Twelve Days of Chicago

Keep in mind...this is my journal...it's long because these are my memories!

Generally speaking, at this time of year when I think of the "12 days of..." I think of Christmas. This year we experienced something a little bit different. Once we arrived home from our trip to Redding, on Sunday, November 16, Bill left early Monday morning for Chicago and was scheduled to be there until Dec. 2nd. Keep in mind he had been in New York the week before and we had spent very limited time with him before that. I broke down and cried for the first time with the craziness of his incessant absences, and with Bill's encouragement booked 3 round trip flights to Chicago, leaving the 21st and coming home the 2nd. Bill was supportive of the idea as long as, and this was his one condition, I find a house to buy before we came back. Oh sure, no problem!!! I had 4 days to find a house, find warm clothing, and get a new driver's license. ( As the TSA gentleman so nicely pointed out to me on our trip up to Redding, my California license had expired on my birthday...in JUNE! Ooops!) Well thanks to great friends who watched the kids while I house hunted and thanks to a patient realtor, we got the job done. Yes we found a house that will be done being built the end of the year and we'll be moving in the first of the new year. (For those of you with good memories, yes, this will be the 3rd home we've purchased and moved into at this wonderfully calm time of year!)  Also a huge thanks to Bill's connections at the DMV who was able to slip me in behind the scenes, special authorized personnel only access, and get a pass to the front of the line for my driver's license. I felt that if I was to turn around everyone would be holding eggs ready to pelt me with them. Needless to say, I got my license, actually took a pretty good picture, if I do say so myself, and am now an official Nevadian! (I still say I'm from California.) But I digress...onto Chicago!

I feel so fortunate and a little spoiled to have been allowed this opportunity. After all, not many people get to spend 12 days on vacation with hotel accommodations being paid for and

 per diem covering the rest. I won't say that I went hog wild on the spending, I don't think I have that bone in my body, but I will say, if we felt like hot chocolate from Starbuck's, we got hot chocolate from Starbuck's. (I found that my taste is much simpler, and actually preferred the much cheaper chocolate from DunkenDonuts, so did the kids.) I did my best, with Bill's encouragement, to make the most of the experience and so we did. Museums, shopping,

sight seeing, restaurants, snow, we did it all! The first night we got there was a whopping 17 degrees FAHRENHEIT! We were hungry after traveling all day and eating next to nothing so we 

went down to a highly recommended Pizza place called "Giordonno's". (The one thing I did scrimp on was transportation. I didn't want to throw $$$ at a taxi when we could walk.) So we bundled up and walked the 4 or 5 blocks to pizza. WOW! 20 degrees and below is quite COLD! Livi did great and so did Aaron (he got the chariot ride in the stroller), and we took the opportunity the next day to buy better winter gear. Old Navy on State Street became an almost daily stop for us the first week we were there. 

 We rode the buses everywhere. (This picture happens to be the

last day we were there, the first day of snow, waiting for the bus.) The kids got really good at knowing what buses we needed to take to get downtown and back to the hotel. Even Aaron could recognize our bus and would yell, "Hurry, 20 Maddison!" We stayed at The Crowne Plaza just west of downtown by a few blocks, which happened to be in Greek Town. We found a great cafe in Greek town, Meli's Cafe, where we had breakfast twice with Bill, both times 

ordering way more food than we could eat. Bill didn't have to start getting ready for work until noon but the kids were still on west coast time so would sleep in 'til about 10 each day. (I told Bill we are going to put black out shades in their rooms at the new house, cause I'm sure that helped too.) We did try to take advantage of our mornings together and went downtown twice as well, just for a quick photo op with Dad. It was nice though to lazy around the room all morning together. Inevitably, by the time the kids and I were ready to see the sights for the day, we'd get to the museums at 1 or 2 and they'd be closing at 5! The museums that we attended had 3 levels of exhibits and we only saw 1 floor at each one. The last museum we went to was the Science and Industry museum. I planned for a

couple of activities that day since we only had 2 days left, but as it turned out we were there for 5 hours and still only saw 1 floor. They also had real snow coming down every 1/2 hour by the main Christmas tree and we only saw that twice. Just goes to show how much fun we had doing the activities that we did see. It was great. The only thing that would've been better is if, as Livi said, "I wish Daddy could be with us for a day or something." A couple of times I let the kids stay up late to see Daddy come home. We waited for him down in the lobby with P.J.'s on. As soon as Bill would walk through the "spinning door" (that the kids fell in love with) Livi and Aaron would run yelling into his arms. All the other agents getting off the shift would smile and laugh. One guy, said on a 

couple of different occasions, "That's the best feeling in the world." He is right. 

Olivia did great. It was so nice not having to worry about blood draws, hooking her up to TPN, or even a diet. Her counts have been amazing and so her energy level and everything is just fantastic. She's even eating more like her normal self. She only had to wear a mask on the airplane simply as a precaution, but other than that,

 and her lack of hair, no one would even know that she's sick. She trudged alongside of Aaron in the stroller 98% of the time. When she would complain that she was tired I'd switch them out. It never lasted too long though cause Aaron isn't a walker, he's a wanderer.  Both of our little ones took to city life very nicely. They both got the hang of entering and exiting buses, revolving doors, and 

 escalators. One day we spent at least 3 hours in Macy's going up and down the escalators of what seemed to be an 11 story building! It was fantastic free fun with plenty for mommy to look at! And a beautiful tree in the center court.

 Besides from the Vertigo that I had from the time I landed in Chicago 'til the day after we got home to Las Vegas, it was such a fantastic opportunity. It definitely doesn't replace Bill's absence over the last 3+ months, but at least we were together some of the time, and got to experience a lot of great things.

This was at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a free zoo that was

really nice. It had indoor as well as outdoor exhibits. We didn't see everything the first time so we went back a second time and saw the "Zoolights". The entire zoo is decorated with Christmas lights and winter figurines. The glasses that the kids are sporting made the lights look like diamonds. Way cool! (Aaron was hungry, just after, the pouty picture we shared a popcorn.)

The second night we were there was the Lighting of Miracle Mile. It is a pretty big to-do with Mickey Mouse waving his magic wand down

Michigan Ave and lighting a mile's worth of trees! When we got there, thankfully Aaron had fallen asleep in the stroller, there were hundreds of people. The crowd was at least 50 deep just from us to the parade route itself. Olivia was devastated. She "wanted to see Mickey Mouse". These tears of sadness fell on loving ears and a local family willingly gave up their dad's shoulders for the better part of the hour long parade and thus provided Livi with the best seat in the house! (45 minutes isn't justice to Jack's poor once 6'4 frame. By the end it was more like 6'even!) It was a choice meeting if ever there was one. Jack recently beat a cancer diagnosis from last year. It's great to meet great people who we'll beable to keep in touch with through the years. Thank you Jack, Nancy, and Cathy! Merry Christmas!

Thanks to my Internet savvy self (haha) we were able to attend the Shedd Aquarium for free! (It was the last free day of the month so we seized the chance. It was, like everything else, great!     It was a

bit difficult trying to keep Aaron close by. It was very low lighting with lots of colors surrounding us and Aaron was glad to see open space before him! Luckily he did eventually fall asleep and Livi and I were able to enjoy the exhibits. Way to much to see, in not nearly enough time! Our favorite were the sea dragons. I never even knew such mystical looking creatures existed! God's beauty never ends.

 

This was mommy's day of rest. By Monday, we had been sight seeing in the cold for 2 days and I needed to recoup. I justified it being that it was drizzling and windy outside. The kids liked the idea of it; we rented a movie and hung out in the room for the day. Livi did well, watched the movie and played while Aaron just wandered around bored out of his mind, but I LIKED IT! I actually read a book, didn't shower and did nothing all day. I don't think I've ever experienced a day like that until now. I highly recommend it every once a few years at least!

One thing we did to save money on basics so we could DO everything we wanted to is pack

lunches and find cafeterias in shopping centers to enjoy them. Thanks to the cold weather for allowing us the use of our balcony and nature's  refrigerator.  Suprisingly in sub 30 temperatures nothing ever froze!

Meet Sue! If you ever saw the movie "Night At the Museum" this is the bone chasing T-Rex. She resides in the Natural Field Museum in Chicago. Once again too much stuff with not a lot of time. Oh yeah, to add to the busy schedule, we decided to potty train Aaron while in the windy, cold city. Smart huh? Well when he woke up dry one morning we thought...we'd better run with it. Pull ups r us now. And besides the fact that he refuses to stand so he has to get naked from the waste down, it's not that bad. I'm definitely not going to rush it.

Thanksgiving day was one to remember or perhaps one to forget. With the help of hotel staff we chose a kid friendly diner, "the White Palace". 

I still wanted us to dress nice, like we would at a family dinner. We had a cab take us and as soon as I stepped out I wanted to get back in. I don't think I would've gone there for a regular meal let alone Thanksgiving dinner. It was a 4 course meal with the food actually pretty good. The service was less than par. As gravy flowed off the side of my entre plate, I quickly shifted our used dishes to the table next to us so that we could have more space. And much to my surprise, the kids begged to take the bus home. At least we were together, Livi wasn't in a hospital bed and she could eat whatever she wanted!

A day at Navy Pier was a definite win! Shopping, a marionette show, and even a juggling act that Livi got called up to help with. The day wouldn't have been complete without a ride 

on the giant ferris wheel. Way COOL!

The two days we went downtown with Dad:   One to get a picture in front of Cloud

Gate, aka "the Bean", and 2 to the German Christmas Festival at Daley Plaza to see Santa and the giant Christmas tree. Of course waiting in a long cold line does require a large chocolate chip cookie!

Friday after Thanksgiving the kids and I, well Aaron once again fell asleep, got to experience a great way to kick off the Christmas season. Christmas caroling in Chicago with a local choir at "the Bean"! We did all sorts of Christmas songs and I soon remembered how much my mom loved the Christmas season. Olivia had such a great time. We even sang the 12 days of Christmas, our group was the "4 calling birds". Olivia still walks around the house saying, "FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!"

I could've looked at this for hours. It may very well be the most beautifully man made thing

I have ever seen. The largest Tiffany glass dome in the world spanning 38 ft. This was in the Chicago Cultural center that once was originally built as a library. It just got done being restored this summer, to remove the cement dome over the top. Now sunlight bathes the room. This other dome is just a bit smaller and due for restoration next year. The kids and I found it by mistake. I think it was a pretty good mistake to make!

So many pictures, such little web space! The Lego Store, several dinners of soup at Panera (that Livi adequately renamed "DunkenBread"),Rainforrest Cafe on our last night, a beautifully decorated city, a trip to the emergency room on Thanksgiving eve at midnight(my vertigo had become unbearable. Valium is not a good option!),waiting for Bill in the hall outside our room after I put the kids to bed; "these are a few of my favorite things".  All of it was so great. Maybe Bill will experience it all some day too!