cccccchhhhhiiiiicccc-ago!

Oh my, I'm sitting here so tired from traveling for the past few weeks and not having much time to rest.  Having a child growing inside while being busy helps time move faster but can wear a girl out. 

Brady won a scholarship recently for just being super smart and all the jazz - 15 people won this scholarship out of the entire world.  He was super humble when he told me but when I found out more information, I realized it was a pretty big deal. I'm looking forward to telling our baby girl how smart, humble, kind, sweet, loving, thoughtful, handsome, etc etc etc her daddy is.  He makes me so happy and excited to make little humans with because I know our kids will be wrapped around his finger.

We took a 6am flight from LAX to O'Hare, barely making it because we slept through our alarm clocks. Somehow we made it; a true miracle.  

For my birthday, Brady got me an ipad which kept us busy playing games (freeCell and Spider) non-stop.  We watched a football movie and then, just like that, we were in Chicago.

I have been in this airport before, but not during Christmas time, and daaaaaannnng, it was so festive.  We looked up Home Alone locations for filming and this was it.  It made us want to run to our flight, frantic. 

I'm packing the heat, double fisting my hot chai and oatmeal.  

Little did I know how underdressed I was here.  

View from our beautiful hotel. It was in the perfect location, right in the lake district. 

The Vow and Wicker Park were movies running through my head of places I wanted to see.

Brady took this one below at night

We first stopped by his implant conference, snuck into a class and then got lunch. After we walked around the city for a bit, relaxed and then got ready for the scholarship reception they held for all the residents in one of the coolest buildings.  It had gothic architecture all over; a humanities professors dream building.  My pregnancy brain won't let me remember what it was called. We met the CEO and President of a huge company based out of Sweden and they invited us out to visit headquarters.  I think we may take them up on that offer someday.

After we walked around town more, and even fell upon a Pinkberry.  That place is my favorite and Brady's now too.  Ours closer to our place is hard to get to, so we capitalized on our opportunity. 

The next day Brady went to his conference, I slept in... I had to! I was still on LA time. I got ready, walked around the city and joined him for lunch at the hotel, then we went into a few lectures.  It was a perfect opportunity for me to write thank you cards.  I do feel like I could tell you about the minimal procedures for implants after going to so many conferences and sitting in on so many lectures.  Oral and Maxiollfacial Surgery is not for the faint of heart.... those bloody pictures, bloody mouths, the way most Oral Surgeons talk in monotone, I tell you this, ADD or ADHD is something anyone outside of the dental field would incur.  I love that Brady loves what he does and wants to do this for the rest of his life.  He is perfect for it.

We went back to the hotel to relax, take a nap and then walked over to get dinner at Giordanos. We waited an hour to be sat, along with 20 other people.  It was a popular place... but I do have to say it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.  It was hard crusted and quite frankly, Mamas Pizza up the street from us is loads better.  I thought it was because mine was GF but Brady agreed, his wasn't as good as he expected.  Maybe BJ's has ruined our idea of true Chicago pizza?

 

After pizza we walked over to the ice skating rink at Millennium Park and the Bean.  

We got hot chocolate and walked around.  A local told us about a better pizza place and then told me and the baby would really like a dessert.... I felt so flattered he could tell I was pregnant.  After wearing so many layers and a marshmallow jacket, I felt like the chubbiest girl on the block. 

The next morning Brady woke me up with Do-Rite Doughnuts. Hands down, the BEST I've ever had. Fresh, gluten-free and warm! Oh so good! I felt like I gained 20 pounds after eating two in 5 minutes but it was what heaven will taste like without all the guilt, at least I hear. 

crushed peppermint over chocolate glazed

Brady went back to the conference and I walked over to get my nails done because Arizona trashed my feet.  It was so dry there and my feet felt like they were crumbling.  The lady doing my nails and feet actually brought out an actual cheese-grater. I knew they were bad but cheese-grater? It hurt like a motha, but did the job.  She then proceeded to wrap my toes in plastic wrap, and tightly wrapped my tootsies up like they were dinner's leftovers! After getting my nails done, it took me 5 minutes to put all the layers on.  Chicago is cold! int he 30's and they all said this was good weather.

We went back to our hotel to eat lunch (leftovers), then relaxed, got ready for a night out.

Brady wanted a picture here, in front of the Chicago sign, so we asked the tallest man that walked by.

After we took the subway to the Willis Tower, where we waited over an hour to go upstairs to go visit the skydeck on the 103rd floor. 

Brady is the ultimate tourist, but I love him more and more.

He could take pictures all day on vacation while I could talk to any stranger all day without taking any pictures.  Somehow we mold together and I think we mold rather nicely.

I was so sick from being in that glass tank.  Normally I'm not afraid of heights but this one did me over.  Brady wanted the most perfect picture but of course the people standing behind us, taking the picture were short people. We aren't the tallest.  I'm a good 5'6 and Brady is 5'8 and these people were a good 4'11.  

I made us get the $25 picture since we didn't get the perfect one from Brady's camera... it's a picture of a picture, so not the best quality.

Here are more that Brady took with his cannon.

After we walked around, got a light dinner at Potbelly and then went to the Chicago Symphony. 

It was incredible! Our favorite part was the Nutcracker part but all three parts were beautiful.  Baby Girl was running a muck in my belly, especially when the drums were going off.

Sunday we slept in, watched the ratings for the pack 12 college teams and checked out of our hotel. We got brunch at the Bongo room, stuffing our faces.  Oh my sweet-tooth heart, be still. I couldn't even touch the good stuff, but dang, it looked good.  Grateful my husband shares my interest in sugar.

After we tried to walk around but the cold was too much, so we tagged down a taxi.

He took us to the German Market where we bought these fresh French Maccaroons from some nuns who spoke only a lick of english. 

The Market was incredible. I hope we can go back around Christmas again, another time.

Our tradition is to get a new ornament every year, so Brady found a pregnant lady. We brought this one home, baby!  

After freezing every part of our bodies, we warmed up with hot chocolate and medical discussions. 

We were thrilled to fly home... oh how we missed our house. We miss Jackson. We don't want to travel for a while.

Today we had another specialist ultrasound, baby girl is thriving! She is looking good and healthy. I am seeing so much of my first son Isaac in her face but Brady's profile.  I see my dad's knobby knees and Brady's lips and my mom's legs.  She was putting on a show and am so glad Brady was there to see it.