On Tuesday April 26 we headed up for the Chicago portion of our trip. We had an early morning flight and were at the airport before 8 a.m. Our flight left a little after 9:30 but as a result of mechanical difficulties it actually had to turn back to DFW twenty minutes in and when we landed we were met by emergency vehicles. It was not the way we hoped to start a quick trip to the windy city. We were re-booked on a later flight and ended up having to spend the day at the airport. We finally got to Chicago after 7 p.m. and to Johanna's after 8 p.m. Arianna's cousins were already asleep but she did meet her Aunt Johanna. The next morning she got to meet Zach and Nick and started playing with them like they were lifelong friends. She also got to meet her Uncle Brent who immediately tried to show her how to ride Winston the dog and her Grandma Cummings who flew in from Whidby Island to see everyone.
On Wednesday we spent the day with Grandma Cummings and the Spetter's at the Shedd Aquarium. Our cousins Denise and Mary Kay had both taken the day off and they were joined by Eileen and a bunch of the next generation Natalie, Michelle, Dan and Jack so we headed out with a full crew.We had to bundle Arianna up as it was quite cold and she gave us strange looks as we put on layer after layer of clothes. On our way downtown, we passed the Obama Motorcade on the other side of the highway (closest any of us have gotten to a sitting President) and then got to see the four Marine One helicopters that he flies in at the Soldier Field Parking Lot. Arianna really liked the fishies at Shedd and we saw a couple of different shows.
After a long day at the aquarium we went back to our Great Uncle Hank and Great Aunt Mary's for Chinese food and Arianna got to meet her oldest living relative. We had a great time catching up with Aunt Mary and Donnie made it over too to meet Arianna.
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| Uncle Hank |
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| Spetter's, Kaminsky's and Cummings |
On Thursday we spent the day with our cousin Chuck and his wife Twila along with my nephew Nick. We had breakfast in downtown Naperville, went and saw Aunt Tina and later that evening had a big family dinner with even more relatives. Arianna was great about letting everyone hold her and meeting so many new and exciting people
Friday morning it was time to head back to Dallas. We got through checking in and security so fast we had time for a nice sit down breakfast and to explore. We found a Children's Museum and Arianna got to play a little before getting on the flight and very courteously sleeping almost the whole flight back.
We had a fantastic time in Chicago and cannot thank enough everyone who made it such a wonderful part of our trip.
