Chicago!

The first week of May, Owen and I packed our bags and headed to Chicago!  It was time for him to meet his Uncle Spencer and spend some quality time with his Aunt Syd.

Long story short, my mom and I had some airline credits that were about to expire and I convinced her that a trip to Chicago would be a great way to use them.  Turns out the timing was excellent.  Spencer was called to be a counselor in their bishopric, so my dad came with us to ordain Spence a high priest.  Dunc was awesome (per usual) and agreed to take a couple days off work to stay home and take care of Mya while I was gone.  He then convinced his mom and sister to come party with him while I was gone, but that's another story for another blog post.

This little guy was a great traveler!  Our plane was full, so I had to hold him the whole flight.  He never falls asleep in my arms, so I was pretty nervous.  True to form, he didn't fall asleep but was still pretty great for the whole flight.

We may not have communicated well the amount of luggage we were bringing...  Thanks to some creative thinking and short legs, we were barely able to squeeze it all into Spencer's car.

It was so fun to spend time hanging out at their apartment and see what life is like for them in the big city.  Of course Syd has done an awesome job making their apartment feel like home.  I loved staying there! 

  Our first day there we went downtown to check out the city, see where Spence goes to school, and do some window shopping.  It rained like crazy on us!  Mom and I didn't exactly pack for the weather, but we were just happy to be there.  At least I was.  After a quick stop at North Face things started to get a little better for her.

I thought the clouds hovering over the skyscrapers was so cool!

We ate lunch that day at the Grand Lux Cafe.  Apparently it was started by the same person who started Cheesecake Factory and the food was awesome!  Mom and Dad kept trying to get us to go back there for every meal.

After lunch we did some more window shopping and went to the American Girl Doll Place.  It was almost like Disneyland with no rides.  :)

The next day was Saturday so Spencer didn't have any classes.  We walked over to Wrigley Field where the Chicago Cubs play.  There was a game that day, so it was fun to be in the middle of all the crowds.

It's so crazy to me how MLB fields are right in the middle of neighborhoods.  It was sweet to see all the bleachers that are built on top of apartment buildings, right outside of the stadium.  S&S live in a pretty cool area.

After Wrigleyville we hopped on the 'L' and headed to Lincoln Park.

Riding the L with a stroller was a little bit crazy, but with 3-5 adults to one stroller, it wasn't a big deal.

And Owen didn't seem to mind a bit.

I think he actually loved it, in spite of all the crazy people who were crammed in there with us.

Spence got some good one-on-one time with Owen while the girls checked out some shops around Lincoln Park.  I think that was my favorite neighborhood!  There were all these cute boutiques and shops and the delicious donuts didn't hurt either.  Mmmm.

After that it was back to downtown where we did the architecture boat tour.

That was another highlight from the trip.  Awesome buildings, good stories, riding on a boat, and great company.  Hard to go wrong there.

Next up was a trip to Navy Pier. 

It was a beautiful day and a fun place to walk around.

The next day was Sunday, so we headed to church in the morning. 

Their ward reminded me a little bit of a BYU married ward, but 5 years down the road, with a few random older people mixed in.  It really was a tiny ward, but seemed to have a lot of good people in it.

While we were waiting to go into sacrament meeting I ran into my friend Gina Barton from BYU.  Her husband was in the accounting program with me and Duncan and they just moved to Chicago in January.  It was so fun to see her and catch up a little bit!

Once church was over, we headed to Millennium Park to check out "the bean" and the other touristy stuff there.

More cool views of Chicago.

Apparently they have a lot of concerts at this amphitheater in the summer.  It looks like an awesome place to go to a concert!

Dunc was in Chicago last fall for a training and while he was there he bought Mya a board book that shows all the touristy things to do in Chicago.  These fountains were one of them and she was so excited to see that I had been to the places in her book!

Later that night their bishop had us over to his house for dinner.  His wife made us an awesome dinner and it was fun to hear what they had to say about Chicago.

 

 Right before we left he took these pictures for us.  I love this one of baby O.

We spent our last day there shopping all day long.  I think we just about killed my mom with all the shopping.  The stores were too good though!  I'm still so jealous of their Macy's.  I can't even bring myself to walk into the Layton Hills Macy's after that trip.  I'm pretty sure the Chicago one is at least 10,000 times bigger.

It was such a great trip!  I loved being able to spend time with Spencer & Syd (and my parents) in their new "home town".  They live in such an awesome city!  The only thing that would have made it better is if Duncan would have been able to tag along with me.  Hopefully we'll be able to make it out together sometime before Spencer finishes med school.  Thanks S&S for being such awesome hosts!  And thanks to mom and dad for being so fun to hang out with.  I loved being with all of you!