Chicago 2014

What a weekend. I felt so blessed by the end of it. I was a little nervous about if everything would turn out or not, but thankfully it did. I was most nervous about the hotel room. You are suppose to be 21 to get a hotel room, so I was praying that they would not check my license. It's probably kind of deceitful, but we needed a place to stay. We left at around 3:30ish on Friday afternoon, praying the roads would be ok. I was not able to go into work at all on Friday, because of the weather. Thankfully, we got to our hotel in Joliet safely and without much problem. We were starving by the time everything was settled, so we went out to eat at El Burrito Loco. It was in sort of a shady part of town, and we were by far a minority. I was glad when I saw 3 policeman walk in before us, because I felt a bit safer. Kristy forgot her swimming suit, so we had to stop at Target and get her one. The hotel had a measly little swimming pool, but I personally thought it was great, because it's winter, and I wanted to go swimming. Plus, even when it is summer, I usually don't get to swim that much because I work during the day. We woke up at an early 7 o clock Saturday morning to start our day. Thankfully they served a continental breakfast at the hotel. We made it to the train station with out any problems. We did get a little panicked when our train was 30 minutes late. It was a nice hour ride. Amber told us, walk with confidence like you know where you are going when we get off. And then when we did get off, I'm pretty sure it was obvious that we were not from Chicago. We got a taxi, which was first for me, and rode off to the Museum of Science and Industry. I hadn't been there since 7th grade, and most of them had never been there. It definitely is one of my favorite museums. It has so many awesome exhibits and hands on things. I think most of us agreed that our favorite was the display of human fetuses. Some people may get weird out by that, but it was so amazing. And then the next room had a video showing the growth of the baby in the mother's womb. It showed how awesome God really is. I liked how Amber put it. How can you not believe in God after seeing that? It truly is something that only God could accomplish. We also went on this coal mine tour, which turned out to be super interesting. You road a mine shaft down and then saw the different machinery and tools they used. He talked about how dangerous it was, and apparently our group laughed whenever he said things got hurt or died, because he teased us about it. Oh dear. We left around 2:30ish and head to Giordano's for a very late lunch. I can't believe I have never had that pizza before. It is by far the best pizza I have ever had. I wish you all could have been there to hear our sighs of delight when we took our first bites. It was seriously amazing. Too bad we don't have any Giordano's near us. We walked over to Millineum Park, which I love. We went to the Bean for probably 5 minutes, and then went to wait in line to go ice skating. It was such a long time, and by the time we got to the front of the line we had to leave, so we didn't even get to go. We were so bummed, but it was still fun watching other people ice skate. We were absolutely freezing, so thankfully there was a Starbucks across the street. It was soooo packed. And then the catastrophe happened. I spilled my grande Chai Tea latte. I only had 2 sips from it. I about cried. And I was so cold that I had to order another one. The barista was so nice she gave it to me for free! So thank you Starbucks barista, you made my day! We jumped on another taxi and headed to the train station to go home. The roads were not the best, but we made it home safely, for which we were so thankful. It was such a wonderful weekend! Here are a few pictures.

 I made a big cookie for them for Valentine's day....

 And this is how they eat it.

 My friends are so cool.

 She was irritated with me....

 We were pretty matchy-matchy.

 Group picture at the train station

Part of the train station. It was so cute.

This is such an awkward picture. We tried to do self timer but there was no flat surface, so it's tilted, and out of focus.

Doing the boy band pose:)

 Museum of Science and Industry

 I definitely always thought this was Cinderella's castle, but I was told that it is actually Aurora's. This is made all out of legos.

We aced the Disney princess quiz:)

This is part of the train. It was a huge set up.

 

Coal Mine Experience

We went to an Atom party....

 I hope this doesn't creep anyone out, but I think it is so utterly amazing. Look at how little it is, and you can still see the little toes and ribs. God is so creative and makes such intricate things.

This is my "support" system for when I am stressed.

Hannah has powers.

 My dad was proud that I went to the chick hatchery. Like I've never seen it before. It's happening all the time at our house.

This is seriously a slice of heaven.

 Kristy's face is literally the face you get when you take your first bite:)

Picture in the bean.

 The bean. See if you can find Amber, Hannah, Kristy, and Jaylyn.

 Ice skating at Millineum Park. I loved all the lights strung in the trees and the lamp posts.

 Kristy and Hannah at Starbucks. This is after I spilled my latte. And it went all over Kristy:(

 Typical coffee-in-the-hand picture:)

Jaylyn and Amber.

Train ride home. It was pretty empty, except for the lady behind us that was completely ignoring her crying child by putting her headphones in and would occasionally yell at her. Yeah, we were a little frustrated with her parenting style.