Our summer vacation this year was epic!
We flew to Chicago on June 30th. That morning before we left for the LA airport, we were greeted by an unpleasant surprise at the front door. All of Ridgecrest this summer has been covered in these insects called seed bugs. They are harmless but a major nuisance. We'd left the porch lights on through the night, and since those bugs are drawn to the lights, well, you can imagine. The front of the house, especially the walls and front door, were covered in these seed bugs. All I could do was hold back my tears, sweep up the pile of mostly dead ones inside the doorway, pray that they stayed at bay until pest control came and leave for the airport! (Pest control did come and it was a weird but comforting sight to see piles of the dead bugs when we got home!)
The drive wasn't too bad, considering rush hour traffic, and our flight was nice. We got to our Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Chicago around 4:30pm and had a good time that night walking the streets of Greek Town, sampling some of the yummy food in that area. We loved everything we tried, from the Panhellenic Pastry Shop's goodies to Mr. Greek's gyros, an amazing breakfast at Eggsperience, to...deep dish pizza at Giordano's down the street! We waited 45 minutes for our pizza to come out, but, boy, it was worth it!!!
The Rich and Donna Sheen Reunion wasn't officially starting until Thursday, so we had some CA Cushing time to fill until then and saw some neat stuff! We purchased a Go Chicago pass in advance that paid for 3 Chicago attractions--we chose the Museum and Science and Industry, the Adler Planetarium, and the Field Museum as our three. (We were going to visit the famous Shedd Aquarium as part of the family reunion.)
The Go Pass was a good way to do it--we didn't save tons of money, per se, but it bought us front of the line privileges and some neat shows. It also gave us some focus because there was a LOT to see in Chicago. If we'd had more time, it would have been fun to go see the downtown shopping area on the "Magnificent Mile" or go to the top of the John Hancock Observatory or the Willis Tower to get a view of the city that way. We were happy with our choices and time spent, though!
The Museum of Science and Industry was H-U-G-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They had an entire German U505 submarine inside! We enjoyed a tour of that! Other highlights were the "Journey to Space" movie in the ginormous Omnimax theater, and the Science hall that had everything you could imagine, from flying an airplane, checking your pulse, to recreating a tornado. Lots of fun!!!
One of the highlights for me, even though it was a little crazy, was experiencing downtown Chicago in the middle of rush hour pedestrian traffic. HOLY MOLY, there were people EVERYWHERE! We walked upstream to get to the famous "Bean" statue and took some fun photos there.
I took very few pictures of the Adler Planetarium, sad face! I enjoyed going into the famous Adler Sphere to study constellations and loved the fact that they'd had to build the room around it. The views of the city skyline outside the planetarium were hard to beat!!! (and, yes, I did ask a stranger to take our family picture! It was a must!)
I do need to say a word about the weather that week: heavenly!!!! Brisk, 70's, total opposite of the desert, haha!
The Field Museum was another very large place. The taxidermy area was diverse and felt almost like a zoo!
On Thursday morning we picked up some light breakfast items at Whole Foods, checked out of the hotel, and proceeded to fight more crazy downtown traffic to get just a few miles to the Shedd Aquarium, where we were kicking off the reunion activities. It was so fun to see everyone--big hugs all around!!! We missed Jordan and Amelia's family--they had just purchased a home and Jord had started a job at Adobe--we can't wait to see them at the Idaho reunion in 2017, though!!!
This year's reunion planners were Chris and Brant, and Derrick and Traci, and they did a PHENOMENAL job. Though it was tricky getting to the aquarium, we were so glad to have done it first thing in the morning because the line to enter was so looooooooong by the time we got out! We enjoyed a water show together at the aquarium and got a big group picture there! For lunch we fought our way through a Chicago hot dog food truck (fun but crazy ordering for 25 people!), and then the next few hours people had free time before heading to "home base" in New Berlin, Wisconsin. I can't remember exactly what everyone else did while we were in the Field Museum, but I know the Tom/Lydia/Derrick/Traci/Chris/Brant group had a blast looking for some famous movie sites downtown, Logan and Amy's family went to the Navy Pier where there was a Ferris wheel and rides, and I think Mom and Dad did the smart thing and tried to get out ahead of traffic, haha!
Our entire group agreed that the drive from Chicago to peaceful New Berlin, Wisconsin was the absolute worst part of the trip. I don't know how long we were all sitting in it, but it took at least 2 or 3 hours. Our kids slept through some of the frustration, haha:
After dealing with that unbelievable traffic and getting off the highway, the drive through rural farms, corn fields and quiet roads was so therapeutic. We thought, "Wow, we could retire here!!!" It was green, there were tractors on the road, the gas station employees were super friendly, and it was just so beautiful and peaceful! A total opposite of the busy-ness of the city!
The story behind our "home base" house is pretty fun. Originally this whole reunion was planned around the fact that Brant and Chris lived in Crown Point, IN, just outside of Chicago. 6 months or so before the reunion date, Brant and Chris moved to San Bernardino, CA, and we had a little problem, haha! There was some discussion about moving the reunion location, but some of us had already purchased tickets and had our hearts set on Chicago.
Luckily Derrick and Traci had some gracious friends, the Monties, in Wisconsin who were willing to let us use their home. Cherie and her kids were gone, but her husband Mike was there and joined in some of our activities with us. Boy, he's a saint! :) We just made ourselves right at home there and thoroughly enjoyed the location. There were horses and other pets, a trampoline, a fire pit, friendly neighbors, walking trails galore, a playground, a basketball hoop, a little play house, and, all the Monties' kids' toys, haha! It really was the perfect solution, and we were all very, very grateful to the Montie family for their kindness!
Mom and Dad, Derrick and Traci, and Tom and Lydia stayed at the house and the rest of us stayed in nearby hotels. The Monties' home was the perfect place to congregate and there was never a shortage of things to see or do!
I've got to say something about family reunion food. It's seriously the best. Mom and Dad did the "Chicago Dogs" food truck, Tom and Lydia did sweet and sour chicken (which was heavenly after that terrible traffic!), Logan and Amy prepared a super picnic spread, the CA Cushings sprang for CiCi's pizza (thank you, honey!!!), Derrick and Traci did all-you-can-eat nachos, and Brant and Chris covered a fantastic 4th of July meal with hot dogs and bbq chicken sandwiches. Then there were s'mores, ice cream treats, pies, etc! Yum!!!
On Friday morning we drove to Milwaukee and spent almost a full day on the beach of Lake Michigan. We had a BLAST! I'm pretty proud of myself for being the first one to get out in that freezing water, but I just had to! When else was I going to be back here, ya know? Mom and Dad and Logan and Amy rented some umbrellas, a paddle boat and board, and a canoe for the afternoon and that definitely amped up the fun!
That night some of the adults did a reunion-first and had an adults-only activity at a putt-putt course. We definitely need to do THAT again! We missed Logan and Amy (their family needed some downtime and clean laundry!), but it was great doing that. Lots of laughs, lots of good competition, and some delicious ice cream at the end. The man third from the left is Mike Montie--we were glad he could join us!
Rhiannon and Wade did a little babysitting back at the house with some of the younger cousins Beck, Maggie, Moses, Max, and Greyson, and they said they had a fun time, too!
On the 4th of July, we met up at a local movie theater and watched Inside Out together--a fantastic movie! Definitely need to own that one! :)
The rest of that final reunion day sped by too quickly. Logan and Amy's family visited the Sprecher brewery and brought back some delicious soda. There were games outdoors, including Twister and an American Flag search. We played a fun, crazy game indoors, too--Chris had taped two giant balls of prizes together and we had to fight our way through the tape to get stuff as it got passed around. We also had our traditional family meeting to talk about the next reunion (Idaho 2017), had a family home evening message given by Brant, and a talent show (I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of that!) We did a few illegal fireworks out on the road, and then by that time it was time to say goodbye until the next time! That is always so hard for me to do!!!!!!!!!!
We were so grateful to those who worked hard to put this memorable trip together. We all agreed that it was neat to go somewhere few of us had ever been before! I CANNOT wait until the next one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are a few more fun pictures from the week:
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| Twister--Traci spray painted the circles into the grass and used an app on a phone to play the game! |
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| View of the river in downtown Chicago |
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| This statue called "Man and Fish" outside the aquarium was hilarious! |
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| Beautiful, cloudy Chicago--we love you, just not your traffic! |
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| Cuties! These two did a good job with their cousins, too! |
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Group family photo at the water show! We took up 3 rows!
Front row: Abby, Evan, Beck, Maggie, Will, Olivia, Collin, Greyson
Middle row: Jason, Rhiannon, Verity, Logan, Amy, Chris, Brant
Back row: Lydia, Hardy (behind Rhiannon's head), Max, Wade, Moses, Derrick, Traci, Mom, Dad, and Tom |
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| The remains of this old house were across the street from the Monties' home. |
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| A walking adventure with Uncle Tommy. I adored the reunion t-shirts that Chris had designed and Traci had orders. The ice cream scoops have Mom and Dad's name, and then each popsicle stick pair has their children's name and spouse, with a tiny Wisconsin shape and 2015 in the bottom corner. Adorable! |
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We sure made some great memories!!! It was hard to say goodbye to that beautiful place!
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My dad said that reunions are so wonderful because we can imagine what it will be like being together forever! We are blessed indeed to have family on both sides, people we care for and love, love, love being with! Until next time!
