Chica en Chicago...

We drove down to Chicago on Monday morning, July 4th. We spent the day with Jason & Kayla there and then they dropped us off at a family I know from Chicago from my mission and then we stayed Monday night with them and they dropped us off at the airport the next day.

The list of things on the docket for Monday were:

to go to Giordonos Pizza:

{sadly, this is the only picture I got as my children were MONSTERS in the restaurant and we wanted to get out of there asap! I didn't get a picture of the delicious thick crust pizza that Chicago & especially Giordonos is famous for!}

Next stop, Navy Pier:

{This is the place where Ben proposed 8 years ago, almost to the day from when we were there! I love Navy Pier, it will always be a special place for me! :)}

Navy Pier is the Pier in downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan it has a whole bunch of fun things to do, like mini golf, a Ferris wheel, a whole bunch of vendors and restaurants. So, we just had a great time walking around and playing.

Tucker & I rode the Ferris wheel, just like Ben & I did after he proposed! :)

Navy Pier, from above...

I love this city, the beautiful Chicago!

Me & Tucker...

That afternoon they dropped us off at the Hurtado Family's house. I love this family so much! They are members in Chicago and I spent a year in their ward in Chicago as a missionary! We became tight! :) Hna. Hurtado is a great friend of mine still!

This is Tucker and their youngest son, Iver. He was about a year when I was a missionary and I called him my novio (boyfriend) and I called him Gordito. He was so chubby and cute! Now he is this tall and skinny cute 11 year old and he was so cute with Tucker, playing with him and being so nice! What a cute cute boy! :)

And this is Taylor & Isis. Since we were there the night of the 4th, we got a great show just right outside in the back alley way! :) Fireworks were going off all night all around us!

And this is Taylor eating her first Arepa. It is a typical Venezuelan food that is so so so delicious! It is essentially a thick homemade tortilla/bread thing filled with delicious meat and cheese. I couldn't make it if I tried probably, but Hermana & Hermano Hurtado know how it's done and they were fantastic! :)

Hermana Hurtado runs an in home day care and so the next day the house was full of kids, which Tucker loved! :) He had so much fun with his new friends. I'm glad he isn't shy, he really enjoyed his time with all these kids. We went to a little inner city park just a few blocks away from their house.

After the park we headed back to their house so Taylor could take a nap before we headed to the airport. I went in after a while and found her like this:

Here we are before going to the airport, wit the whole family...

Ilan, Zaida, Isis, Taylor, Me, Iver, Ivan and Tucker...

And just to show you what gordito looked like when I was a missionary, here we are Christmas day 2000 with Hermana Bytheway, my companion.

I love this family!!!

Me, Taylor & hermana...

I was sad to have such little time with them, I wish I had had longer. But I was excited to get down to Alabama and have fun with our cousins! :) Next time our trip to Chicago needs to be longer and Ben definitely needs to be with us! :) I missed him in Chicago!