Hey Friends!
February has been a good month to us. The Michigan weather has been mostly cooperative and we've been able to have a little more fun than we typically do in the winter. Jodi finished her competitive cheer season - her team finished as League Runner-Up, District Runner-Up and a Regional finalist. Eric also finished his girls' basketball season. Kaleb has kept busy at school wrapping up his second trimester. We're still waiting for the report card - hoping for good results :)
A long President's Day weekend this month allowed us to spontaneously get on a train for two-night's in Chicago. We made the decision around noon on Saturday and about 5 hours later - we were on an Amtrak train to the Springhill Suites by Marriot in downtown Chicago. We arrived pretty late on Saturday but we're beyond thrilled with our hotel accomodations - a full recommendation to all of our friends and family. We got a good night's rest and were up early on Sunday to take to the town. We spent a great deal of time on the Magnificant Mile shopping, enjoying the sites and sipping on hot chocolate from Ghiradelli's. We then made our way to Millenium Park for some pictures and ice skating. From there we tried to make a trip to Shedd's Aquarium but the line was beyond long so we taxied to Navy Pier for site-seeing and lunch. The weather was beautiful for February - little wind and temps in the 40's. Nothing a pair of gloves, hat and winter coat couldn't handle. Kaleb was a trooper and never complained about all of the walking. After a couple hours at Navy Pier we made the treck back to our hotel for some time in the pool and hot tub (the pool was on the 27th floor which Kaleb thought was "so cool"). With our bodies warmed up and relaxed, we headed about 4 blocks north to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and getting a good night's rest before our early morning wake-up call on Monday. Our train was scheduled to leave on Monday just after noon so we got up early in hopes to make it to the Skydeck at the Willis Tower. Unfortunately, the line was so long that we had to delay that adventure for our next trip to Chicago - hopefully this summer/fall. Overall, it was a really nice trip for not having any ahead of time plans - made us think spontaneous planning is the way to go next time.
We're looking forward to March and April when spring break arrives - there will be lots of stories to share at that time when Jodi travels to Italy - stay tuned :)
