Reese's Come to Visit

Last week was UEA break in Utah, and Judy and Annie didn't have work so all of Tom's family came to visit for a few days. We were so excited to have them come visit. We all visited Chicago together in 2009, so we tried to hit the different things around the city that we didn't go to during our first visit together. They arrived late Wednesday night, Ainsley was so excited to see them that she took a late nap so she could stay up until 10:00 to see them before they got to their hotel. The next morning, Tom had to work so the family came over to our house. First we went to Ainsley's ballet class so they could watch the final performance of the Snow White ballet class. Ainsley loved having them there to show off all her dance moves. After ballet, we met up with Tom for lunch at Panera and then drove them around our little city to show them where we live. Then we headed to the store to buy pumpkins and for the girls to do a little shopping. That night, we were able to hold our traditional pumpkin carving/pizza FHE night with the Reese family. This is a tradition we haven't been able to do since we moved away from Utah three years ago. It was a lot of fun. Grandpa and Grandma had bought Ainsley a pumpkin Bright Light kit and Grandpa helped Ainsley hammer in all of the colored pegs to make a funny face. After putting the kids to bed, we watched Psycho...which I had never seen before. It was a fun night, we've missed hanging out with family.
On Friday, Tom took work off and we all drove into the city. We drove to the Science and Industry museum. It was an amazing museum. We thought we would only be there for a few hours, but it was so big and interesting we ended up staying the entire day. Just some of the displays we saw included several of the Apollo space artifacts, baby chicks, model trains, weather experiments, a fairy doll castle, farm equipment, and circus displays. But the coolest exhibit was the German U-boat. It is the only German WWII submarine on display in the US. It was captured off the coast of Africa during the war and secretly taken to Bermuda so it could be studied and used during the war by the Allies. Only one german was killed during the capture and all of the remaining sailors were taken to a POW camp in Louisiana and released after the war. We couldn't believe that 59 men lived on the submarine for 3 months at a time. It seemed so cramped. It was really interesting. After we visited the Science and Industry museum, we walked to the University of Chicago campus where we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then walked around to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House. Then we drove home, which in Chicago commuter traffic took us almost two hours...which is why we usually take the train into the city:)

Ainsley loved the baby chick display....we watched as new baby chicks emerged from their shells

Annie, Me, Judy, and Susie in front of the German U-boat

Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie style Robie House

On Saturday, we went into the city again. This time we took the train into the city. Ainsley was so excited to ride on the upper level of the train with Grandpa. When we got to Chicago, we immediately headed for the water taxi which is located next to the train station. We had to wait for about 20 minutes for the taxi because it was the day to bring in the sailboats from Lake Michigan. On our architecture tour a few weeks ago, they told us that they only lift the bridges twice a year for all of the sailboats-in April to take them out to the lake for the summer and again in October to bring them back in for Winter storage. We were lucky enough to be there right when a huge group of them were coming down the river to dock for winter storage. They would lift two bridges at a time to let the boats in and to avoid traffic in the city. It was really neat to watch. After we caught the water taxi, we went to take family pictures at the Wrigley Building. Then we headed to Navy Pier. Ainsley wanted to ride the Thomas the Train ride again. We walked along the pier and enjoyed the beautiful day. It was so warm. Then we headed to Xoco for lunch. As usual, we had to wait awhile but we had a delicious lunch. Then we shopped along Michigan Avenue for the rest of the afternoon. Then we rushed back to catch the train, but unfortunatey missed in by about 2 minutes. We had to kill an hour in the train station so we all got drinks at McDonalds and enjoyed some Dunkin Donuts before heading home. Poor Ainsley got sick and threw up on the train ride home, luckily Grandma took care of her. It was not the most pleasant ride home.

At the Disney store, they were giving away prizes if you wore your Halloween costume so we brought Ainsley's princess dress. Then she wanted to wear it the rest of the day so we attracted a lot of attention on Michigan Avenue with our little Snow White. It was pretty cute.

Killing time at the train station....we put Ainsley's McDonalds bucket on Sam's head for entertainment

On their last day, the Reese's came to church with us. Afterward, we headed to our house to enjoy one another's company for a few hours before their flight. Ainsley loved having them there to play with her. They played Candyland, drew pictures with sidewalk chalk on our porch, and played many games of Memory-most of which Ainsley won. She was in heaven. Grandpa even took Ainsley on one of their special walks. She showed him the park where we go walking and play with Ella. He bought her Hot Chocolate and they played together at the park. She loves that special one on one time with him. We still tease her about last summer when he tried to take Sam on a walk without her and Ainsley started crying because that was "her special thing" to do with Grandpa. After their walk, we had dinner and ice-cream before they headed out. It was a fun weekend and it went much too fast! We probably won't all be together again until after Germany next summer. We will really miss them!
*want to know a fun fact...my sister Cami and Tom's sister Susan are in the same singles ward (for the second time) in Utah and are actually Visiting Teaching companions...funny huh?

Thanks for the fun visit! Come again soon! We love you and miss you! Thanks for everything!!!