CHICAGO BABY!!!

On our way to Utah we decided to stop off for a little holiday in Chicago. If you know our family well you will know that we were going to Chicago for one thing--Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.We were somehow meant to go to Chicago on the day we did because not only did we get to go to the stadium, but they were hosting one of only 6 tours within this year to see inside on a special tour. Yes--we are so lucky!!

This is up in the 'posh' seats that run $950.00 a seat! That is some serious cash to lay down for one game of football, but they sell out every game every season. The view from the box was quite incredible and the field looked amazing. We laughed when we saw one gentleman down on the field doing a grid search for what we assumed were weeds growing. He would walk a few feet or so, bend down and pick something up and then continue on. Needless to say we learned that they take a lot of pride in that patch of grass.

As a military family it was very neat and humbling to see all the dedications around the field they have to the military, hence the name Soldier Field.

This is us taking a quick picture on the original seats at their highest point before they revamped the stadium and made it the amazingly large place it is today.

A part of the original stadium--yes someone walking by started to sing, "The Circle of Life."

Mason was happy a lot of the time, exhausted the other half, dehydrated and overheated some of the time. We were a little scared of our tour guide, not because he was rude, but you could just tell he was a serious 'don't mess with him' type of guy. We laughed a lot as our guide would say, "we're walking, we're walking."

You really can't see the quotes all that well in these shots, but this was an amazing part of the stadium. These are all part of the original stadium and were quotes given by service members or about military service. The small circles you see in the benches are all medals donated by military members in WWI&WWII. They are set in the cement and are amazing to see the hundreds of them along the walls, humbling experience in a football stadium, who would have thought.

This would be an exhausted Mason--he was so tired and ready to be done walking. The guide picked him out of the back and said, "we're walking, we're walking." He sounded kind of annoyed and so I just quickly and quietly said that he was working really hard, he was disabled and was trying to keep up. The guide felt pretty bad--even though I told him not to worry and it was fine--he didn't know.

For about 2 seconds we thought we were going to see the inside of the Bears locker room, then we realized that was not going to happen when we heard, "we're walking, we're walking."

Carter and Brennan next to the field. We were given a briefing before entering through the tunnel that you see the Bears run through for games that there was a small cement path and to stay on that path. I just noticed that Carter got his little foot on the grass--stinker!

Mike was so excited to be right there next to the field. This man has devotion to his team. There are many nights during football season that he is up at 2 a.m to watch games.

Back to our guide who probably still felt bad for harping a bit on Mason. He came and grabbed Mason's hand(chosen out of a group of about 50+) and told him to come with him. He was taking him onto the field!!! Mason, however, would not go with a stranger to save his life, so I said from behind that it was super kind, but Mason wouldn't go without his Dad. Then Mike's dream came true--our guide said, "alright, then come on dad!" Here is the picture of someone who is giddy--like Christmas morning as a young boy giddy, it was great!
Mike just informed me(while watching me do this post), "you know I really didn't feel bad for those other people on our tour, I was really thinking...neener neener neener."

Uncle Damian--this is for you. :)--Visitor's locker room was next. We were told that the visitors locker room were like a 2 star hotel in comparison to the 5 star resort that were the Bears locker room.

Start them young we say! 

That was my poor photography that didn't aim better--bummer. I guess we will have to go back for a game so we can redo this shot properly.

The Shedd Aquarium is over by the stadium and we then went over there to have a bit more fun and some food. It was 3 pm, no snacks, nothing to eat since 7 am, 99 degrees and humidity. The kids however did amazing and scarfed down every last bit of the most expensive cafeteria food we have ever purchased. You'd think they'd have plenty of restaurants by the stadium, but they don't!

Jelly fish, acting like Penguin's, and the coral reef were some favourite activities of the kids'.

Willis Tower (Sears Tower) was next. Public transportation was a little interesting compared to London and we were waiting and figuring that out more than we thought we would. At the aquarium, Taylor was falling asleep towards the end. She would sit down and fall asleep at bus stops on our way to the tower, she was begging us to go back to the hotel--but darn it we were in Chicago and we were going to get every last minute out of it! We lost Brennan when we got to the top and found him in the glass ledge with Carter. We woke up Taylor who had sat down and fallen asleep again and put her on Mike's lap and asked a random tourist to help us out with a family shot. Done and Done--tower-check. :)

Chicago, for the most part we loved you and we wanted tons of more time to see you fully--so we will be back!!!