The Windy City

While we were out in Wisconsin, we took a trip down to Chicago.  At first we were a little overwhelmed by the busyness and enormity of the city, but once we settled in and pretended to fit in with 4 kids and strollers, H/H, it was so much FUN!!! 

On this trip we WALKED AND WALKED AND WALKED.  

David tracked us on his phone, and the one day we were there, we walked a little over 8 miles!  Adam walked the whole way without complaining.  He is such a trooper.  All the kids did amazingly well for the humidity, heat, and long days.  I am so glad they did, because we got to do so much!  

"The Bean"

I'm not really sure what it is called, but it was a pretty cool piece of art in the middle of the city.  We had a lot fun taking different kinds of pictures with it.

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Oh so yummy!

Field Museum of Natural History

We were able to use our museum passes here and at the Planetarium, so we tried to pack both in.  We wished we had more time at each place, but thought it was cool we could even see both!

Can you find Adam??

Adler Planetarium 

This place had so many interactive fun things for the kids!

Sadly, Adam thought you were supposed to put your head through the hole.  Needless to say, we had a pretty hard time getting his head back out!  Poor Kid.

There were so many different things going on for one day in one place, it was crazy!  The Taste of Chicago was going on, protesters were out for and against abortion, they had concerts going on all over the city, a Children's Festival was happening, and they had fireworks that night for something else.  People and police were everywhere, families begging for money, city performers, horns honking, trains flying by... Those were just a few things we happened to run into on our walk around the city.  I had forgotten what big cities were like.   

Children's Festival

This was crazy.  While we were at the Children's Festival, we just happened to run into an old friend from the BYU Track Team that both Amber and I knew.  Such a small world.  It was fun to visit with her and just so funny because she didn't know Amber and I knew each other and just thought we all happened to be in the same place at the same time:)  

Yes Adam got wet.  Really, Really wet!

We didn't go up Willis Tower, but stood outside it.

We went to this outdoor amphitheatre and heard a live orchestra perform, "The Planet Earth".  They had nature pictures on a huge screen and it was all FREE:)  It was pretty cool.

Ashley enjoying the show

Of course we had to stop by the Ghiradelli shop.  We got free chocolate and got some yummy, yummy ice cream:)

On our way to Chicago, we went out of the way to hit the state Michigan, so just had to get that in there, H/H!

We pretty much booked it all the way home, but had some stops along the way.

We were pretty exhausted after this trip, but had a blast!

EPIC: An Inter-Galactic Society

On our trip, we visited Jordan's work, Epic, in Verona. WI.  We spent 4 1/2 hours touring, and there was still so much more we didn't see!  It was quite the impressive facility and our kids had a grand ol' time.  Epic has a unique culture and campus.  Each building has its own theme and is decked out.  They really try to make it a fun atmosphere for their employees and customers.  We ate lunch there one day and they have gourmet chefs, but you only pay the "at cost" for the food, so it is really cheap.  We could have taken so many pictures in each building, they were all like museums, but here are a few!

The Tree House      

 Heaven

 One building had funny mirrors and a slide

They buy local art which is pretty cool 

 Jordan's building is themed, "Dungeons and Dragons", so in their Conference Room, they have this massive dragon.

This was a view from one of their buildings.  They had these awesome hammock swinging chairs out on a deck.  Oh it was so beautiful and peaceful.  I could have stayed there all day!

  

 It's hard to explain the uniqueness and enormity of this campus, but it definitely is a world of its own and was a lot of fun to visit. 

Wisconsin!

 We had such a great trip with Jordan and Amber. I can't believe how much we packed in.  Jordan and Amber are "get out and doer's" too, so it made it a lot of fun.     

We got to go to Madison's Art Fair and Farmer's Market.  They had the most to die for cheese bread and some Chicago Style Kettle Corn!  I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but it was gone too fast:)  We saw the views from the Monona Terrace by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was a beautiful day.

Madison's Children's Museum

We bought passes that got us into several museums on our trip.  The kids loved this place.

Henry Vilas ZOO

After the museum, we headed off to the Zoo in Madison.  If you can believe it, it is FREE, even parking!  The family donated the land for the Zoo as long as it would always remain free to the public.  Pretty cool.  We got there a little late, so most of the animals were in for the evening, but we still managed to catch a few:)

Mount Horeb... aka Troll Town, WI

We spent an afternoon walking the streets of Jordan and Amber's cute town!  It has a lot of Norwegian and Scandinavian history/descent, so they call it Troll Town.  Throughout the town, they have trolls everywhere. They also have the neatest little shops and buildings.  They have a restaurant called the Ugly Troll, but we never made it over there.

 We were able to stop by this fun chocolate house before it closed and get some yummy treats though.  

 

                        We also were sure to get some Wisconsin custard and fried cheese curds one night.  

It was fun to have the cousins together too!  One night we played in an Ultimate Frisbee Game and the kids were great fans:)  Another night, Jordan and David watched the kids so Amber and I could go to a Broadway Musical.  It was pretty impressive!  Jordan and Amber and Katalyn were such great hosts!