OUR 1ST VISITOR!

My mom came to visit over Labor Day weekend. It was so nice to be able to show her where we are living. I think it helps to not be as scared for me when you see our surroundings. Who am I kidding, new places are scary!

I picked her up form the airport Saturday night. Thanks to my new trusty Tom Tom, my sister Andy let us buy from her, I made it in one piece. Driving here is scary on the freeways. Lots of construction and confusion. ( Just like home!) I hate that you have to pay to drive on the freeway. We missed a couple of tolls on accident our first week here OOPSIE! It had only been a week since I had seen my mom, but it felt like forever. Too many things had happened without her all ready.

Sunday we went to my new ward for the first time. It was nice to have someone to go to church with. The people in the ward are very nice. I met so many different families that grew up close to me. It was nice to be able to relate. Jellybean looked so cute in her new skirt and tights!

Monday morning we got up early and headed to the train. We were going into Chicago and spending the night. The trains don't run on a regular schedule on holidays, so we couldn't be late or we would have to wait 2 hours for the next one. I bet you know where I am going with this.... Chris dropped the 3 of us off at the station and had to drive all the way back home. You can't park there over night and of course there were no taxi's running. He had to sprint back about a mile. We waited with all our bags on the lawn watching for Chris to come running through the parking lot. The train pulled in early so my mom and I gather all our things and started heading through the tunnel. I could see him running as fast as he could. We would totally make it. We got to the other side of the tracks and the stupid train left us! 6 minutes early! Chris was so upset. He just ran all that way with his shoes off for nothing. So we were stranded with our over night bags for 2 hours. We decided to make the best of it and walk to somewhere close to avoid the heat. Lucky for me it was Babies R Us. Chris sat at the front of the store with our things while my mom and I hit the racks. They had so many good deals. Jellybean almost has a complete Fall wardrobe now!

Downtown Chicago is so much fun! There was lots for my mom to see in just 2 short days. We took a water taxi to get to our hotel. It picked us up in front of the Sears Tower and dropped us off close to Navy Pier. Our hotel was on Lake Michigan. Amazing Views!! We walked all over for to find a place to eat lunch but everywhere was closed for the holiday. We finally found a great Grill. I had a delicious steak! Next we headed to Millennium Park. It's several miles long. It has a huge out outdoor theatre, some crazy art, and several big fountains. It's such a neat park.

Buckingham Fountain is at the end of Millennium Park. For those of you that want to know, it is the fountain at the beginning of Married With Children. (stupid show!) It is big and very pretty!

Jellybean was such a good girl! She loved being outside. She had her feet up on her stroller relaxing the whole day.

Tuesday the 3 of us girls shopped all day. I couldn't resist! Chris worked until 4:00 so I showed my mom around for the day. We were so worn out by the time we got home! All the walking kicked our butts! I was so sad that my mom had to leave the next morning. It was so much fun to have her here for a couple days. I'm counting down the days until Alice comes to visit. That too will be a blast!

It won't be too long until I come home in October for Jellybeans birthday. I'm excited to see everyone even though I will have only been gone 2 months.

Thanks mom for coming to play with us! I loved having you.