Chicago

So we actually got to go on a vacation this weekend! Mark's dad let us use his frequent flier miles to get some tickets to Chicago. Mark's brother Doug lives just outside of Chicago in Kenosha, WI so we thought this would be a great opportunity to visit him. So here are some pics of our great weekend. Doug picked us up from the airport and we stopped by the Chicago temple.

I thought this was the most unique temple i have every seen. It seemed liek it was designed to blend in with everything else. You cant see it in the pictures, but on the side the roof actually has shingles on it. weird.

This picture is in tribute to Mark's dad. He likes to put his leg up in pictures.

In front of the temple

On Saturday we took the 6:50 a.m. train into Chicago. We took a cab to the Chicago zoo, for those of you who have seen he movie "Return to Me" this is the zoo that is in that. It was actually really cool. The zoo is free and it is jam packed with tons of cool animals, and its right in the middle of the city.

The Lions

Mark the monkey

After the zoo we took another cab over to the Art Institute of Chicago (the one they go to in Ferris Beulers day off) We took some pics by this cute little garden/park right next to it.

On Sunday we took it easy and rested up after our big day in the city.

Mark and Abi buildng a tower

On Monday Mark, Doug, and I went to Six Flags. Cheryl and Wendy opted out, but we had a great time!!

This was our favorite ride. Its called Vertical Velocity. You sit with your legs danging and all of a sudden it bolts forward at 65 mph. Then it shoots up the right side tower. (you can kinda see that it twists as you go up. Then all of a sudden you are going backwards, again at 65 mph, and you go up the left tower backwards, so you are looking straight down to the ground about 200 ft., then it does it all over again. The second time you go up the left tower though, when you get the the top it stops for about 3 seconds so you are just dangling up in the air. It was so awesome!!!

I guess i have to mention the downer of the day. After we did Vertical Velocity we decided to go on the new Batman Dark Knight ride. The wait was 2 hours. There were so many people there were just KNEW it had to be good. So when we finally got to ride it, it was basically the biggest disappointment of my life. It probably would have been more exciting to ride tea cups. So if anybody ever thinks that it has to be good because the line is so long..... dont do it.

That night all of the girls did mud masks. Abi was pretty freaked out about it. She walked into the bathroom when i was putting it on and stared at me with the terrified look on her face. I said "Abi, am i scary?" and she whispered "yes." and then she started backing away slowly. It was so funny.

Mark didnt like it very much either

That night the girls (Wendy, Cheryl, and I) went ot see the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. It was fun to have a girls party.

The next morning we went to the Jelly Belly factory. Mark couldnt even wait to go in.

On the tour


This was the sample lady. She could give you a sample of anything you want! it was great. Except for Mark, Wendy, and I decided to try all of the Harry Potter flavors. (the nasty ones) Some of them actually made me feel sick for a couple hours. Some of them that i remember were ear wax, baby wipes, toothpaste, black pepper, pencil shavings, vomit, moldy cheese, and rotten eggs. You would be surprised with how accurate they all were. By far the worst one was vomit. They even had that acidic taste in it. I gagged about three times after i spit it out. It was pretty horrible, my stomach was kinda mad at me for a while after that.

So all in all, it was a GREAT GREAT time. We had so much fun with Doug, Cheryl, and Abi and aer so gratefull they let us come stay with them. We love and miss you guys!!