Thurs., Nov. 15, 2012 - Sweet Home, Chicago!

 Micaela is 50 weeks old!

We met our friends Martin and Matthias at Shedd Aquarium

 Matthias drove his way through the exhibits

 We were surrounded by fish but Riley just wanted to play on the rocks

 Everyone enjoyed looking in the tanks

 Ahh Chicago

 Martin and Matthias

 Matthias, Martin, Micaela and Jen in front of Lake Michigan

 Da Bears!

 Riley liked the art

 After attending an ophthalmology conference Claudia joined us for dinner

 Riley hanging with Martin

 I'm so glad we were able to catch up with our friends

 Lots has changed since Claudia and I met in the early days of grad school

 Riley tackling her cousin Ryan

 Riley had her own room with her own little chair (actually a gaming chair, but it was perfect for her)

 Per my request, authentic Chicago style pizza

 Sadie helped clean up Micaela

 Hanging with cousin Evan

 Micaela loved Great Aunt Winnie

 The cousins: Evan, Riley, Ryan, Jen and Micaela

 Seamus and Sadie played all weekend and crashed together

 Micaela loves crawling under tables

 A great playdate, everyone had a friend: Micaela and Ava

 Anna and Riley

 Building a ship with couch cushions 

Complete destruction; at least I was able to cook dinner

We finally spent a long weekend in Chicago. I can't believe this was our first chance to visit this awesome city since we moved back in the midwest almost 8 months ago. Claudia, Martin and their son Matthias are close friends from CA who have since moved to Baltimore, MD. They were in Chicago for a conference so we were able to stay with my Aunt Winnie and her family and spend time with them and our friends. We met up with Martin and Matthias at Shedd Aquarium on Saturday morning. Strangely we didn't see many fish as the kids mostly wanted to climb and play in the kids area. When Claudia was finished with her conference for the day we all met up for dinner. It was so wonderful to catch up with them. I've missed them since they moved to the east coast and it was great that we were able to meet up and spend the day together.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Aunt Winnie, Uncle Bill and my cousins Evan and Ryan. We all had a lot of fun. Winnie and I went shopping, Chad and Bill watched football, the girls played with their cousins and Seamus ran around the backyard with Sadie. Riley loved tackling Ryan and ran to Evan for protection from the dogs when she was eating snacks. She likes having older cousins. Micaela was very comfortable with Aunt Winnie and even fell asleep in her arms. Sunday night we ordered Lou Malnati's and watched the Bears game. Almost a perfect night (the Bears lost).