Christmas In Chicago!

On Brad's last weekend day off, we ventured into Chicago to take in some of the holiday sights.  Our first stop was the Willis Tower (previously known as the Sears Tower).  Timmy fell asleep on the ride into town and therefore slept through the elevator ride to the top.  Since my last visit to the Tower (which was many years ago), they have installed plexiglass sky boxes in the observation level that extend out over Wacker Drive. That was pretty cool to stand there and see the street below. 

 Timmy finally woke up just before we were ready to go back down.

Next we headed over to the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza.

 The wonderful tree!

 It was very crowded and we had to wait in line for what seemed like forever, but the hot chocolate was worth it!

We ended our evening by having dinner at the Walnut Room in Macy's.  It is the first restaurant in a department store.  The store itself was amazing.  There were 7 floors dedicated to shopping.  We had to wait for our table, so we went to visit Santa on the 5th floor.  This was the third time the kids had seen Santa (first time at a store at the mall and the second time was for photos at the mall).  After dinner we went up to the 8th floor (the restaurant was on the 7th floor) to look at the tree that was in the center of the restaurant.

Playing tic tac toe while waiting for dinner.

Playing cars while we wait for dinner.

 Looking at the tree!

 The Tree!

 We ended up getting home rather late, but we all had a good time.  We are looking forward to exploring other fun things next year!

Fun at the Brookfield Zoo!

 

We recently went to explore our new neighborhood.  We decided to check out the Brookfield Zoo.  It was very nice.  The kids got to ride the carousel and the tram.  We even saw a dolphin show.

We had to go under the street to get to the Zoo.

 

 

 

 Lions,

 Tigers,

 And Bears, Oh My!

 Some of the dolphins before the show.

 The carousel!

Chicago Bound!

Well, it is official.  We will be moving to the Chicago area (somewhere around Aurora) by the end of the year.  Brad was offered a supervisory position at the Chicago Center.  He accepted it and now we get to move.  Hopefully Grandpa and Grandma Anderson will be able to help us move.  We  are excited to be moving closer to family.

Vacation, Part 2 (Take me out to the ball game!)

One of the highlights of our vacation was watching the Chicago Cubs play the Milwaukee Breweres at Wrigley Field. Aunt Jill and Aunt Jenny drove up and went to the game with us. We had really good seats (Thank you Aunt Jill:) ). Benny lived up to his good luck charm reputation. He has been to 4 ballgames now and the hometeam has won every time. It took 12 innings, but the Cubs pulled it out. Of course, Benny fell asleep just as the Cubs were ralling back in the 9th inning to tie the game. After the game, we drove down to my parent's house in Southern Illinois (about 4 to 5 hours south of Chicago). Benny had fun cheering for the Cubs with his "cool" Aunts.
This was not the final score. I am glad you can't see the other side. Kansas City blew away the Mariners by a score of 12 to 0.

Vacation!

Here is Benny and Mommy at the top of the Sears Tower. Here is Benny looking at some fish at the aquarium. Yes, he has a Chicago Cubs shirt on thanks to his Aunt Jill.
Here is our little engineer. This was at the Museum of Science and Industry.
At the Museum of Science and Industry, they had a big model train set up. It went from Chicago to Seattle. They got most of the buildings correct and you can even see the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Benny liked watching the trains.

Sorry I have not updated this recently, but we have been on vacation in Illinois. We flew into Chicago and spent a couple of days there. Benny got to see Chicago at night from the top of the Sears Tower. We went to Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. I forgot that the Museum was not near the aquarium so we spent alot of time on Lake Shore Drive.