Sam's birthday festivities

The Chicago post was so epic that it's taken me a while to get back in the blogging groove. We'll start with the biggest news of late - Sam turned six! His birthday was on Sunday, but the party started much earlier. Thursday, a friend from church had a party at a new trampoline park place in town. I'm glad that he and Sam have birthdays close together so hopefully this kid does something cool every year and I won't have to.

Friday they celebrated at school by singing to him and giving him this hat. He also go to be the teacher's special helper for the day.

Friday night was the church Fathers and Sons campout. Sam was super excited to go. I asked Dan to send me pictures. Here are the two he sent.

From what I've been told, Friday night they set up and then played with footballs and soccer balls. They has roasted 'smores and looked at the stars. Sam didn't go to bed until 11! Saturday morning, Dan was in charge of the breakfast and then after that they played tug-of-war and had an egg toss. Sam and Dan came in fourth out of 25 teams. I was impressed. They had a lot of fun.

Sunday Mom and Dad came over from Charlottesville and went to church with us, which was nice. Mom helped me in my primary class. They sang to Sam in church and his teacher gave him a mug full of candy. After church we had lunch, then quiet time, then for dinner we made our own personal pizzas, opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. We were celebrating my dad's birthday, too, since it was just five days before. This year, Sam requested a simple double layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Birthday boys.

 

 Sam received switch-n-go dinos, magic tree house books, a maze book and a dinosaur book from G&G Cheney; a check to pick out a toy from G&G Durst; Jenga, legos, a hat, and a water gun from us. Dan is also in the process of building Sam a playset completely from scratch. I think I'll do a separate post for that. I'm amazed at what Dan can just come up with.

We love Sam so much and are so grateful that he came to our family. I don't know how I got so lucky to be his mom. He knows wrong from right and tries so hard to be good. He is a good friend and great big brother. He has so much faith. He loves to play angry birds and fruit ninja on Dan's phone for a few minutes every morning. He likes to play with his switch-no-go dinos and he really likes Magic Tree House books. (Good thing there's 50 of them!) He likes to watch old school Transformers on netflix, as well as some random Godzilla cartoon and Wild Kratts. When he grows up, he says he wants to be a missionary.

CHICAGO

For the past 6 or so years, I've wanted to go to Chicago. More specifically, I wanted to see the Bean. (Formally known as Cloud Gate.) Wouldn't you know it, my sister and her husband, Craig, moved to Chicago last year so that he could attend business school there. For Christmas, Dan surprised me with a ticket to visit! (They'll only be there one more year and she's having a baby in July, so the timing was good.) (Candice already wrote a really good summary of my trip and we'll have a lot of the same pics, but I need to do it for my own journaling purposes.)

I flew out on Wednesday and got there early. I took the L all by myself into the big city. I was expecting it to be ghetto and for a one-armed man to attack me, but it didn't happen. All was chill. I ended up emerging off the L into the basement of City Hall, so I was totally disoriented, but it was a really pretty building and a nice police man helped me figure out where Candice and Craig were. First stop was a donut shop I'd heard good things about - Do-Rite Donuts. Tiny joint, expensive donuts, but good.

We went back to their place so Craig could go to school, Charlotte to preschool, and Millie for a nap. We walked around the University of Chicago (where Craig attends) in a light drizzle. It was pretty. And cold. I am a cold weather wimp.

After dinner, Candice and I went to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was really good. We saw a ton of famous paintings.

VanGoghs, O'Keefes, Monets, the usual. I decided that some of my favorite artists are from the Hudson River School. I like landscapes. They had a Thomas Moran that I thought was really beautiful but I can't find it on their website. (You should look him up, Mom. He painted the Tetons.)

My favorite exhibit was this amazing big room downstairs where they had a bunch of miniature dioramas set into the walls. Each one represented a type of room and style (ex. New England kitchen circa 1775) and it was amazing. These pictures don't do it justice.

Isn't that crazy?

Afterwards we hit up Millenium Park which was pretty abandoned since it was late and wet. Absolutely awesome!

It was around this point that we (more specifically, Candice) were approached by a guy high on drugs telling us this ridiculous story about how his phone was cut from a strap on his leg by two homeless guys and how he needed money to get home.

I kept expecting Max to come out and say, "YOU ARE... THE NAVIGATOR!"

We saw these face fountains, too.

Friday morning we hit up the Garfield Conservatory, which was partially under construction. We were basically the only ones there, which was nice.

Craig watched the girls for the second half of the day. Candice and I rode the bus with crazy people, then went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The building is from the Chicago World Fair back in 1893. That was one of the main reasons I wanted to go there. Such a cool building.

Hurricane simulator.

They have a U-boat in the museum that is one of only three in the world not in water. Pretty amazing.

We hit up the Hancock Tower's 96th floor for some dessert and a gorgeous view.

Then we walked the Magnificent Mile (and then at least another mile) to our second destination - The Rookery, Chicago's oldest high-rise at 11 floors also built by the same guys who were the masterminds behind the 1893 Fair. Unfortunately, unless you're there for the one tour they give each day, you're only allowed in the lobby.

After this, we rode the crazy-town bus again and had some delish deep-dish pizza back at their apartment.

Saturday Candice and I took an architectural boat tour along the river. It was awesome.

 Above: Candice's favorite building - the Wrigley.

Below: A building in which Al Capone used to have a speakeasy in that top part.

 I can't remember what these towers were called, but they were my favorite. They're apartments. They all have to back their cars into those crazy spots.

 This is merchandise mart - which has 4 million square feet of floor space. It was the largest building in the world when it was built.

 

Next stop was Navy Pier. (Under construction). Basically just a big mall. We didn't stay long.

At this point we met up with Craig and the girls. We saw them raise the bridges to let the ships head out to Lake Michigan, which they only do a few times a year.

Then back to the bean. It was much more crowded. It was such a beautiful day!

 Business school? Craig really missed his calling in life, don't you think? A budding Derek Zoolander.

 

 Then we headed back to the fountains. The girls, especially Millie, loved walking around in the water.

 After nap time, we headed to Wrigley Field. I'm not into baseball, but I wanted to see it so C, C, C, and M obliged. A game had ended a few hours earlier and the streets were wild with people at bars, passed out on sidewalks, crazy. It was like Bourbon Street, I tell ya, but we pressed on.

Then we got korean food for dinner. What is Chicago without Korean food, really? Nothing. That's what. I'd never had Korean food before. They put a whole fried egg on top of my food. I'd never seen that before. It was really good.

Sunday was Craig's birthday and we went to church. Then CCC&M drove me to the airport. It was so fun to visit and sorry, Candice, for wearing you out so much! I love you!