Chicago

I had a great opportunity to go to Chicago and see my very dear friend Lora. Lora and I met in my ward in Utah and instantly became great friends - I call her another sister! She is wonderful and I love her and her family so much! She has 8 children and they are all wonderful and I feel blessed to also have friendships with her children and husband. Her daughters have been a great example for my girls and her son Jeff was in scouts with Chris. Our families went on vacation together before we moved and it was an absolute blast - lots of laughing! Well, Lora and her daughter, Amanda, had an opportunity to go to Chicago with Amanda's dance team and they invited me to go and stay with them. It was so good to see them! It was wonderful that it felt like no time had past since we were last together (Could it be that we still talk several hours a week?) We had a good time visiting and then went to sleep. We woke up early in the morning and hopped on the train to watch the girls dance at the Jeoffry School of dance, it was awesome! Amanda is a beautiful dancer! The studio was amazing. It had 2 walls of windows overlooking Chicago - beautiful! They also had a pianist who played lovely music for them to dance to. We watched for awhile and then Lora, another mom and I jumped on a cab and went to Harpo studios. Lora and I watched all of these excited ladies in line to see the show. We just got pictures infront of the studio and decided after looking at the cars in the employee parking lot that it would be a great job to work for Oprah! We then jumped back on the cab and did some shopping! We then watched the girls do some more dancing - so fun! We grabbed lunch with the girls and then headed to Navy Pier! I loved Navy Pier! I LOVE water and loved looking at the lighthouses on Lake Michigan - I am so excited for summer!! Then we headed to the art museum. There was so many beautiful things to see! We then went back to the hotel. The train was packed!! I was standing by the door with a guy who rocked and talked to himself and on the other side was a young guy who sang to his ipod the ENTIRE time! I thought, "Please don't crash train, I don't want to die sandwiched in like this!!!" We woke up in the morning and it was time to say good-bye! It was short, but so much fun! I forgot to take my camera into the city so I only have pictures of us in the hotel room. I'll blog pictures sometime when Lora sends them to me. I was thankful that I didn't get lost on my way home. I am not a big fan of city driving by myself, but I put on my brave face and made it! I stopped at an outlet mall on my way home and found the girls a few items for summer! It is always so good to come home! Fun to be back as family again!

Two of the roomies!!! It was fun because I knew one girl from my old ward! They were all such wonderful girls!
This is Amanda. Tiana loves Amanada, and Amanda loves Tiana! Amanda gets a kick out of Tia and laughs at almost anything she does. So what does Tia do? She is in constant performance mode for Amanada. It is very fun to watch! Tia was not thrilled that I was going with out her. She wanted to see Amanda, and she doesn't like it when I go! So she made me these sweet little notes to take with me -

My favorite is her highlighting the tears from crying that I was leaving. Do you think she has the guilt trip down???? It broke my heart, but I decided it was okay for me to go. She did fine without me! Chris took good care of her and it was no nice to come home to a clean house! Thanks also to Ms. Gillmore who gave her a big mommy hug when she got to school!