Chicago

We had a fun Thanksgiving week!

On Tuesday, we braved the wind storm and drove to Mulberry Grove to watch Hunter play in a tournament.  Happy to report that the Warriors won the game and Hunter played very well!!

After the tournament we drove to my parent's house because the next morning we took the train to Chicago!

The kids were super excited about the train and enjoyed the journey.  We were all excited to arrive and we found a delicious Middle Eastern restaurant to eat at.  We all had a schwarma and Andrew was most excited about the treat.  We walked to our hotel to get settled in.

Part of us headed out to pick up our packets for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot.  Abram was a good helper.

After we got back, we headed out to check out the city.  Macys was nicely decorated for the holiday season.  The city wasn't very busy, which was nice!

Headed to the subway.

We could have walked to the Christmas tree but we were a little off with our directions but we found the tree and it was beautiful!

I didn't realize the Bean was going to be so close.  We had a few head bumps on the Bean and enjoyed seeing our reflection.

Love this reflection of the city of Chicago!

Popped in a shop for a quick warm up and hot chocolate.

After we settled back into the hotel, the kids opened up a present from us and received their traditional Christmas pajamas!

The fun thing is, over night, my dad took the train and was around on Thursday morning!  What a fun treat.  We all headed out to the park for the Turkey Trot.  Our trip to Chicago planning started when we thought it would be fun to do a run and it certainly was.  There was a record number of participants.

After Hap and I finished our 5K, all the kids participated in an age appropriate race.  It was chilly but they hung in there, ran, and got a medal!  Totally worth the cold.

Since the run was so close to the zoo, we walked over to enjoy the zoo.

Perfect way to spend Thanksgiving!

We rode the bus back to Daly park later in the afternoon.

We headed back to where we were the night before but this time, we went with the purpose of ice skating.  All the kids plus Hap and I had a great time ice skating.  The kids did awesome and Hap and I didn't break anything!!

The skating rink was right under the Bean.  It started spitting some snow and they were playing Christmas music, it was very fun!

We made a quick stop at the hotel to clean up and then walked to Hard Rock Cafe for a Thanksgiving dinner.  Only Hap and my dad ordered the turkey, though!

The next morning, we took an Uber to the Museum of Science and Industry.

Uber selfie!

The big three enjoyed the mirror maze.  Honestly, it was so confusing and I ran into the wall a few times haha!

The museum was having a Christmas Around the World exhibit.  They had about 20 trees on display from around the world with traditional ornaments.  I loved this one from Scotland.

And this one from Jordan.

And this one from Denmark.

Riding the Chicago trolly car inside the museum.

We went into the technology exhibit that explained all about how an assembly line works.  The kids were able to watch a spinning top be made and packaged.  They were able to take one home with them all packaged up.

I had decided to go to the museum while doing research for the trip because they have a special U-boat exhibit.  The U-boat was captured during World War 2 from Germany.  This is the only U-boat to have been captured and Americans were able to use the captured boat to intercept secret German messages.  They kept the boat capture and the soldiers a secret until the war was over.  We did a special tour and the tour guide told us that the capture of the U-boat and the intercepted messages had a large part in ending the war.

The picture doesn't do it justice but the boat is huge!

World War 2 history is right up Sam's alley.  He couldn't get enough and we could have spent many more hours exploring the exhibit.

The average man on the U-boat was 5ft 5 inches.  To say the least, it was tight!

Watch your step!  Those are bunks all around the missiles.

The flag that flew on the U-boat after the capture.

On Friday afternoon, we split into two groups for something special for all the kids.  Hap and the three older boys went to a Blackhawks game.  It was also Hap's first hockey game experience and they all had a fun time.  They bought some neat Blackhawks gear.

In the meantime, the twins, my parents, and myself went to see Frozen 2.

It was a cute movie with a sweet message and the popcorn was good, too!

Our hotel was right across from the Chicago Fire Department.  Abram enjoyed watching the firetrucks come and go as well as watching the firemen working on cleaning the trucks.  We had to stop for a picture to start our day on Saturday.

Everything was so beautifully decorated as we walked down Michigan Avenue.

We walked about a mile to Navy Pier to check it out.  We could tell that in the summer it would be a fun place to hang out!  Love this picture of my parents, the kids, and the skyline.

Navy Pier.  Love this family of mine!

We went with the purpose of riding the Ferris wheel and we accomplished it.  There was some reluctant kids but everyone did it and enjoyed it!

We had Jacob and Abigail with us in our car.  I have to admit, the first rotation is a bit scary but after that it is a really neat view of the city.

Proud of everyone for going on the Ferris wheel despite some fears.

We walked back to Michigan Avenue for some Chicago shopping.  We saw the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and the line was all the way around the building.  So crazy!

We stopped into the American Girl store.  Abigail wasn't really that into it, which was fine, but we did enjoy looking around.  She bought a small luggage seat for her baby Maddie doll and was satisfied with that.

We met back up with the guys for some Chicago style pizza.  We couldn't leave Chicago without some pizza.  We were able to eat at Gino's east and it was really good!

We quickly walked back to our hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed to Union Station to catch our train.

I don't think we could have crammed anything else into our four days.  We did everything we set out to do and enjoyed the time.  It's always such a great time to get out of everyday routine and be with the kids.  It was an added bonus to have my parent's with us.  

It was a blast in the Windy City!!