Chicago!

When we first learned we were moving to St. Louis, we took out a map to see what else was nearby.  (Not that St. Louis wasn't enough.)  We found we were only 4.5 hours away from Chicago!  I was so excited to be one step closer to my dream of seeing the Windy City and meeting Oprah.

Jeff's brother, Brian, is doing an internship this summer in Chicago and I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to make my dreams come true.  Last Friday I loaded the kids up in the car and told Jeff to have fun studying for the boards, sucka.  We arrived at Brian and his wife Mani's apartment just in time for dinner. 

Deep dish pizza in Chicago.  Check that off my bucket list.  Members of Chicago's arena football team sat at the table next to us.  They were huge and they ate lots.  The waitress gave them a big hug when they left.  Probably wanted to make them feel better because they play arena football.

The next day we all set out to see downtown by way of the "L."  Now I've ridden the "L" like Dr. Richard Kimball and all those doctors on ER.  We sat next to a woman wearing scrubs and I wanted to ask if she made out with anyone in the supply closet that day, but I didn't.

Jeff was so excited when he saw this picture because it reminded him of "Perfect Strangers."  So secretly all of our knowledge about Chicago is from TV.

 

Our first stop was Millenium Park to see the bean (or "Cloud Gate", which is its real name that nobody uses).

 

Right about then is when Miles' lost his ever-lovin' mind.  I'm talking a tantrum of epic proportions, the likes of which I have never seen from this boy.  They could hear him on the other side of Lake Michigan.  I don't know what his deal was, but it may have had something to do with the fact that he slept (or didn't sleep at all) on the ottoman the night before (even after I moved him to the couch).

 

He clung to my leg and cried like this for the next little while.  Not awesome.

 

Underneath the bean.  Awesome.

 

 

We moved on to this cool fountain.  (That kid on the right dressed as Baby New Year made Harrison really uncomfortable.) 

 

The kids splashed around in the water and Miles eventually decided it looked like happiness could be found in the city of Chicago.  He especially liked getting Uncle Brian's feet wet and watching the faces on the fountain spit.

 

 

We walked down Michigan Avenue past the Art Institute of Chicago (in the background) where my Grandpa Furniss studied.  We had to cross the street so as not to get mixed in with a group of protesters walking down the street and another group of protesters walking behind the first group of protesters, protesting their protest.  God bless America.

 

Speaking of America, we had lunch at American Dog because their hot dogs were voted best in Chicago.  Their menu includes hot dogs prepared the way they traditionally serve them in different U.S. cities.  Brian got the Chicago dog.  Mani got the Memphis dog.  Harrison got the Philly dog and still remembers it fondly.  The restaurant had really funny pictures of Chicagoans eating their hot dogs.  Mani and Brian recreated one for me:

 

On our way to the Sears Tower, we spotted this red sculpture.

Brian asked, "Where have I seen that?"  Yeah, it's from The Lake House.  Busted.

 

We made it to the Sears Tower*, but it was hard to get a sense of how big it is when you're surrounded by huge buildings.  In this picture, these buildings look similar in height.  Check out this picture of the skyline I found online:

Not even close.

 

Harrison really wanted to go inside, but we just couldn't pay the eleventyhundred dollars for all of us to go.  We did get a nice laugh at the front entrance.

I can't believe I've been throwing away my pants all these years when I could have been using them for planters.  Let that be a lesson to me:  Always consult Pinterest before throwing anything away.

 

Eventually we headed back into the subway station.  The kids had a lot of fun taking pictures, too.

 

 

Here's one Chloe took of me in the subway.

It's always nice to have proof that I was on the adventure, too.

 

Thanks, Brian and Mani for a wonderful trip to Chicago come true!  Have fun being city folk for the rest of the summer! 

 

Believe it or not, I have more pictures.  It took me FOREVER to make this movie, because the program kept crashing because of all of my huge pictures.  There were many tears involved in the making of this video.  So please watch it.  Thank you for your time.

 

 

*Wendy "Lived in Chicago and Knows Everything" Holt wanted to be sure everyone knew that the Sears Tower is now the Willis Tower.  (That's what it says behind the pants.)  But my dream was to see the Sears Tower, not "Big Willy."  So I'm going to leave it as is.

Family Meetings

I'm so grateful to my darling husband for moving heaven and earth so I could go to my Grandpa Curtis' funeral.  This is a very busy time for everyone in my family, but we all know how important it is to be together during sad times.  Before the sad times, we had some happy times.  On my plane ride from St. Paul to SLC, my cousin Andrea was on the same flight.  We asked the ladies sitting next to us to move it or lose it so we could talk nonstop for three hours.

Nicole was kind enough to spend the day entertaining sisters and picking them up from the airport.  Katy and Bryce arrived first and then they came to get me and take me to City Creek in downtown Salt Lake City.  I was so happy to meet my newest nephew!

He got the dimples!  Admit you're a lucky dog, Bryce.

My brother, Aaron, and his fiancé, Lori, met us for dessert so we could finally meet her and she could see that he's good with kids.

What a catch!

 

Then we all walked around temple square while we waited for Allyn's plane to arrive.

Aaron and Lori are getting married there next month.  It'll do.

The next morning we all drove up to Idaho to stay with my parents.  Makenzie and her kids and Rob and his family were there, too, along with Jen.  Once we were all finally together, it was time to eat.

Back in the day we used to eat at a table half that size.  My mom and dad would sit at either end and we'd sit four to a bench on either side.  No elbow room back in the day.  We were happy Uncle Don and Aunt Candace (my dad's sister) could join us.

Ruby, Gabriel and Ian spent some time hazing Bryce. 

You know the first rule of Cousin Fight Club, right?

Makenzie and Aunt Candace joyfully cleaned up dinner.  It was strange being surrounded by so many redheads last weekend.  We decided we had to take a redhead picture.

My cousins Sheri and Andrea are on the far left.  When they were kids, Sheri told Andrea that they were supposed to be in our family, but my dad didn't want them so my uncle adopted them.  Andrea said she was mad at my dad for years for giving her up.  HA!  Once when we were kids I told Makenzie she was adopted.  She looked at me like I was a moron and said, "Nuh uh."

Have A Happy Journey Through Life

This is a picture of my Grandpa Curtis and my Grandma Shirley with me when I was five days old.   Don't they look happy to meet me?  Grandpa also looks a bit concerned.  Maybe because it looks like Allyn is about to whack me with something. 

My Grandpa Curtis passed away May 29th.  He spent his married life in the same house in the town of Pocatello, Idaho where he taught junior high math and coached basketball before retiring.  To most of the world I'm sure that sounds like a pretty uninteresting life, but anyone who knew him would tell you that he was extraordinary.  I love my Grandpa and will miss his strong, reassuring presence.  I went to Idaho last weekend for the funeral.  I drove from the funeral to the gravesite with my sister, Makenzie.  She said, "That was a great funeral!  It makes me want to be a better person."  Being around my Grandpa always reminded me that it was possible to be your best self.  I don't know if that makes sense, but I hope you know what I mean.  He was as good as he could be.

Here my Uncle Larry, my dad, my Grandma Shirley, my Aunt Candace, and Uncle Don wait for the services to begin. 

Grandpa Curtis was in the Army and received a beautiful military burial.

 

 

They had each of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren take a balloon, think of a special moment with Grandpa Curtis, and then release the balloon.

 

It's been years since my Lee cousins and I have all been together.  It was wonderful to share our happy memories with each other.  We sang "Love is Spoken Here" for Grandpa's funeral and it was a good thing there are so many of us so some people could cry while the others sang.

Later at the church we got a picture of just our family with Grandma Shirley. 

I sat next to her before the funeral started and asked if there was anything she needed.  She said, "Him." 

 

When my dad called to tell me that Grandpa had passed away, I went to my room and cried.  Harrison came in and asked if I was okay.  I told him my grandpa had died.  Harrison came and put his arm around me and let me cry.  Later that night, he brought me an autograph book that he had taken on vacation with him years ago.  Here's what Grandpa had written in Harrison's book:

 

Twelfth Never Ending Night

A couple of months ago Harrison was feeling jealous of my Mommy and Me Book Club with Chloe.  In an effort to appease him and continue my master plan of turning him into a super nerd, I suggested that he and I could have a Shakespeare Club.  [Insert evil laugh.]  He thought it was a great idea.  (What the?)  I found out that the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival would be performing "Twelfth Night" this year, so I chose it as our first play.

We read a scene or two every night that we could and finished the play in about two weeks.  I was really impressed with how well he read the script.  He did it better than a lot of college students I've met.

This is a picture of me as "Feste" in an all-female production of "Twelfth Night" at Peace College back in 2001.  Yes.  I played the accordion.  Harrison thought that was pretty cool.

 

After we finished the play, I marked our calendar for May 30th and Harrison has been counting down the days since.  Last night we went to the Shakespeare Festival and found our patch of ground.

We heard there might be rain, so Harrison grabbed that cowboy hat out of the trunk.  Cool set, right?  So five minutes after I took this picture, it started to rain end-of-days style.  We grabbed our stuff and headed for the car.  I asked if Harrison wanted to come back another night.  No way. 

 

By 8pm, it wasn't raining, anymore.  They started the show 15 minutes late, but it went on.  (Because it must.) 

 

Then in the middle of my favorite monologue, they stopped the show and said we were on a "rain hold."  Harrison still didn't want to leave.

So we waited in the rain a little longer.  Then the show started up again.  It was lovely.  Really and truly lovely.  Harrison said, "I could understand them!"  He knew the story and he understood what was going on, but was surprised to find that he could actually understand their words.  That's the work of fine actors.  We were riveted.  Then intermission came and Harrison asked if we could go home.  I told him we were now in for the long haul.

Then the artistic director came out at intermission and said a huge storm was coming our way, so they were cancelling the rest of the show.  He told us that the actors could hear us if we wanted to say anything to them.  We erupted in thunderous applause and they all came out onstage.  The actor playing Malvolio said, "Just for you." and dropped his pants to reveal his yellow boxers and cross-gartered stockings.  Then their musicians played us a special song and we all enjoyed a sweet moment together. 

 

It wasn't at all what we had planned, but it was just right.