Grandparents!

My parents were able to come and visit recently, which was super awesome! There was some great Chicago weather for their trip and we packed a lot of fun into their 2.5 days here.

My dad had ever been to Chicago so our first objective was to spend some time in the city. We went to Giordano's in Hyde Park for lunch on their first full day. I will not be teasing you with pictures of delicious deep dish, but instead show you some luscious lips :). Eden has been really rocking the facial expressions the last few days!

After stuffing ourselves with pizza we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry. Having never been I didn't quite know what to expect and was surprised at the wide array of large exhibits. We hit up the circus first, then a submarine around which an entire building was constructed to house the exhibit, followed by cloned or genetically altered chickies (I was keeping up with a 3 year old and reading signs was trumped by staring at the cute fury things hatching from eggs), and then the elaborate miniature trains that meandered through open plains and small towns ending up scooting between skyscrapers. Here are the lovely conductor grandparents:

Eden was scared by the weather exhibit so we headed to the ToyMaker where she got to watch a factory set up make her toy- so cool! There was a children's museum-like explorer center with water games and big blocks, an elaborate miniature castle, Farmville with tractors and cows to climb, and a real airplane. Eden was so excited to see what the inside of a plane was and had us all sit down, buckle up, and fly to Israel- and of course do it all again so we wouldn't be stuck in Israel!

The next day we packed a picnic and headed to Wagner Farm which is our favorite "local" free activity, in a suburb about 15 minutes south of ours. It is an old family farm turned park district. They have tons of live animals and maintained vegetable gardens as well as some indoor activities.

Here is Eden checking out the new chickens:

And the cows:

And playing some of the indoor games:

(Pregnant belly alert!!)

Pie and grandpa are both awesome :)

We also played at the tree house in our local mall and walked to the beach near our house. About that time we got a call from Thomas that his tests were over!! He still has two comprehensive exams left to complete in May, but these were the hardest ones and we are both so glad they are over. And not just over, but Thomas feels very positive about his results. So we took him out for dinner to celebrate.

After a nice breakfast at our favorite little diner- the grandparents left, with Eden begging for a trip to Texas at their heals!


We dearly miss all of our family and covet these brief visits. We will be seeing more of everyone on our trip to Texas in May and are looking forward to drawing out a few more visitors with the promise of a  cute baby just around the corner.