Chicagoland Cheer!!

Chicago, Illinois

July 5-10

We have spent the last 5 days in our old graduate school "stomping grounds."  Curt got his Masters degree from Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL.  We lived here for 3 years before we had children and made some life long friends.  It was so fun to get together with them while we were visiting.  We started by staying for 2 nights at my friend Megan's house.  She was my assistant for the first 5 weeks of my first year at Sprague Elementary and we became great friends.  She was my first friend in Chicago!  It was so great to stay with her and meet Samantha and John.  We spent a day downtown in Chicago eating pizza, visiting Millennium Park, cooling down in the fountains and walking along Michigan Avenue.  It was AWESOME!!

Megan graciously hosted a BBQ with some other great friends, the Salzman family.  Audrey was my looping class' "room-mom" extraordinaire and a wonderful friend.  The only thing we were missing was Adam.

Some city shots~

We headed up north of the city from Megan's to visit Lincolnshire.  I really wanted to show the boys Sprague school, but figured it would all be locked.  As we were peeking in the windows..we saw the office staff and my principal!  I was thrilled to see them all and we were able to walk around the newly refurbished school.  My room looked so tiny...but filled my heart with great memories of my 3 years teaching there.  

Another highlight of our time was seeing some of my favorite "parents" from Sprague and teacher friends.  They surprised me with a 40th birthday lunch celebration at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was so fun for me to hear about what their "not so little" 1st grade...I mean college seniors are doing.  Keeping in touch with these special kids and their families has really been a highlight of my teaching career.  

 We also got to visit the family that we babysat for nearly every Saturday during our 3 years at Trinity.  It was so fun to see them and hopefully the next time we visit we will get to see all 5 of them.  We have just loved watching their beautiful family grow...they taught us so much.(Thanks Sheri and Aaron)

The boys loved playing soccer in the yard!

Curt and the boys also finished their U.S. tour of Six Flags theme parks with two days in Gurnee, IL.  They just love roller coasters.  They also enjoyed an afternoon at the water park.  The highlight was riding Goliath, the world's TALLEST, STEEPEST, FASTEST wooden rollercoaster.  I passed for a day with friends and a day shopping by myself.(PERECT!!)

Of course, we had to take a  tour of  the Trinity campus!  Here is our old apartment...B6 hasn't changed at all.  We just feel so blessed to have lived here with such good friends.

Here is the Trinity Football field where Curt coached and met such great friends!  Go TROJANS!  We only wish the Lambert family was still there to visit.

Tomorrow we begin our almost 1000 mile journey west towards home.  Our next major stop is Badlands National Park, followed by Custer State Park near Mt. Rushmore and Wind Cave National Park.