her! 

The Bean Pics

We had some fun with the Bean of Chicago. I convinced mom to try my antics and we had a blast! I love the end result! 

Tourists in Chicago

We had a blast shopping together (including finding my dress for Kevin's wedding!), eating Fannie Mae, trying new resturants, and seeing the sites of Chicago. We could walk around for hours and still not talk about everything that we would like. I cherish my mom so much and our time together. This was such a special trip that I am grateful to have experienced! Thank you mom for everything! 

What did the kids do while we were out in the mid-west playing???? Their super-star daddy was playing with them back home…and in the PE storage areas of EVHS :) Thanks to Justin so much for sacrificing to make this special trip possible for my mom and I. 

Ozark Vaca - Day 7

We had to pack up and head out today. We decided to give our old high school buddy Shawn (how did I miss a picture with him???) a call and pay him a visit before we left. He has a lake house in the Four Seasons area and it was perfect for a little lake swim session. Macy didn't care too much for lake swimming. Macklin started to enjoy it after a while (there were no run and jump off the dock moments though). Luca didn't enjoy the paddle boat one bit! And Niko enjoyed a nap on the dock. It was a perfect ending of our week together

Vacation 2013 - We are sad to see you go. We enjoyed it all. We enjoyed our intentional time with the Olivastros the most. Why can't we live next to each other? Just move to CO and I will tell all of the bugs to leave the state, Jaime! Seriously though, we enjoy your friendship more than you will ever know! Thank you! Where to next year? 

Ozark Vaca - Day 6

  

The tradition continues! We have had some fun times with putting the kids in matching outfits. Part of the fun is shopping for something we like enough to buy (as most of us don't just go out and buy precious new outfits all of the time). The other part is walking around in public with mulitple matching kids. It is super cute all the way around. We started this in California in 2010 when we just happen to see shirts that said "Handsom Like Daddy." With four boys there, we decided it would be a fun surprise for our hubbies. Then, at Table Rock in 2011, we rocked out the matching outfits with four boys again. Last year we took a break, but we are proud to bring it back this year. We even got to coordinate an outfit for the beautiful Macy, holding her ground as the only girl on this trip. 

So fun to have so many kids around one tiny table. 

The Bylers let us use this table for the week and it was so handy!

We had another rainy day at the Lake. We were looking for all kinds of things to do and we found this Creationist Museum called CreationXpo. The tag line on the web site says: "Because Truth is What We Need." I have never heard of a creationist museum before. With another day of rain and six rowdy kids, we thought we would give it a try! It is located in Camdenton, so it was a little drive, but totally worth it. There were many hands on toys for the kids and a great message to go with it. The founder just got tired of taking his kids to science museums with no indication of a creator. So, he made it himself. It is super low budget, but totally great. 

Here is the first thing you see when you walk in. I thought it was awesome to have people identify your world view right away! 

Lots of things to watch and play with! Even an outside area complete with rocket launcher, dino dig pit, pinewood derby cars, tunnels, slides, swings, tubes, and a dino set up to shoot water balloons at! A kids play land! 

 

Macy is making a new friend. 

 

Back at the house, we had to say goodbye to the Bylers. 

It was so great to have them even for one day. I love this picture! 

We spent the afternoon relaxing, napping, and playing iPad games. 

We had an early dinner and then headed out for a little evening on the strip - playing skeeball and getting chocolates! The Spragues would always do skeeball at the lake so I was very excited. It has moved locations and it is now 25 cents, not 10 cents, but it was super fun to bring the kids.

 

My new favorite picture of Justin and Macy. 

We couldn't miss out on these shots! 

Late night nacho pile to end the day! We devoured them!