Chicago - Seattle!

In mid-February I had the opportunity to attend a management development program in Chicago with Bosch.  It was an interesting 2 days centered around a business simulation which I actually enjoyed and had fun with.  We have a lot of family in Chicago, so we decided to take the whole family in and visit for the weekend.  We stayed with Allison's sister and her family..... many thanks to our wonderful hosts, Danielle, Steve and the cousins!  Allison's parents drove out from Pennsylvania and were also able to catch up with my sister Sarah also during our visit.  We had a great time seeing and catching up with everyone!

Flights are significantly cheaper when you fly out of a domestic US location vs flying from Vancouver, so we again made the drive to Seattle to fly to Chicago.  Here's the kids watching planes land and take off while we waited for our flight.

The main terminal concourse is structurally beautiful.  It's a concave design of glass panels, reaching for the ceiling.

On Friday, we took the all the kids to cousin Marissa's gymnastics gym for an open session.  They all had so much fun playing together!  Luke and Molly on the balance beam....

Shaun and Owen playing with the foam toys.

Marissa, Molly and Luke playing in the foam pit!

Marissa giving Molly some pointers on balance beam form.  :)

They had several trampolines and this was a favorite of Owen's!  We spent the good part of an hour having contests to see who could make the most seat drop turns before running out of steam!

Back at the house... Owen and Shaun playing

Molly thought it was so funny that Marissa had a minnie hat just like hers...

During the weekend, we had a small birthday celebration for Molly and Owen with the family.  Allison's parents gave Owen a steam train set, which may have quite possibly made him the happiest little boy in the world.

Molly reading "If you give a Moose a Muffin".   She loves these books and I think we have at least 4 or 5 in the "If you give...." series.

Molly with Grandma, checking out some new outfits!

Owen inspecting the Steam train parts with Grandpa.

Molly studying the board game.....

Molly and Marissa in matching outfits!

Marissa is taking Trombone lessons and was giving us a small concert with Molly, in her words... at the "palano".

Video of the show.... and the obligatory lead in count to 5.  :)

Molly trying the trombone, much to our amusement.

Over the weekend, Marissa had a gymnastics meet, that Allison and Linda went along to watch.  Steve, Dave and I planned to meet them for dinner, but to kill some time, we took the kids to the Bass Pro Shop to see the fish and walk around.  I think we spent an hour checking out the ice-fishing tents and then Molly was obsessed with all the display boats.  Here she is relaxing while Luke "drove".  She killed me with her antics..  :)

Then of course, she had to take a turn at the wheel.  She was so funny making boat sounds and steering away.  Owen informed me that Mommy's car has a hitch so we can tow a boat and I told him and Molly that I'm all in if they can convince Mommy to buy a boat. :) 

On our way back home, we spent the morning in Seattle, visiting the public market....  

The interior of the market is a visual spectacle contrasting vendors booths with retro neon signs.  The upper section is dominated by the fish and seafood vendors...  and the lower section by vendors selling their crafts.  I think Allison and I both came away feeling it was a little progressive hippie for our taste, but all in all, it was fun to visit and walk through.

And the birthplace of Starbucks is across from the market... For all the coffee lovers out there... The street sign of the standard drip coffee brew.