The Oberle Telegraph: Family Vacation to Illinois

We took a family vacation this week to Bourbonnais, Illinois. All week Emerson was yelling "we are going to ILLINOIS!!!" We went to see my dad's side of the family and spend some time with my Grandma Marion. We got to Gram's on Thursday, met Mom and Dad, and spent some time with Grandma. Bruce and I then went into Chicago for a day to see the sites. It was COLD! We weren't anticipating the temp to be 54 degrees so we ended up doing some shopping on Michigan Ave for long sleeves! We went to one of Bruce's favorite restaurants - Gino's East for deep dish pizza. Having both been there before, we knew that the after meal walk would be slower and need to be longer because you are so full you don't want to move let alone walk! We did consider going to bed at 8:00pm for a full night of uninterrupted sleep with no child waking us up at 6:30am. BUT we decided to keep at it and froze some more by walking down to Navy Pier. Which had all of 7 people on it, but was only 2 blocks from our hotel. We walked and shopped a bit, which was fun. We had a beer a Harry Carey's and were still asleep by 10pm! (I know wild and crazy are we?!?) Friday we went to Shedd Aquarium before heading back to Gram's. I will say this. Omaha Zoo will give it a good (if not better) run for the $$ and I do remember Bruce saying at one point...."with all the kids here, I really hope that I like our own when I get home!"

Gram only lives about 1 hour from downtown Chicago so we were able to make it back and enjoy some time with Aunt Sandy and Uncle G at their place for dinner. Uncle Schnooks/G and Emerson got along REALLY well. I think we can mark off one more finger that she has a male family member wrapped around!!! We all had a great time playing with the kids and catching up. Its been a long time since I had been back there but it was fun so see the area and all that has and has not changed! Saturday, Bruce, Dad, and Uncle G golfed while Mom, the kids, and I went to the mall and restocked on University of Illinois, Chicago Bears , & Blackhawks gear. We did pretty good!! We let Gram rest for the morning and all got together that night at Anita & Tim's (my cousin) for Makenzie's high school graduation party. It was a really good time and I really enjoyed seeing a lot of people that I spent a lot time with as a child but haven't seen in so many years! Emerson found a friend in Autumn's daughter Lea and the two played and played. We do need to work on Em's hide and seek skills-- to say the least, she is a really good seeker....not a good hider! ;) We got to spend the evening catching up with Grandma Marion and family!

We had intentions of staying until Monday but decided to head all the way back to KC on Sunday. We stayed to see Grandma in the morning and then took off back to Kansas. It was a great time and I missed everyone so much. It was hard to leave but we won't wait so long to go back I promise!