Chicago vacation!

We left Thursday for Chicago. The kids were really good on the plane. We met Grandma and Grandpa at the Chicago airport. Aaron's parent's picked us up and took us to our hotel to get checked in. Getting the kids bundled up was kind of a new challenge for us. It was a balmy 30 degrees most of the time we were in Chicago. It wasn't that bad during the day, but at night brrr... Actually it didn't feel that cold and we prepared pretty well but it was just annoying to have to bundle the kids up every time we had to go out. I'm glad we live somewhere warm.

Aaron's parent's watched the kids in our hotel room while we went to the concert.






I wish I had remembered to take the camera. We took a cab to the venue and we got our seats. We had a reserved table. I called our contact and she met us after selling Aaron the latest CD. She took us to the tour bus and we met James Hunter and his band. They were all very friendly, down to earth, and totally in awe that we won a contest and meeting them was the prize (We didn't tell them that they real grand prize was a trip to London to see Coldplay). They were all British except for their keyboard player. James especially was a total jokester. I didn't catch half of what he said from his accent. I smiled and nodded a lot. Aaron did a lot better and translated for me later. They signed their tour poster and CD for us. This video (I hope this works) is from the same characters they used on the poster that they signed. Each one is a characature of each band member (James gave us that tip). Anyway, the song is catchy - reminds me of a slow dance from the 1950's. The concert was really fun. James dedicated his first song to "his new friends, Sarah and Aaron". That was pretty cool. It was great music for dancing (we wish we knew how to dance). His music reminds me of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, James Brown...its a classic R&B sound... It would have never interested me, but I'm a fan now - after this trip how could we not be?

Noel wrestling with his grandpappy

Noel on our King Size bed. Look at the little guy! He's so cute I can't stand it!



Noel all bundled up. - day 2. We went to Shedd Aquarium. It was under construction so we didn't get to see any penguins (frown) but we had a nice time. They had a ton of exotic fish, frogs, turtles, and even iguanas.


Claire loves Nemo. Can you see him?




Claire was a bit freaked out by this turtle. We was swimming up and down and all around so fast.


The Family at lunch at Shedd Aquarium. We had Chicago style hot dogs.

Noel stayed in his stroller most of the time. But when I got him out to look at the tropical fish he was entranced. He just stared with his eyes and mouth wide open and looked all around. This tank had little hammerhead sharks and big stingrays. He loved it when they would swim past. You can see one little fish up above his reflection in the glass.


Claire and Grandpappy swimming at the hotel.

Our hotel was awesome. We stayed at the Embassy suites right downtown on State street. They served an awesome breakfast buffet every morning and had a manager's reception every night with free snacks a beverages. Our room has a fridge and microwave so we could keep snacks and leftovers from our dinners. We were only three blocks down from the Magnificent mile. We made sure to take advantage of our location by doing some shopping on Michigan Avenue and visiting local restaurants. Fav - Cafe Iberico - Spanish Food - since Aaron went to Spain on his mission he has always wanted to introduce us to Spanish food. We had Paella and tried lots of Tapas and soups. And the dessert was heavenly! Least Fav - Star of Siam - Thai food - great the night of - not so great leftovers (lesson learned - when on vacation don't trust the hotel mini fridge with leftover Thai chicken curry). And of course we had to get some deep dish pizza - we went to Giordano's. It was very very tasty.

KGSR and Concord records picked a great week-end to have the concert in Chicago and to send us. It was the Magnificent Mile Lighting Ceremony where they have a parade and light all the Christmas lights down Michigan Ave. It was so cold that night, I decided to stay in with Noel. He had had a runny nose and his cheeks were getting red and chapped from being outside. But we could not deny Claire a chance to see the Master of Ceremonies Mickey Mouse. After the parade, Claire ran into our room and said, "Mommy! Mommy! I saw Mickey and Minnie Mouse!"

I got this one off the internet because our pictures didn't turn out. From what Aaron and his parents tell me there were a ton of people. As Mickey's float past the Christmas lights would turn on and everyone would cheer.

We had a great time. The trip home was hard. We were sad to say good-bye to Aaron's parents and Aaron was feeling really sick (from the Thai leftovers). But we are so glad that we went. Thank you so much to KGSR, Concord Records, and Mums and Pappy Adams for making the trip possible. It was a wonderful wonderful trip!