Chicago

Mike cutting my hair. His shop is called "The Red Rooster Salon".

Erin and me in front of the "bean sculpture".

Jackson at the Art Institute.

Outside Lincoln's tomb. We got there 5 minutes before they closed it.

Jackson outside Lincoln's law office. Lincoln told his partner to keep his name on it because he would come back to work there when his time as president was over.

Jackson in front of Lincoln's home where he lived with Mary and two of his sons.

Inside the Lincoln's home. This is the parlor.

Jackson and Frankie playing on the front porch. I never got a picture of her smiling!

Jackson in downtown Riverside. He was cold!


Frankie, Erin and Jackson eating ice cream at Grumpy's.

Jackson walking up to the "bean sculpture".

Recently Jackson and I took a trip to Chicago to visit my long time friend Erin. Last time I went I took Grace with me, so this time it was Jack's turn. He was super nervous about flying, but handled it like a champ. Although he kept his window closed and would only peek out once in a while. We visited with Erin, her husband Mike and their little daughter Frankie. As you can see in the pictures, Erin is expecting a little boy in August so we had to get our visit in early in the summer so that she would be up for all the tourist stuff with us.

Erin lives in a suburb of Chicago called Riverside. If you ever saw the movie "The Lakehouse" with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves then you saw several parts of their neighborhood. We walked past where Sandra's character's boyfriend worked, where she road the train and Keanu chased after her...stuff like that.

One of our favorite places to go is the ice cream shop - Grumpy's - that we walk to from her house. We also went down town to Millineum Park where they have the cool "bean" sculpture. I have no idea what the real name of it is, but it's kinda shaped like a kidney bean. We also went to the Art Institute while we were down there. It's soooo cool to see some of the most famous paintings. Jackson can even recognize stuff like American Gothic and paintings by Andy Warhol.

One of the days we were there Erin and Mike both had to work, so Jackson and I borrowed the car and took a day trip over to Springfield where we toured Lincoln's home, law offices and tomb. There's also a museum there and a lot of other cool stuff. Jack learned about Lincoln in school this year so he thought it was all pretty interesting. He especially liked when we were in Lincoln's home and the tour guide told us to follow him up the stairs, then added that the railing was original so if we held onto it as we walked up, we would be touching something that Abraham Lincoln touched. Jackson made sure to slide his hand all the way up it.

All in all it was a really fun trip and Mike even cut my hair for me which was super cool of him, since that's all he does all day. It's always wonderful to see Erin. Now that we are grown, we hardly get to talk anymore, but I love how we can pick up like the little girls that we once were whenever we need to. And of course, little Frankie is still the cutest thing ever!!