Two, Maybe Three, Holidays in a Hotel

Welcome to hotel life. Fortunately, we were able to get a room that basically had two seperate bedrooms and a kitchenette - that helped a lot with the living arrangements! It was weird, though, living in such a temporary place, but for so long. We made friends with many of the employees there - Elizabeth, Emily, and Don were so nice to us everyday! God has blessed us even in a hotel though, to find another family in a similar situation to become friends with. Having friends nearby helps a ton!

We were able to explore much of the downtown area while living hotel life. There are a good number of fun places to take children here- and I love it! (I especially love that I can walk to all of them).

Union Station is a fun place! They have lots of retro decor from its days as a bustling train station, a small, but free, miniature train museum with a play area, A children's science museum (not free), fun events, and the link (glass walkway) to the Crown Center.

The Crown Center is a mini-mall attached to the Sheraton hotel/convention center. This area brought us fun eateries (like Fritz's, where you order your food by phone and it's delivered by train), shopping (including a play-in Crayola store), Legoland, an aquarium (we haven't visited yet), Hallmark visitor's center, and Kaleidoscope (a fun, free art lab for children). Not to mention the courtyard area events and ice skating rink in the winter.

Fritz's:

Legoland with our friends is the best:

Courtyard area setting up for Christmas. And the boys can play in it!!

From the hotel, I could walk to 3 different parks (although, one was a dog park, so I'm not sure that counts). And sometimes Mickey decides he doesn't want to walk back (and I forgot the stroller board), so we improvise.

The Children's Hospital is awesome! We walked up to visit this park, and thy had a little parade while we were there.

Fall brought a lot of festivals! We found a hot air balloon festival on the Kansas side, but had to leave before they launched because it was getting late, the boys were tired, and the weather was such that the balloons may not have been able to launch anyway. We saw these awesome kites though, so we decided to cut our losses and head out.

Upon exiting, Mickey wanted to watch the train go around (not ride it, just watch). Score for not having to stand in line!

Holiday 1 - Halloween. These awesome people invited us over to their house for pumpkin carving. What a blast! And a nice break from the hotel!

We spent our trick-or-treating time at IKEA with our baby dragon and Jake the Pirate. :)

Holiday (maybe 2?) - Royals Parade after they won the World Series. Approx 2 million people showed up when they were only expecting a couple hundred thousand. Most people just didn't show up to work, or took a vacation day. The local schools all just had the day off. It was too much of a crowd for me, so we just the streets from our hotel while Goose napped. Constant stream of people from before 11 am to 5 pm. People parked wherever they could find an area off the road (on sidewalks, making 2-way streets barely a one-way), on the grassy shoulder off the highway, etc).

Another fun adventure in our transitory state was the BYU football game we were able to go to at the Chief's Arrowhead Stadium with some new friends. It was so fun! Mickey didn't care who scored, he just wanted the cannon to go off (although, he kept saying "go Cougars!" For both teams). Goose danced with the music for the first half before he got tired (but did not fall asleep).

Holiday 3: Thanksgiving. We moved out of the hotel Thanksgiving day and knot our house (finally!). Not before we were able to visit some of the Christmas festivities downtown, however. The tree lighting ceremony at Union Station was fabulous! I loved the short performances!

Crown Center courtyard fun!

Bye-Bye hotel floor! So excited for our own carpet!!

Whirlwind Move

Well. We figured this would happen...again. The Mr. Was made aware of a position in another state with the same company, began looking into it and interviewing for it. Then, within 2 weeks, had a final interview with his prospective employer. At the interview he was offered the job and they wanted him to be there to start work within 2-4 days. He flew home from the interview, we talked it over, he accepted the job, then we drove out the next day to get him started at work. Thankfully, the boys and I weren't doing much that we couldn't easily leave (except Joy School... We miss that). 

We spent 6 days in the area, mostly looking at houses and meeting with our real estate agent, lender, and insurance agent. However, we did have some fun: like playing on the stairs in our hotel, and visiting fun playgrounds as we explored the area.

My mother-in-law is the best. She drove 12 hours to pick the boys and I up, take us back to Chicago, and help us pack up and move in 3 days. Then she drove us back. Isn't she amazing?!

On our way back, we needed a rest stop, So we pulled off the interstate into this tiny town... And ran into a fall farmers market/festival! It was a great pit stop!!!

(Note the camel...)

Upon returning to the Mr. and the hotel, we had a quick birthday party for Goose before grandma left. He sure loved the tissue paper!

Whew! We are glad that is over, but we are so grateful for all those who helped us out (and for our Chicago friends who stopped to say goodbye or who called). You all were my favorite part of the city!

Goodbye Chicago

So much has happened in so little time! But before we get to that, let's recap the last of our time in Chicago:

We went on a family bike ride for charity and afterwards they provided food and did face painting. Mickey wanted the face paint, but was nervous about it, so I had my face painted to show him it was ok. He still didn't want it though.

Getting ready for birthday month with this adorable boy (while his brother got to spend one-on-one time with his grandpa).

Playing at the park by our house with daddy. 

We were able to visit the Field Museum while grandpa was here. Mickey's favorite part was the toddler designated area in the bathroom-haha

Hip-hip hooray! This boy turned 3! Can you believe it?! He really enjoyed having the whole family (plus grandpa) there for the celebration.

Goose had his first taste of donut as a pre-celebration to his birthday (which we figured wouldn't be conducive to a cake due to moving-more on that later).

Oh the fun simplicity of childhood. Goose crawled around with this on his head for about 5 minutes (a long time for him).