Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we were lucky to have one of my best friends from highschool and former college roommate, Chelsea and her husband Ben come for the weekend. They live in Iowa where Ben is in podiatry school. They drove out to come visit us and see the city. It was a lot of fun because their two boys Blake and Braden are the exact same ages as Ainsley and Sam. The kids had a blast playing together all weekend. We tease that Blake is Ainsley's first boyfriend....he was her first kiss too.....see our Nauvoo 2010 post:) The arrived Wednesday night and spent Thanksgiving day with us. We spent the morning cooking. Tom was in charge of the turkey, I made the rolls and stuffing, and Chelsea made two pies-pumpkin cheesecake and "Grandma Ople's" apple pie. The kids had fun playing together while we got everything ready. Then we went upstairs to the Carlston's apartment for dinner. Mike's sister Kathy was visiting from CA, so we had a full house. There were 7 adults and 6 kids, but it was a lot of fun. The food was delicious, and the company was great. After eating, browsing the Black Friday ad, and visiting, we all came back to our apartment for some rest. Chelsea and I decided to venture out at midnight on Black Friday to try to find me a Christmas tree. First we tried Kohls, which had a huge line of people waiting in the cold. They didn't have the tree I wanted, so we rushed over to Meijer where I bought one I had seen earlier. We were back by 1:30 and tried to catch a little sleep.


The next morning, we caught the train into the city. We took the watertaxi to Michigan Avenue. We got out and walked along Michigan Avenue for a little bit. We stopped to see the Marilyn Monroe statue and the Tribune Tower before walking south to Millenium Park to see the Cloud Gate (The Bean) statue. Afterwards, we headed to Navy Pier to take the kids to the Children's Museum. It was pretty busy, but the kids had a blast. Ainsley and Blake had so much fun exploring and pretending together. They get along great. After the museum, we quickly walked to the end of the pier to see Lake Michigan. Then we walked all the way back to the train station. The kids were exhausted, it had been a fun day. We ordered some Chicago style pizza from Lou Malnatis. It was delicious!




The next morning we decided to drive into the city because it was raining. We went to the Shedd Aquarium. It was packed, but we had a great time. The kids were fascinated by all the beautiful fish. We went to the Christmas Sea show. Ainsley absolutely loved it! She gave us a play by play commentary of what all the dolphins, whales, and seals were doing. It was so cute to see her excitement. Santa also appeared and she was excited to see him. Later she had the chance to sit on his lap, but immediately passed on the opportunity. She's not a big fan of sitting on his lap, she likes Santa from a distance. After we went to the Shedd aquarium, we walked to the Field Museum next door. We didn't have much time, but we saw a few exhibits. We plan on going back after Christmas. That evening the kids played Wii together. Ainsley and Blake had a lot of fun bowling together. Blake also taught Ainsley how to play Angry Birds for the first time. She's tried it a few times since, but I don't think she'll ever catch up to Blake-he's good!

We had a great time with the Bauers, it was so fun to see them again. We've had the chance to see them in Nauvoo last year, and now Chicago this year, and hopefully Detroit next summer! We can't wait! Thanks for coming to visit, we had a blast!