Chicago and Nauvoo

Jess and I went to Chicago all last week for a business trip, which means I got to go shopping all day! :) Neither of us had been there before so it was a lot of fun. We drove to Nauvoo on Friday and spent a couple days there which was really neat to see.

Here we are eating famous Giordanos Chicago-stuffed pizza. It was really yummy. Too bad you can't see the pizza!

The view from our hotel room. We stayed right in downtown on Michigan Avenue. I watched workers clean windows on scaffolding. That is a job I will NEVER have.

Chicago is so pretty at Christmastime! (Not that I've seen it any other time.) Every street downtown had christmas lights on all the trees and every store was decked out in decorations. Very festive. Jess forgot to bring his coat. And yes, Chicago is a windy city! Needless to say we had to go buy him one before he froze!

We went to the John Hancock Observatory instead of the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) because it was right by our hotel. Once you've seen the city from above it's all the same right?

This old cathedral was next to our hotel. I was glad I went in because I found out it was the church that they filmed the movie "My Best Friends Wedding" in (which is one of my favorite movies). It was cool to see. It was 95 years old.

One night we went to Blue Man Group. They wouldn't let you take any pictures inside during the show. It was pretty cool.

We spent Friday and Saturday in Nauvoo. Nauvoo is like a ghost town in the winter. We were the only ones on all of our tours, which was nice.

Here's Jess outside the Mansion House with our tour guide. They still have some of Joseph and Emma's stuff inside the house. Again we were the only ones on the tour so I could ask all the questions I wanted! Which was a lot!

The only disappointing thing about our trip was Carthage Jail. We saved it for last since it was a half hour drive away and we got there at 3:15 because they closed at 5. Well they decided to close at 3 o'clock that day for a Christmas walk they were doing in Nauvoo, so we were too late. We were super bummed. I was really looking forward to seeing Carthage Jail. All we could do was take pictures of the outside and peer in the windows. It broke my heart. Who knows when we'll get to go back.

We did a session in the Nauvoo temple that night. It's a beautiful temple especially on the inside. It was way nice to spend a week with Jess especially with the baby on the way. We knew it wasn't going to happen again for years to come probably.

The only down fall..... seven days is a LONG time to be away from the kids. I got to talk to them on the phone everyday but it was still hard. Jesse's parents were nice enough to take them for the full week. Thanks Kim and Mary!! The kids really did have a good time in Malad with Grandma and Grandpa but they were ready for us to come home too. When we got there on Sunday Kaden was really emotional and kept crying about everything. Ellie wouldn't let me hold her for a while. She just clung to Jess. When he put her down I asked her if I could have a hug and she just looked at me so I said, "Ellie are you mad at me?" and she said yes. She finally warmed up to me later on that day but in the morning I got scolded. She told me to never leave her for that long again ever. It was a great trip but it's always good to be home.