Thanksgiving

Well I figured it is about time I get our Thanksgiving blog done since Christmas is next week! We had a great Thanksgiving this year, especially since we were able to spend time with both of our families. We started off our Thanksgiving with a fabulous Baird Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before.

I love getting pictures of people eating. :)
Ty was in heaven and was eating with a spoon in one hand and a fork in the other for much of the meal.After dinner Ty had to catch up on his texts while Gabe played the Gameboy (as always). The day before Thanksgiving I was able to spend time with Em watching Oprah's Favorite Things and shopping (although we did much more wishing than buying).

Thanksgiving morning Brandon played football for several hours and then in the afternoon Em took us to the airport. We flew to St. Lewis and Brandon's dad and sister picked us up there and we drove a couple hours to the Wheeler home in Quincy, Illinois. This was our first time visiting there since his dad and Becky moved there several years ago. Kristan and her family drove up from Dallas earlier in the week. So we basically spent Thanksgiving traveling :(. Ty did pretty well other than coughing the whole flight and puking his crackers up on Brandon. The flight was half full so we got to spread out! So we celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday with another delicious meal. After dinner we all went for a walk in the neighborhood.

Ty with Grandpa. We played lots of games while there including Killer Uno, Apples to Apples and Michigan Rummy. On Saturday we went to Nauvoo in the afternoon.
We were able to see the beautiful temple and some of the other sights like the Cultural Hall, Bakery and graves of Joseph Smith and some of his family members. It was great to be there but we needed lots more time.

Ty talking on the phone (he always holds it behind his head on his neck). Sunday morning we left on a train at 6am! to go to Chicago. We stayed at the Felix Hotel right downtown which was fabulous. BUT, our room was pretty small, so Ty got to sleep in the bathroom some of the time. Unfortunately for him this was not the first time. Emily, do you think it's worse to sleep in a drawer or in such close proximity to a toilet?

Sunday afternoon we went down to Michigan Avenue and met our friends Sam and Ashley and their little boys Parker and Lincoln. Why don't I have a picture of them?! After walking around the shops we spent way too long trying to get to the zoo via subway. We got there right around when the zoo normally closes, but shortly thereafter the lights came on and we spent a few hours in the cold seeing the zoo lights and some of the indoor animals like monkeys, lions and penguins.

This is going into the zoo. If you are ever in Chicago check out the zoo...it is free! Then we took a much easier bus ride back and went to Gino's East for some deep dish pizza. Yum! The next morning we had big plans! We had from 8-12 to see the city. Ty was going to nap from 12-2, then we had to head off to the airport. Well apparently the city sleeps in, which meant our plans were ruined. We took a subway to Willis Tower...closed until 10. So we walked to the art museum (Becky had lent us her season passes)...closed until 10:30. Well now we have wasted half of our time just trying to get to these places and then not even seeing them! Grrr! So we took a cab to Navy Pier...everything there was closed too but we still walked down the pier and looked at the city from the water.
I swear we weren't wearing the same thing every day on the trip. We just each had one jacket and so it appears like we had the same clothes on every day!Then we took a cab back to the art museum and had seriously 30 minutes to spend there. We went straight to the French Impressionists...Degas and Monet are my favorites. Then we had to run back to the Willis Tower. (Drives me crazy that they changed the name. You can't just go changing names like that! Like from BOB to Chase Field...boo).
It was pretty cool at the top...and they have made some little overhangs at the top which are quite scary.
After that we had to rush back to the hotel for Ty's short nap and then made it to the airport on a couple of subways. We were quite the site with one large suitcase, 2 small suitcases, a stroller, a car-seat, a baby, a backpack and a tote bag. We were glad to make it home...and Ty puked on Brandon again on the flight back. This time I couldn't stop laughing/crying and I think the lady next to me must have thought I was a terrible mother. If she only knew how many times he has puked on Brandon, I'm sure she would have laughed too. :)