Happy Birthday Kelsey!

Above: Chicago Cultural Center

Above: The view from Kelsey's school

                             

Our Ride:)

Chicago Holy Name Cathedral

"The Bean"

                                                              Above: Birthday Dinner

We surprised my daughter by coming to Chicago for her birthday....didn't want her to spend the day alone.
It was a great but busy day!
We all took the train in the morning. It was a crazy ride just trying to get there on time. We hit every stop light, got behind every school bus, and hit at least three construction sites! Not to mention when we got to the station we still had to park in the deck and stop by the desk to get our tickets printed out.
We arrived with 15 minutes to spare....got to the desk only to find out there was a delay and had to wait an hour for the train. Unfortunately, this cut our time with Kelsey a little shorter than we planned.

Once we got there, Kelsey took us around to some sites we haven't seen yet. (Dad usually has to work and doesn't get to come up often.)
All her friends kept telling her she had to stop and see the cultural center, so that's where we headed first.
It is a beautiful building... accented with millions of small tile designs, gorgeous domed ceilings, and some amazing wood work.

We also got to visit one of the college campus' she attends...its was an unusual set-up for a college, but nice to see her daily routine. It's almost like it is one whole floor of a mall. There are lots of shops and a food court. The class rooms are all in one area. I'm not sure exactly how many floors it has, but there were a lot! The view from the front of the school was just breath taking!

The next stop was my pick, The Holy Name Cathedral. The guys sorta moaned and groaned about this one,
but it was worth the stop.

Dad didn't get to see "The Bean" when we went, so we swung by there on our way to Kelsey's Birthday dinner. We had such a good time when we went there before, we just had to take him to Millenium Park.

Last but not least, we went to dinner where we got to see dad wearing a bib! (He wouldn't let me post a picture, but we got to poke some fun. I also didn't notice he gave me the bird while trying to dodge my photo, so ya probably best no post lol.)
Sang Happy Birthday to our birthday girl ... took the poor college kid shopping to buy toilet paper and all the other goodies she needed before we had to head back to the Union Station to catch our train.
Even though it was a slower paced day than we usually have when we visit, the guys were wiped out and went to bed as soon as we got home. LOL they are soft hahaha.

Happy Birthday Kelsey!! We love you and enjoyed out day together.

Little Houses ATC

For this ATC you could have one house or a row of houses as long as it fit on an ATC card and the roof line was cut out. Sounded like this would be fun so I joined the swap and this is what I came up with. Lots of small pieces to put together, but I like how it turned out. I wanted to add more texture to it, but I didn't want it to get smashed or to heavy to go through the mail. Of coarse, mine is going to an artist...hope she enjoys:)

Chicago Moving Day

Above: My daughter took us to a multi-restaurant place with the coolest decor...it had some thing for everyone. (Barnelli's Gourmet salads,Portillo's Hot Dogs and not sure what else was there...)

Above: Chicago Hard Rock Cafe

Above: Rainforest Cafe
We didn't eat at all these places, but we have been there before and stopped in to check out the gift shops. They are all across the street from each other.

Chicago's Rock'in McDonalds

Above: Art - We saw this cool sculpture on the way home...

Above: Im not even sure what this building is called, but its beautiful lit up at night.(its to the right of the Sears/Willis Tower) We got to talking about it over dinner with my daughter's friends and they told me there is a story behind it...
I guess a rich guy built it to propose to his girl...and took her up the Sear's tower to look down at it.
When its viewed from up there all lit up I'm told it looks like a big diamond ring....
They weren't 100 percent sure how the story goes but that is the gist of it.
How could a girl say no to that! Any way, I thought the story was romantic, even if my photo sorta sucks:)

I actually went to Chicago this time to help my daughter move into her new apartment at the school dorms.
Its very cute, and she has it all to herself. We worked all day, but got done in no time...then had some fun.

She still had stuff to put away and decorate, but the hardest part was finished.
Now, I just need a week to recover from the weekend LOL.