Chicago

Spencer I got back from Utah and a day later we took a quick trip with the kids to Chicago.  It was the last thing on my bucket list for our time here in the midwest.  We spent the first night swimming in the hotel and eating Chicago pizza (well, the kids ate McDonalds and Spencer and I enjoyed the pizza!).  Swimming is always a hit for our family.  The kids had a blast with Spencer while I held baby Kate! Tanner held on tight onto Spencer's back while he threw the ball to Reece and Benson while they jumped in the pool.  They also used Spencer as a surf board which was hilarious to watch.

The second day we went to the Shedd aquarium. It was a rainy day so we were fortunate to get there early and not have to wait in line for admittance.  The kids LOVED the different kinds of fish, animals, and reptiles.  They were soaking it all in trying to read as much information as possible.  After 3 hours we were all exhausted and went to our hotel to have some quite time.  We got a hotel off of priceline.com and ended up at a fancy hotel-- we stuck out like a soar thumb.  After some quite time we walked to Millennial Park and visited the "Bean".  Reece and Benson thought it was the coolest thing! My favorite part was walking around with my beautiful family enjoying the big city and beautiful scenery.

Our last day we visited the Science and Industry Museum which was one of the coolest museums I have ever been to.  We only covered 1/3 of the museum and would have loved to come back another day.  There was a train section which stole all of Tanner's attention.  The weather section and mirror maze had Reece and Benson entertained.  And to be honest-- Spencer was just as giddy.  He would find something cool and tell the boys all about it.  After 3 hours in that museum we decided to drive by the Chicago Temple and then head home.

It was a wonderful trip-- we were able to see a lot in a short amount of time without feeling overly exhausted and tired.  Just like any trip we had some minor health hiccups (Benson had a bad site, Tanner had an asthma attack, and Reece had a reaction to his Cold Stone ice cream).  We felt blessed and protected during the trip and that's all we could ask for.  Love this family of mine!