Anniversary Trip to Chicago

 May 25th Marked 10 Years of being married to my perfect match!

We wanted to celebrate this Anniversary with a bit more then just dinner so how about dinner in Chicago and then a weekend of sight seeing!!

A huge shout out to Amanda who stayed at our house with our kids so that we could have our weekend away together!

After our steak dinner Friday night we woke up early Saturday to head to downtown Chicago to see the Aquarium, Planetarium, Lake Michigan, and Navy Pier.

Let's just say four things:

1. My pictures weren't tuning out that well and as you'll see I mostly took pictures at the aquarium.

2. My feet were killing me!

3. The lake was beautiful!!!

4. After 5 o'clock a COLD lake wind was blowing strong and it wasn't as pleasant after that.

 LONG line to get in. We were grateful we didn't have any kids with us during this wait.

A couple of our favorites: the tiger sting rays and the frogs. 

One of the central aquariums that we saw had a diver in as she did a presentation and question and answer session on the animals featured in the exhibit.

Dolphin and Beluga Whale show.

Walking underneath to see the whales and dolphins swimming around through the glass.

The dolphins were so fun. They were so fast and they loved to swim upside down and show their bellies!!

 Watching the sharks swim around.

Outside ready to walk around the lake to the Planetarium.

 LOVED listening to the waves crash up against the walk way!

 We walked around two exhibits and watched two shows. 

There was a deep space show that personally was just weird and put me to sleep but Tom found elements of the show to be interesting. Then we watched a show on the stars over the Chicago sky and that presentation was much more enjoyable and interactive. 

 Tom got to see his beloved Soldier Field through the parking lot. No tours were available this weekend. Sad.

Then as I said after the Planetarium there was a COLD wind a blowing so the fun of the Navy Pier was taken away a bit. So we looked around inside and had a good dinner and called it a day.

Sunday was our CALM day!

We took a walk around the Naperville river walk. It was beautiful and peaceful and I discovered my slice of heaven to be calm and content with my sweet husband by my side!

 Sunday also involved window shopping and gift finding. Then we attended the local church services where we actually got to sit side by side and listen the whole time. After that we tried Chicago style pizza and sadly only Tom liked it. I'm not ready to give up on all Chicago pizza yet but I did not like the layer of sausage on this pizza so I was taking it off which left me with cheese pie. Oh well.

Then the missing my kids was just hitting so hard at this point that it was a welcome relief to take Tom to see Avengers in theater so for a few hours I didn't have to think about how much I was missing them. 

When we'd call home Dylan would say "Why did you go? I didn't want you to leave." Olivia was better about just telling us she missed us and we didn't get to hear a lot from Ashlyn but Amanda told us she would get so wide eyed, intent, and protective of the phone when it was her turn to talk.

Our last day of the trip we attended a session in the Chicago Temple. Tom and I had never been and were curious to see inside this style of temple. Let's just say were were VERY confused by the layout and constantly needing someone to tell us which direction to go and how to find our way around but as all temples go it was beautiful in its own way.

After one last stop to look at a nearby LDS book store it was driving back to my kiddos who were promised gifts when we returned!! We also received some gifts from the kids and we just loved on each other for the rest of the day!