So I think my cousin Jennifer and I just pulled off the greatest surprise ever for our girls. They haven't seen each other for 2 years which is huge since we used to see each other 2 or 3 times a year and so we were ecstatic when we found out we were going to get to see each other. You know how they say, "having a missionary out will bring blessings to your family," well, having my sister Ashley out sure did. She baptized the sweetest man, Brother Morris, and he offered our family buddy passes so we hoped on it. Friday morning I had our bags all packed and picked out a warm outfit for Emma to wear to the airport and then my parents came over to watch our boys while we headed out. Emma didn't want to go "run errands" with me she wanted to stay and play with them but after convincing her to come and forcing her to change her attitude she came with us. We finally arrived at the airport and she kept asking what we were doing there and thought for sure we were going to get ice cream afterwards because she heard Jared and I talking about that the night before (but it was really after the airport in Chicago we would go get ice cream with the girls). So we unloaded our bags and Emma realized she had one and we said goodbye and headed inside. She kept asking where we were going but I wouldn't tell her and then the guy at the ticket counter asked where we were going so I had to say, "Cincinnati but then to Chicago." Then Emma says, "Don't Abby and Sidney live in Chicago?" my response, "no actually they live in Morton Grove (surrounding city)." So we waited and waited and finally we were able to get on the flight - buddy passes have to board last so its a risk.
During the flight Emma was excited but not the excitement I was hoping for, I think it was all just to overwhelming for her. Landing in Ohio for our layover was the scariest part, if we didn't make that flight we would have to sleep in the airport. We sat there and nervously watched the screen the entire time to see if we made it, all while texting daddy and Jennifer. We started out 19 and 20 on the list and were the very last 2 people let on the plane but we didn't care, we made it! On that flight Emma said, "wouldn't that be cool if Abby and Sidney showed up at the airport and let us stay at their house one night and play," and I said, "how would they know that we were here?" and she said, "cause you kept texting Jennifer, " and then I said, "ya, that would be cool but they are busy having dinner and stuff so it won't happen. We finally land and I get the video camera out because as soon as we head down the escalator the Fa'anunus will be there waiting for us and they didn't know about it and Emma still didn't realize since I was lying to her so I got out the camera and started filming and then they saw each other. Emma just giggled her nervous/excited giggle, Sidney ran over and hugged us and Abby looked at her mom and said, "I knew it!" So it was a total fun surprise. When we left the airport we were nervous how the girls would take to each other since its been 2 years but they just picked up right where they left off, it made us so happy. We went out to go get some ice cream and while we were there Emma asked me a few times, "so are we just staying at their house one night and then going to the hotel?" She had a really hard time comprehending that we were there to stay with them the whole trip since I lied to her so much to keep it a surprise.
That night the girls went to bed at 11:30pm (actually they went to bed that time every night) and then got up at 7am. Saturday was a fantastic day. We got up and spent 10 hours in downtown Chicago. Riding the "El" to head downtown. The entire time on there the girls would just sit and play silly make believe chef and pretend to cook things and then have a taste test contest afterwards.
A few friends suggested we go to the American Girl store, even though our girls don't know anything about them we headed over there to check it out. It of course has tons of dolls and doll accessories to purchase but it also has a hospital, hair salon, deli and really cute and clean bathrooms with doll stands in each stall so it was a good place to take a break. The girls even found the dolls that look most like them. I love Sidney's face in this picture because she is scared of dolls and she was now being surrounded by them.
After that we decided we were hungry and needed some Chicago deep dish pizza. We went over to Gino's East and had some amazing pizza. It had a 30 minute wait out front and then somehow they skipped us in front of everyone which the girls thought was really cool and then once you sat down and waited 45 minutes for your pizza to cook you got to write all over the walls, chairs, etc. So the girls spent that time writing their names every where and finding every ones names already written.
After pizza we headed over to H&M for a little shopping and then decided we had worked off enough pizza that we could go over to the Hershey store.
Then we decided it would be really fun to take a carriage ride around Chicago and Lake Michigan. The girls thought it was fun just to pet the horse but they were thrilled when they found out we were actually going to get a ride.
The girls decided they were like princesses in the carriage so they decided to wave like they were princesses to everyone. Then people started waving back to them and then they decided they would count how many people waved and I believe their number was just over 30 people.
The favorite thing we did downtown according to the girls was the carriage ride so that made every penny spent on it worth it.
Here are a few pictures of the few remaining buildings that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. (I don't think the fire station is one of them but it is still a really cool looking building.)
After the carriage ride we decided that we had worked off the Hershey store chocolates so we headed over to Ghiradellis. Then we went over to Millinieum Park and the girls loved running back and forth between everything.
Next it was on to the Magic Bean. It is this crazy thing shaped like a giant bean and you can see your reflection in it. We took some pictures in front of that and then walked underneath it which was quite a trip. The girls loved seeing themselves.
Next, it was on to Garrett's for some famous Chicago popcorn (don't worry we saved it for the next day when we watched Twilight). After that we decided to go to the Sears Tower and see the river they dye green every year on St. Patrick's day. As you can see, we were a little late, saw the water but it looked black to us.
Notice the girls are standing in front of the first letter of each of their names, Sidney, Emma, Abby
We were going to go to the top of it since it is the tallest building in America but since we missed it by 5 minutes we decided to go at Pot Belly's instead (let me just say that this picture was taken at about 9:30pm)
Before we went into eat the sign was on but when we came out it was turned off but we still needed a photo in front of it.
Here I am pretending to be a dr on ER and save someone on the platform of the El in honor of the shows last few episodes. Jared says I am not allowed to give him the himlich because I am doing it to Emma's chest, whatever.
As I type this I realize why I gained 2 pounds over the 5 days I was there...perhaps it was all the eating :)The next day was Sunday and I got to meet my new found relatives on the other side of the family. I have heard so much about them it fun to finally meet them and I have officially decided they are my new Aunt Nancy and cousin Ashley.
Aunt Nancy knows of my great love (sarcasim) for President Obama and thought it would be funny to give me this cookie.
I saved the cookie until I got home so that Jared and I could secretly enjoy biting his head :)Aunt Nancy and Ashley had a fabulous pair of new shoes that Jennifer and I fell in love with so we went out to go get them and justified it by saying, "well since we didn't get to go to the top of Sears Tower, we can buy some new shoes!"
The girls just enjoy hanging out so much they have fun doing something out of nothing.
Here is the house that Abby and Emma slept in every night.
Emma and Abby are only 9 days apart and so we thought it would be fun if we had a birthday party for everyone with gifts and cake included.
After 5 fun filled days the girls finally had to say goodbye to each other. First there was smiles and hugs
and then before we knew it all 3 girls were bawling and then Jen and I started to tear up and then it just went downhill from there. Here is Abby sitting at home an hour later still crying and holding her webkin that Emma gave her
and then there is Emma who couldn't stop crying in the airport. She was even so pathetic that a stranger came up and offered her a bag of candy just to try and cheer her up. In this picture of her crying and holding her stomach I imagine that is what Bella looks like all the time in book 2 - ha ha annoying.
We had an amazing time and hopefully next time it wont be 2 years again before we see each other. Before I end this novel I do have to give some well deserved shout outs. First to Brother Morris, if it wasn't for him, none of this would have been possible. Second, to Jared...Wow!! That's all I can say, he watched our 3 boys plus on Monday and Tuesday he had 2 extra boys as well, amazing husband I have. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers for watching the boys on Friday, cooking Jared dinner and helping on Tuesday. Thank you Grandma Jensen for watching the boys on Saturday and for cooking dinner for Jared. And Randi, Thank you for surprising Jared with dinner on Sunday and for renting Elias 2 dinosaur movies which entertained him all week and for being willing to leave work early to get the movies even though that wasn't necessary. Thank you as well to the Votaws for another surprise dinner Monday night and for the leftovers Jared ate on Tuesday. Everyone took such good care of all my boys, I think I should leave more often! Thanks Tom for watching the younger 2 girls on Saturday while the rest of us went and played downtown. And, last but not least...Thank you Fa'anunus and McMahons for a most memorable and amazing trip!
During the flight Emma was excited but not the excitement I was hoping for, I think it was all just to overwhelming for her. Landing in Ohio for our layover was the scariest part, if we didn't make that flight we would have to sleep in the airport. We sat there and nervously watched the screen the entire time to see if we made it, all while texting daddy and Jennifer. We started out 19 and 20 on the list and were the very last 2 people let on the plane but we didn't care, we made it! On that flight Emma said, "wouldn't that be cool if Abby and Sidney showed up at the airport and let us stay at their house one night and play," and I said, "how would they know that we were here?" and she said, "cause you kept texting Jennifer, " and then I said, "ya, that would be cool but they are busy having dinner and stuff so it won't happen. We finally land and I get the video camera out because as soon as we head down the escalator the Fa'anunus will be there waiting for us and they didn't know about it and Emma still didn't realize since I was lying to her so I got out the camera and started filming and then they saw each other. Emma just giggled her nervous/excited giggle, Sidney ran over and hugged us and Abby looked at her mom and said, "I knew it!" So it was a total fun surprise. When we left the airport we were nervous how the girls would take to each other since its been 2 years but they just picked up right where they left off, it made us so happy. We went out to go get some ice cream and while we were there Emma asked me a few times, "so are we just staying at their house one night and then going to the hotel?" She had a really hard time comprehending that we were there to stay with them the whole trip since I lied to her so much to keep it a surprise.
That night the girls went to bed at 11:30pm (actually they went to bed that time every night) and then got up at 7am. Saturday was a fantastic day. We got up and spent 10 hours in downtown Chicago. Riding the "El" to head downtown. The entire time on there the girls would just sit and play silly make believe chef and pretend to cook things and then have a taste test contest afterwards.
A few friends suggested we go to the American Girl store, even though our girls don't know anything about them we headed over there to check it out. It of course has tons of dolls and doll accessories to purchase but it also has a hospital, hair salon, deli and really cute and clean bathrooms with doll stands in each stall so it was a good place to take a break. The girls even found the dolls that look most like them. I love Sidney's face in this picture because she is scared of dolls and she was now being surrounded by them.
After that we decided we were hungry and needed some Chicago deep dish pizza. We went over to Gino's East and had some amazing pizza. It had a 30 minute wait out front and then somehow they skipped us in front of everyone which the girls thought was really cool and then once you sat down and waited 45 minutes for your pizza to cook you got to write all over the walls, chairs, etc. So the girls spent that time writing their names every where and finding every ones names already written.
After pizza we headed over to H&M for a little shopping and then decided we had worked off enough pizza that we could go over to the Hershey store.
Then we decided it would be really fun to take a carriage ride around Chicago and Lake Michigan. The girls thought it was fun just to pet the horse but they were thrilled when they found out we were actually going to get a ride.
The girls decided they were like princesses in the carriage so they decided to wave like they were princesses to everyone. Then people started waving back to them and then they decided they would count how many people waved and I believe their number was just over 30 people.
The favorite thing we did downtown according to the girls was the carriage ride so that made every penny spent on it worth it.
Here are a few pictures of the few remaining buildings that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. (I don't think the fire station is one of them but it is still a really cool looking building.)
After the carriage ride we decided that we had worked off the Hershey store chocolates so we headed over to Ghiradellis. Then we went over to Millinieum Park and the girls loved running back and forth between everything.
Next it was on to the Magic Bean. It is this crazy thing shaped like a giant bean and you can see your reflection in it. We took some pictures in front of that and then walked underneath it which was quite a trip. The girls loved seeing themselves.
Next, it was on to Garrett's for some famous Chicago popcorn (don't worry we saved it for the next day when we watched Twilight). After that we decided to go to the Sears Tower and see the river they dye green every year on St. Patrick's day. As you can see, we were a little late, saw the water but it looked black to us.
Notice the girls are standing in front of the first letter of each of their names, Sidney, Emma, Abby
We were going to go to the top of it since it is the tallest building in America but since we missed it by 5 minutes we decided to go at Pot Belly's instead (let me just say that this picture was taken at about 9:30pm)
Before we went into eat the sign was on but when we came out it was turned off but we still needed a photo in front of it.
Here I am pretending to be a dr on ER and save someone on the platform of the El in honor of the shows last few episodes. Jared says I am not allowed to give him the himlich because I am doing it to Emma's chest, whatever.
As I type this I realize why I gained 2 pounds over the 5 days I was there...perhaps it was all the eating :)The next day was Sunday and I got to meet my new found relatives on the other side of the family. I have heard so much about them it fun to finally meet them and I have officially decided they are my new Aunt Nancy and cousin Ashley.
Aunt Nancy knows of my great love (sarcasim) for President Obama and thought it would be funny to give me this cookie.
I saved the cookie until I got home so that Jared and I could secretly enjoy biting his head :)Aunt Nancy and Ashley had a fabulous pair of new shoes that Jennifer and I fell in love with so we went out to go get them and justified it by saying, "well since we didn't get to go to the top of Sears Tower, we can buy some new shoes!"
The girls just enjoy hanging out so much they have fun doing something out of nothing.
Here is the house that Abby and Emma slept in every night.
Emma and Abby are only 9 days apart and so we thought it would be fun if we had a birthday party for everyone with gifts and cake included.
After 5 fun filled days the girls finally had to say goodbye to each other. First there was smiles and hugs
and then before we knew it all 3 girls were bawling and then Jen and I started to tear up and then it just went downhill from there. Here is Abby sitting at home an hour later still crying and holding her webkin that Emma gave her
and then there is Emma who couldn't stop crying in the airport. She was even so pathetic that a stranger came up and offered her a bag of candy just to try and cheer her up. In this picture of her crying and holding her stomach I imagine that is what Bella looks like all the time in book 2 - ha ha annoying.
We had an amazing time and hopefully next time it wont be 2 years again before we see each other. Before I end this novel I do have to give some well deserved shout outs. First to Brother Morris, if it wasn't for him, none of this would have been possible. Second, to Jared...Wow!! That's all I can say, he watched our 3 boys plus on Monday and Tuesday he had 2 extra boys as well, amazing husband I have. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers for watching the boys on Friday, cooking Jared dinner and helping on Tuesday. Thank you Grandma Jensen for watching the boys on Saturday and for cooking dinner for Jared. And Randi, Thank you for surprising Jared with dinner on Sunday and for renting Elias 2 dinosaur movies which entertained him all week and for being willing to leave work early to get the movies even though that wasn't necessary. Thank you as well to the Votaws for another surprise dinner Monday night and for the leftovers Jared ate on Tuesday. Everyone took such good care of all my boys, I think I should leave more often! Thanks Tom for watching the younger 2 girls on Saturday while the rest of us went and played downtown. And, last but not least...Thank you Fa'anunus and McMahons for a most memorable and amazing trip!
