the "Bean", Navy Pier, and the Brendsels

The sun was shining after the kids woke from their nap, so we walked up Michigan Avenue to Millenium Park and saw the "Bean".

Lydia loved it

Afterwards we walked to my Aunt's place and had dinner with her. Yummy pasta and garlic bread and salad... we all devoured it.

Thursday AM the weather was warm and sunny so we decided to walk the 2 miles to Navy Pier. We stopped for buy-one-get-one free Caribou coffees on our way :) Not a bad morning! The kids loved the statues at the entrance to Navy Pier.

Rollie, Bob Newhart, and Lydia

We used a Groupon to get tickets for the Tall Ship Windy sailing tour and then walked the length of the pier. At the very end a sailing boat race was under way so we stopped to watch for a few minutes. Then back to the ferris wheel... Lydia was begging to ride it and we all had a good time.

By now we were crunched for time before our boat tour, so we quickly bought Chicago hot dogs for lunch. Ben was still carrying the end of his when we boarded the ship. We sailed the shoreline and into lake Michigan for a little over an hour. The weather held out until our last 30 minutes when it started to rain, but we all had hoods and there was some shelter on the boat.

On our way to the bus stop we bought a small bag of the BEST pecan carmel corn we've ever had... we're now wishing that we had bought a much bigger bag :)

The kids went down for a late nap and then our friend Jen and her husband Dan came into the city from Wheaton to meet us for dinner. Jen was my roommate in Minneapolis before Rollie and I got married, and we worked at our church together as well. Her husband is now at Wheaton working on his doctorate and Jen works at Wheaton Academy. It was so great to see them and catch up, it's probably been 4 years since we've seen each other and they had never met the kids. Jen and Dan are in the process of adopting a beautiful baby boy (John) from Korea. We're praying they'll be able to bring him home soon!

We had so much fun with Jen and Dan that we forgot to take a picture. So Jen kindly took this one with her phone when they got to their car :)

We leave bright and early Friday morning on the train to my grandmother's house in Mattoon, IL. Even though we're all in one hotel room, it's been very relaxing and a great time to just be on vacation as our own family. We love you, Chicago!