Thanksgiving 2016

A couple of months ago, my family moved to Chicago because my dad got a new job. It's my year for Thanksgiving and Sam's year for Christmas. So we flew out to Chicago to see my family for Thanksgiving. Our journey started early the Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving. We left our house at about 3:30 AM with my sister Sarah and brother Mitchell to catch our flight. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Salt Lake TSA to be kind and even funny. We had a great experience at the SLC airport. Everly did OK on the flight. We boarded first because we had Everly and she screamed and threw a tantrum the entire boarding process. I could tell other passengers were annoyed and worried about the flight. We were flying to Minneapolis for a connecting flight to Chicago. By some miracle, once we took off, Everly just fell asleep in my arms and actually slept the whole flight. We were on a plane that felt brand new. It had a great entertainment system built in each seat and the seats were so comfy. It was a great flight. Once we landed in Minneapolis, we had a four hour layover. We found a place to crash and settled in for a few hours. We walked around with Everly, she loved the moving walkway things. We got some food and just hung out. Everly made a few new friends and was running around with them. We only had one bad run in with a Delta worker who was a total beats to me and later to Sam. Our flight to Chicago was nice. Everly fell asleep again and slept just about the whole time. My dad was there to meet us at the airport. He took us on a small tour of where he works and some of the areas around their little community. We finished off the day relaxing at my parents house and eating a wonderful home cooked meal.

My parents moved to Libertyville. It's only about 25 minutes away from Wisconsin and about 45 minutes from downtown Chicago. Libertiville has a population of 20,000 and is it's own complete community with everything you'd need. It's a very safe area (everyone I tell that my family moved to Chicago freaks out that it's so dangerous!). It was fun to get to see their new home. These little villages in IL are just adorable and the houses are to die for. I loved getting a tour of my parents 1925 Prairie Bungalow home. Sam is doing some renovation plans for my parents on their home.

My dad had to work a half day on Wednesday. We spent the morning getting ready for the day and my sister Jessica took us to the mall in Libertyville where she works. We checked stuff out and of course hit up Costco. My dad was home for lunch and after we ate he wanted to take us in to the city. I was able to leave Everly with my mom, Ben and Jessica. It was so nice to be able to go to the city without her and relax and enjoy myself. It took two hours to get in to the city because of the traffic. It was overcast and foggy in the city which made it sort of magical! We started off with a driving tour around Soldier Field because my dad was telling us about how weird it's designed. We went to Cloud Gate (AKA The Bean) which was so cool in the fog. We started walking down the Magnificent Mile and checked out the buildings and shops. My dad took us to Eatly. Okay this place is the best. It's a grocery store full of premium Italian cooking ingredients with little restaurants. We ate dinner there. I ordered a homemade ravioli filled with ricotta and prosciutto it was divine. We had gelato for dessert! On our way out of Eatly, my dad had this man start shining his shoes out of no where. It was hilarious! My dad and brother Mitchell went back to the car while Sarah, Sam and I kept walking along the Magnificent Mile and shopping. My dad picked us up and we headed back to my parents house. I have never been away from Everly for so long. We were gone seven hours! My mom said she did well until my mom tried to get her ready for bed. Then she flipped out. She was screaming when we got back and I felt bad for my mom.

I need this shirt

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Sam spent most of the day taking measurements and pictures of my parents home so he could work on it. We drove out to Wisconsin to check out the Cheese Castle. It was so yummy. They had a wonderful bakery and a whole room dedicated to all types of cheeses. They had anything you could think of. The samples were just to die for. It was so delicious. I spent a pretty penny on cheese that day. But it was so worth it. Our Thanksgiving meal was super chill and relaxing. It was just my parents and siblings and us.

Friday morning my dad took us on a little tour again. We went to this beach called Secret Beach off of Lake Michigan. It was cold. I touched the water and I can't imagine that water is warm even in the summer. It was freezing! But it was fun to see the Lake. We then drove out to see the LDS Chicago temple. We walked around it but it was cold outside so it was a quick trip. For lunch, my dad bought Gioradano's pizza which is the fabulous deep dish Chicago pizza. It was super yummy!! After lunch we went back to Wisconsin for some antique shopping and headed home to Libertyville to finish out some errands.

Saturday we went down to the city to see Wrigley Field home of the Chicago Cubs. They were doing construction so we just walked around the outside of it. We got a small glimpse inside at one point. There were tons of people walking around it taking pictures and stuff. My dad, Ben, Mitchell and Everly went back home to my mom. The rest of us went back to downtown again. We wanted to see the Navy Pier. Sadly, there weren't any events or festivals going on at the pier so it was a let down. But we parked there and Sam wanted to go to the Art Museum so we headed that way. My sisters and I took off shopping which was a blast. We don't get to spend much time just the three of us so it was super fun. We ate at the Grand Lux Cafe and it turned in to a two hour thing. We had to wait forever for a table. Then our waiter was the worst waiter in history. We ended up deciding to share one meal together so we'd be hungry for the lasagna and chicken piccata feast my mom was making for dinner. We laughed about it but the waiter really was awful. The food was good but it wasn't anything too special. The dessert (Chocolate Molten Lava Cake) was exquisite though and I could have eaten about 10 more where that came from. Man that was yummy! At about this time Sam text me that he only had one more stop to make and then he was done. So we finished eating and went through a couple more stores. I tried sending Sam a few texts and received no response. I called him 17 times over the next two hours with no response and I started to panic. His phone was ringing so I didn't think it had died. I was so worried and didn't know what to do. We decided to walk back to the car and he was there. His phone said "you have illegally flashed your phone" and turned off. We had to take it to a T-Mobile store to get it fixed and he lost all his data, pictures, videos and apps. It was such a bummer but I was so thankful to find him at the car!! We had a dinner party with my parent's long time family friends the Austin's. My mom's cooking was delish! We packed up that night after dinner.

We woke up at 4:30AM Sunday morning to leave the house and make it to our flight. We had a direct flight. TSA ruined my experience and make me go back to the Delta line to stand there for another 20 minutes to have "infant" printed on my boarding pass so I could board with Everly. I've had this problem before but TSA has always let me through. Not in O'Hare. UHG...I was so mad!!! But once we were through security the rest of the trip home went smoothly. It was such a fun trip and we can't wait to go back to Chicago and explore more!