Chicago / Milwaukee Trip

Wednesday evening Hailey and I arrived in Chicago, after going through security twice. The guards thought Hailey was a terrorist and made us go back through and take her shoes off and put them through the x-ray! The airport has gotten quite ridiculous. We stayed with the Hanks, and were excited to meet Wes for the first time. Hailey and Wes are about 5 weeks apart, and loved to stare at each other.

Thursday Natalie and I ventured to downtown Chicago, and after the 45 minute ride realized we both forgot our strollers. So we had quite the adventure riding in cabs, going in and out of stores, and making phone calls, until we were finally able to find umbrella strollers. The plus side, was I able to see quite a bit of downtown! It is really big, and the coolest part is all the old brick buildings and bridges crossing the river. We then headed to Magnificent Mile on Michigan Ave to look at the shops and stopped at Millennial Park to see the giant stainless steel "bean". For dinner we met up with the working husbands and the Hassell grandparents for some Chicago deep dish pizza at Edwardo's.

On Friday, we did some shopping for Hailey at the Schaumberg Mall (#1 tourist attraction in Illinois), and I might have gone slightly overboard at "Janie and Jack." Alex will no longer let me buy anything for Hailey that is smaller than 2T because of the excessive wardrobe. In the afternoon Alex and I left Hailey and went downtown on the Metra. We went to the Chicago Institute of Art and the highlight was seeing the painting "American Gothic" along with other famous impressionist paintings. I couldn't believe how many I recognized, they even had Van Gogh's self portrait. That evening we met the Hassell grandparents, Tim and Anna Hassell, and Brian and Natalie for dinner at Maggiano's for family style Italian food. It was sooo tasty! We then were lucky enough to experience the musical Wicked. I absolutely loved it! It was great and Alex very much enjoyed the song "Popular." We arrived home and were glad to see that Hailey was still alive, our longest time without her.

Saturday, we drove 1 1/2 hours north to Milwaukee to see Alex's good friend from High School, Tim Kraft, and his wife Andrea. Tim Kraft is a graduate of Marquette Law School (second most famous Marquette alumni next to Dwayne "I can't believe the Lakers traded Shaq" Wade). With his guidance, young Tim Hassell will learn the fine art of lawering. I always had the stereotype of Milwaukee being a dirty city of beer and industry, but I couldn't have been more wrong! It was beautiful and had a huge park downtown right on Lake Michigan. There was even a beach, lots of sail boats on the lake, and a beautiful downtown! We ate lunch at a Brewery and got fresh brewed Root Beer. We then went to see where Tim and Anna are living and allowed Tim Kraft to experience the Wii. It was a really fun day and it was so great to see everyone. Hailey loved Tim Kraft, and we are excited for Andrea to have her baby in March... since only the coolest people are born in March :) On the way home I made Alex stop so we could get cheese curds and frozen custard :) You can't go to the Midwest and not stop at Culvers.

Finally came Sunday, which was very relaxing. We spent the day going to church with the Hanks, playing "hand and foot" (a card game) and taking a walk. Our plane left at 8:40pm, and arrived home in Surprise a little after midnight. It was a great trip, and I'm beginning to really enjoy the Midwest! Who would have ever thought... :)