After we unpacked for a day and tried to, uh, get used to our new house and it's quirks (to say the least) we headed up to Chicago with Steve and Nancy. We stayed in a super nice hotel, right downtown and just loved seeing the sights of Chicago. Chicago is the coolest city. We really liked it there. I just loved the feeling of it. The first day we just walked around and looked at the huge buildings. Chloe was in awe (as were all of us to be honest) at the sheer size of the buildings.
This is Chloe in front of the "bean" at Millenium park. we finally found it after quite a long, picturesque walk. I think Chloe looks so cute in this picture.
We were shocked to see the open water of Lake Michigan. Here we are walking on this Lake Shore path where people run and bike and then right off the path (no rail) is this water and people are swimming in it. Brad and I have always looked for the perfect spot to be able to train for an open water swim, have a lifeguard on duty, and be able to get out whenever you want. This is it. I think you can swim from one end to the other end in a mile. It was a cool site but kindof a little scary walking right on the edge. I get this sick feeling in my stomach when I am on the edge of things like I am going to be sucked off.
A must do in Chicago is an Architecture cruise. You take a boat along the Chicago river and they tell you all about the history of the city and it's buildings. Quite a lot of depth to their history considering the whole city burned down in the late 1800's and this is the rebuild. Chloe is at the stage of saying "cheese" for the pictures and this is what we get. She is sassy as ever.
The next picture is us at the famous pizza place Giordanos. We put out name in and found the wait was about an hour but the cool thing is they left you order your pizza while you are outside waiting, so by the time we got in and sat the pizza came right out. I'm told it was very excellent pizza. As typical to Melanie's life I got a really bad cold the day we moved in and bad colds turn into sinus pressure and mess for weeks on end and for extra fun I lose my sense of taste and smell. I am going on the 14th day and still can't taste. Luckily I have a doc appt today. But I decided if my fate is to lose my sense of smell that I would become a totaly texture freak and I so I based my opinion of this on the texture and lusciousness of this pizza and it was pretty good. I gave it a 10 and so did Brad. So there you have it. This was Father's Day!
More of the "bean".
We took a bus ride to the aquarium. Chloe loved both experiences. She thought she was so big sitting in her own seat on the bus. Our last day there we wandered the streets and did some souvenier shopping. We found this famous sign. I became really pregant looking this week. Here I am in all my glory.
Look at Chloe in the above picture. She fell fast asleep, mouth open, at 5pm. It made it nice for us to wander in the stores. She was such a trooper on the trip and the move. She loved having Grandma and Grandpa there to keep her smiling.And we certainly couldn't have managed without them as well. It was so great to see them and we thank them for their gifts to us. When we went to church yesterday she met 5 little girls all her age.
And since we have been back from Chicago we have been unpacking and discovering our new town. There are so many parks and walking trails. This was a park we saw this morning. we turned around and this whole pack of geese were walking across the path. Everything is so magical through a toddler's eyes. Finally today the heat subsided and it's a cool 78 with a breeze. We have all the windows open and eyes toward heaven asking for more of this, atleast until September when it will get cool because it has to.
Speaking of...Chloe has started to say things like "not quite yet" when it's time to go to bed. She'll tell us "that's enough" and somehow she heard the phrase "50 dollars". Doing anything for her is a chore now. She runs away or screams "no". Oh boy. we are in battle mode for the next few months I think.
And Brad...well he has certainly impressed me with all of his "man" skills these past weeks. He's set up lots of furniture, carried heavy boxes in hot heat, set up all the phone and cable and internet stuff that I would just hide my head in the sand from. He even has became quite perceptive. We like to read Where the Wild things are and if any of you know the author of it off the top of your head you get a prize. Well we got a new book that we have now been reading called Mickey and the Goodnight cake. So we are in the middle of reading it and Brad gets up and walks out of the room and comes back in the with Where the Wild things are and says, I thought so. Somehow he perceived the pictures of the two books as being similar and determined the author must be the same. Seriously, Brad. I know you may not be impressed by that story but I am still shocked that he would notice such details. He's a cute, cute guy and the best dad and husband and friend in the whole world.
And...we're having a boy!
