Chicago Trip

Happy to get Hello Kitty at the airport- a $10 toy is well worth the happy quiet it yields on a flight.

Excited to be on our way!

New front porch swing in Winnetka.

Dinner at Rita & Larry's (with Caren) on Monday night.  Lou Malnoti's pizza = yum.

Figuring out how the piano works while Allison practices trumpet on Tuesday.

Lily & Uncle Brian on Wednesday at our hotel after the graduation ceremony.

Back in Winnetka Wednesday afternoon.  Brian did get to change into his civilian clothes for a few hours after all the nice photos were taken.  We had a really nice time with Brian but he had to be back at the Great Lakes base by 8PM on the 3rd.  My parents met him at O'Hare at 6 AM on the 4th to give him his laptop, phone, clothes & other personal items that he couldn't have during training. They got to spend time with him until his flight left at noon.  He's settled in San Antonio now for corpsmen school, which starts in a few weeks.  He's got a dorm room, shared with one roomie, so it's downright private compared to barracks.  Brian is really happy, excited & proud of himself.  It was great to see him and celebrate his accomplishments.  He was Master at Arms (enforcer/bouncer) of his division so he got to stand front and center at graduation.  

Janet coaching Lily down the waterslide at the Highland Park pool on Thursday, the 4th.

Grandpa Tom was right there to catch her... all 25 times she went down.

It's a great pool club- the kiddie area reminded us of Aulani.

If you zoom in, you can see how happy Lily is to just be in the presence of her cousins,.

Jacqueline & Lily chatting poolside.

Dwarf hamsters from Jacqueline's animal care camp class rivaled Uncle Brian as the toast of the week.

Nick.

Jacqueline.

Nick, Lily & Allison.

Lily at Steak & Shake on July 4th.  She saw the white hats and asked me "Does this say "Navy" on it?  She also commented "I'm a sailor like Uncle Brian."

Waiting for the fireworks.

At the butterfly pavilion at the Chicago Botanic Gardens on Friday.  It was a pretty easy bike ride from Winnetka but then again, Janet was the one pulling Lily in the trailer.

Our favorite type of butterfly that was in the pavilion.

Breakfast with Great Grandparents Rita & Larry yesterday morning.

Running through the sprinklers...

... and one more trip to the park before we had to head to the airport.

Lily cheering me up and helping me keep my cool.

Even though I had checked us in on Friday night, United oversold our flight by 14 seats and Lily and I were bumped off the flight.  We were still waiting in line to get a seat assignment and gate check our stroller when the gate agent told us we might not get out of Chicago until Tuesday.  They had cancelled the flight to LA right before ours so there were 100 or so people who were trying to get on our flight standby.  Once a supervisor arrived we were apologized to (he finally acknowledged that I was ticketed and checked in for the flight; the woman before him kept acting like I was standby no matter how many times I said "I've been checked into this flight since last night; the plane can't leave without us!") put on the next flight (which only took off 1/2 an hour after our original flight because that was so delayed) and given $60 worth of meal vouchers.  It all worked out in the end.  We didn't have enough time to eat a proper meal because we had to rush to the next terminal but we were able to go to town at one of the express meal places.  $60 worth of salad, yogurt, bottled water, fruit & chocolate later we made it to our plane just as they were nearing the end of boarding.  We made it to LAX and got our luggage without incident which was amazing given how chaotic it was there.  Hundreds of people were stranded and being rerouted because of the plane crash in SF and general airline awfulness.

Now that we're back our Sunday will be spent doing some cleaning & taking a trip to Costco to restock our groceries.  Our new living room sofa and dining sideboard are being delivered Tuesday so that will be the big news this week.