Trip to Chicago

We decided to drive to Chicago to see Hannah at school.  First we had to take Kobi to the dog sitter.  

He did not want to go.  She dog sits lots of little yappy dogs.  Kobi is the largest dog she keeps and he is just somewhat afraid of the other dogs.  He does okay once he's there though.

On the 2 1/2 hour trip, I worked on an Auto Bingo game.  I filled all the spaces, except a squirrel.  Did not see one.

While we were driving, Jill and Adam facetimed from the airport.  They were sitting with Albert Mohler and he talked with Sophia for awhile!  He told her that she was smart!  I was able to get in a short Hi, and he said he could tell I was Jill's mother.  We do resemble one another.

Chicago!

We arrived at Moody Bible.  This is where Hannah attends and where our daughter Jill also attended following highschool.  Where she met Adam, her future husband.  

My grandfather also attended there.

Hannah parked our car while we went to get visitor passes.  Then she and her boyfriend, Nehemiah took us to Lou Malnati's for deep-dish pizza.

We went on a walk by the river and around downtown.

This is the bridge that Nehemiah asked Hannah to be his girlfriend.

 

The Chicago Tribune building has been converted into luxury residences.

The exterior wall has stones from all over the world embedded in it.  These come from famous landmarks like the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Great Wall of China, the Berlin wall, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and from Santa Sophia where Adam and Jill were!

We went there in 2016.  

They were passing out free Mac 'n' Cheese on the sidewalk and the girls picked some up for a food drive at school.

I found a squirrel! 

We wanted to take the kids to the Hancock building, a 100-story building.  In 2018, the John Hancock company requested that their name be removed and it is now referred to as 875 North Michigan Avenue, but I am guessing almost everyone still calls it the Hancock.

The elevator is super fast!  It takes 40 seconds to get to the observation deck on the 94th floor.  It travels up to 20 miles per hour!

We could see our car in the school's parking lot!

Some brave (or stupid) people paid extra for the tilt windows.

Walking back to the school, we passed this synagogue.

Allen had been teaching in Sunday School about how the orthodox Jews use the lunar calendar and so the dating method is different.  2025 is 5786.

The spot that Adam asked Jill to be his girlfriend!

Hannah took us to her room and showed us around.

Nehemiah took Al to his room.

Too soon it was time to say our good-byes.

Busy, busy teens

 It was a busy couple of weeks.  These teens are very social!  

The first evening the folks were gone, there was trick-or-treating down the street.  Their town does not do it on Halloween.  They observe it the Saturday before and only between the hours of 3:30-5:30.  No after dark allowed.

Claire dressed up for her ballet class too.

Each day the girls would pack their lunches and leave for school.

Their evenings were busy almost every night!  One night, the youth group had a bowling night.

The church had an all church skate party on another evening.

Sophie and Claire had a group of kids from school over to practice for a Christmas worship they will be doing.

I took the girls clothes shopping.

A little bit of grocery shopping too.

Claire and I made home-made cinnamon rolls.

My Grandma Voran was known for her cinnamon rolls.

Claire was in the mood to decorate for Christmas.  She brought up the Christmas decorations for her room.  A friend helped her decorate her room.  She has a lot of little Christmas villages that she put around the room.

We worked on a puzzle during the two weeks we were there.

 Didn't quite finish it.

There was a boys vs girls/teachers soccer game another night.

The wind was blowing hard and it was very cold!

When we got home, we found that the wind had blown the basketball goal over onto their car!

Claire got all excited and wants to play on the soccer team in the spring.  She practiced until dark a few times.

One evening when the girls were driving home from youth group, they saw the northern lights from the highway.  A friend texted this picture to Sophie.  We could see them only a bit from the house, so we got in the car with Claire and drove north out of city lights, but they were no longer visible at that time.  Too bad.

The girls were busy, but we grandparents kept busy too!  We took Kobi for walks.  The trees were gorgeous!

I made meals and also did some work on my Bible studies.  And I did a lot of reading and snuggling with Kobi.

One day we went to get a few groceries.  

We felt very special that they had parking reserved for us!

We drove around town just to sight-see.

Al would log in to work regularly.  He also studied for his next Sunday School class and prepared for subbing for Jill's classes.

Al taught Jill's apologetics class and3 of her Old Testament Survey classes.

I would go along to listen.  

I think Al is such a GOOD teacher!

One day while we were gone, we came back to find this.  We could not figure out what Kobi had tore up.  We looked and looked but didn't find a tore up pillow or chair.  Later, Jill realized that he had tore up a laundry dryer ball.

Jill had left a "to-do" list if Al was bored.  

Al checked them off one by one.

After all that work - nap time!

We went to church both weeks we were there.  Adam gave the church a long-distance hello from Turkey.

While we were there, our Arkansas grandkids had their birthdays so we called to sing to them.  They were busy, as I guess all teens are, and so we had to leave voice mails.  Happy birthday, Em and Eli!

And so as not to leave out our other grandkids, they are busy too, climbing rocks!