Spring Break ~ Chicago, IL (Apr 1-2)

Day 3 and we are off to downtown Chicago.  I told the boys to figure out places that they would like to visit while in IL.  Graham came up with the Children's Museum and Charlie wanted to go to the Millennium Park.  I wasn't too sure why  but when I looked it up, the main attraction was this huge bean!  

On our way to downtown and traffic is pretty easy compared to LA.  Love this skyline!

I've never actually seen the city flag of Chicago before.  Here it is:

Navy Pier!  My sister and I were here many many years ago and I remembered being shocked by the parking rate:

And yup, still crazy expensive!!!  But so far so good - we are all having some good vibes here :-)

Although, it is rather cold:

And windy!!!

Okay, not really THAT windy.  The boys were obviously exaggerating a bit :-)

I'm trying to find the pier that my sister and I were at, but I'm not seeing it anymore.  

This is one of my favorite photos of Graham and Charlie.  Super brotherly LOVE!

At the end of the pier is a life-sized statue of Bob Newhart:

Aaahhh, soaking in the sun Chicago style :-)

This is as close as we're going to get today with the Ferris wheel:

We made it to the Children's Museum!

Oh, we actually took a little longer because Bobby was on another work call again this morning.  Someone needs to still keep paying the bills :-P

I was so happy when Graham was reciting his numbers in Spanish!  Looks like that little extra month of class kept his enthusiasm for the language:

Omg, this is right up the boys' alley.  They love this stuff!

Car racing - another room that Graham and Charlie enjoyed:

And of course, who doesn't like to climb:

How fun!

I thought this was a really cool table - an "I Spy" table.  How clever!

I thought that perhaps Graham and Charlie were a bit old for this "fossil" digging activity, but they wanted to join in anyhow.  As long as they put on hand-sanitizers after.  Feels like a germ fest!

I loved this up-cycled horse:

I thought for sure Graham and Charlie would spend quite a bit of time in here but instead, they were in and out within just a few minutes:

They made a quick video of their experience but unfortunately, the museum sent me the incorrect video.  Bummer!  I ended up with a video of another family.  I wonder who has the boys' video??!

We came all this way to play chess??!

Time to build the tallest skyscraper! I don't know how these boys can see what they are doing with their long hairs everywhere.  Drives me crazy when they forget their hair-ties:

Okay, so not the tallest but I was happy to watch them work on it together.  Tiny achievements :-D

One last activity - and it's a big one.  Helmet required!!

See what I mean by big??!  Boys said it's really tall since we're also on the 2nd floor and this structure leans over to the edge a bit: 

Time for lunch!  The wait is what... 45 minutes??? Yikes!  But that gave all of us some time to shop for some souvenirs:

Of course we had to try the deep dish pizza.  We only got personal-sized pizzas since we didn't want any leftovers.  We're heading over to the Bean next!

We've decided to walk over to the park.  Along the way, this is my favorite building - or buildings.  At first, it looks like there are 3 wavy ones but in reality the dark shadow is actually part of the building.  So these 3 buildings are actually connected.  Totally blown away when we all came to that realization!

Check out this cool walkway/bike lane!  Just don't fall down into the streets below:

Massive bridge! I hate to admit this but my legs were just a tad wobbly from being nervous while walking on this bridge:

No boats yet back at the docks except for one little one:

Another 15 more minutes to downtown, I think?

We're seeing something shiny over there:

Oh gosh, these shiny textures are looking very familiar.  Almost like the Disney Music Hall??!

Oh boy, Charlie spots the Bean!

Charlie is trying to grab the Bean.  Ha ha!

So yup, this metallic crazy looking structure is by the same architect as the Disney Music Hall.  How about that!  It looks like ribbons on top of a box.  What a spot for a music concert:

It's crazy to think people are so excited to see a giant metallic object in the shape of a bean.  Ha ha!

I don't know why Bobby told the boys that it's okay for them to lay on the ground.  Hmmm....

Okay, just be patient as we go through multiple photos by the Bean :-)

The curvature and shine is producing some awesome reflections of the skyline:

Check out the bottom/inside of the Bean:

Fmaily we-fie!

Okay, couple more.... 

This Bean is pretty massive:

Another favorite photo of Graham and Charlie:

Time to start walking back to the Pier:

We just couldn't escape the park without entering this kids' playground:

What an awesome place for the kids to play in the middle of downtown:

Finally heading back to the Pier:

Finding a nice gift for our neighbor as they are always so nice to put our bins out during garbage day.  But looks like the boys want one as well:

Do we spoil our kids... or do we spoil are kids??! Ha ha!!

Although I have to say, those name designs are pretty cool.

Love these Express Lanes.   Hardly any traffic!

We opt for dinner at an Italian restaurant in an area that we might be interested in moving to.  The restaurant is a bit pricey but this dessert was definitely worth it:

Ahhh, the boy are messing around with my phone again.  Little stinkers.  LOL!!

The next day, we are "wanding" our masks after that long day yesterday.  This gift is definitely coming in handy.  We will be wearing our mask for a long flight back today:

We've become good friends with the manager at the restaurant.  By our last day, he already knows what we want for breakfast:

Daddy had the same breakfast sandwich 4 days in a row:

I'm glad Daddy is the one outside filling up gas.  Brrr...!!

It was a quick check-in and we opted to try a Chicago hotdog:

Hmmm... it's not looking very appetizing.  I think we need to come back and try a better looking one next time!

Back on the airplane:

Another gloomy day. I'm so glad we had a nice day yesterday during our trip downtown:

Back to video game playing:

It was definitely a longer flight home but thankfully Long Beach airport is so easy.  Look how tiny their tower is:

And still picking up luggage on the outside?? Totally reminds me of back in the day in my hometown in Malaysia :-)

One more snow globe for Graham: 

So, since being back from IL just over 2 weeks ago - we have submitted an offer for 1 house in Arlington Heights.  It was at a cul-de-sac and steps away from a lake.  But after a few days, the seller declined our offer without any counter-offer or negotiation. So weird!  Anyway, we moved on and just this past week, we submitted an offer on another house.  This time in Tower Lakes.  It's a bit further than what we would like from downtown Chicago but with so much more room and also close to a lake. And crazy enough, the very next day - the seller accepted our offer!  We haven't actually seen the property in-person but we did have our realtor walk through it on video with us.  Inspection is this Wednesday so we'll see what happens!

Well, with all this excitement going on - this also means having to clear up this house for staging and hopefully be ready for an Open House next month.  I've only just started packing up tonight.  Only 3 boxes so far... and nevermind that, I still have some projects to finish up!  I'm definitely going to need lot of luck.  LOTS!!!

Will keep you all posted! :-)