Notre Dame

July 12th was super rainy here in Chicago so after naps we decided to head up to Notre Dame and see a bit of South Bend. Notre Dame is only 1.5 hours away from us and so it was a pretty quick drive. 

We headed straight for the football stadium to look for Rudy. We didn't find him.
I also was hoping to get on the field so I could get a video of us chanting Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! like the rest of America, but that didn't happen either.

In all seriousness though the stadium looked pretty cool. My favorite part were the statues of all the old/iconic football coaches Notre Dame has had. I thought it was a great idea.

This is across from the stadium. Its pretty iconic although I honestly have no idea what its called but there it is. 

This is the older end of campus. All the buildings had Latin on them and looked exactly like they do in Rudy. I'm still a little disappointed we didn't run into Sean Astin. 

There were statues of people everywhere. We don't know much about the Catholic religion so we didn't know who they were or what they represented, but it really added to the feel of the campus.

The Golden Dome cathedral is pretty iconic at Notre Dame. Like everything we've seen all summer, the pictures do it no justice.

And here's miss humidity LOVING all the grass space at Notre Dame. Kelsey didn't sit in her stroller once. She ran and ran and ran and ran and RAN!!! It was so awesome for her. The only problem was trying to stop her from running into the actual mass that was taking place in the Golden Dome cathedral. 

 

Walking out of the cathedral at the start of Mass.

After our quick visit, agreed to drive the 20 minutes out of the way so that we could hit Michigan this summer!!! 

Here's what we saw of Michigan...

and here's what Kelsey saw of Michigan.

Good news!!! In Michigan the 7th Milkshake is free!

Also the gas was super cheap so that was a nice break. Papa Nelson, I'm starting to like your birth state.

On the way home we tried to stop at some of the more touristy places like the Indiana Sand Dunes and Lake Michigan from the Michigan side, but here's where we ran into car trouble. After dinner at Texas Coral (east coast version of Texas Roadhouse and equally as wonderful) our car started over heating. The sand dunes would have been a bust anyway because of the rain but it was still a bummer to miss them. I've always wanted to see sand dunes. Anyway, we pulled into a gas station and with many prayers and helpful conversations with the more savvy car people in the family, we were able to get the car fixed enough to go home. Although we missed the sand dunes because of the rain, I am grateful for the rain because we had to drive home with the heater on and the rain helped us stay cool enough to not die. I'm really making this sound more eventful than it was. We were really blessed and made it home safe and sound. It was an awesome trip. Definitely worth the drive.

Target Days and Ice Cream

Every Wednesday in Millennium Park they have what is called Family Fun Festival and on Wednesday July 9th to check it out. It is just a giant tent with s much fun inside. They have a wiggle hour where they sing songs and dance, a story time where the first 50 families get a free book, craft stations, and then several play stations. We met some ward friends there and had a really great time despite the CRAZY lady we had to sit by on the bus!

Afterwards we all went to play in Crown Fountain which would have been super fun if it had been warmer. But Kelsey's painted toes were still pretty cute.

On Friday July 11th Ethan had his fellow interns over for a sundae bar and games. It was a lot of fun getting to know who he works with and putting names with faces. I think they all had a great time too.

Oak Park playground

Saturday July 5th was a very low key day for us especially following our crazy July 4th night. In the evening we decided to take a quick walk around Oak Park. After our walk we stopped at an awesome park and spent most of the night there.

 I only bother mentioning this night because we were hanging out at the park, Kelsey was running around loving life, and I looked over at Ethan and saw this.

What's wrong I ask.
"I just don't see how a park can be this awesome and their basketball hoop looks like that..."

 The park also had a conveyor belt slide. Something that I have never seen before. It was incredibly fun!

 We have really missed BBQs and fire pits this summer. We do the best with what we have.

July 4th 2014

The 4th was different for us this year. It was really fun and we had a great time, but it was the 4th when we realized that we are not big city people. Since Chicago is so big they don't really do parades, or fairs, or even a close firework show. All the things that make the 4th special to us. I'm sure if we went to like Evanston or something we would have gotten all that, but Chicago itself it just too big for stuff like that.
The best part about the 4th  was that Ethan got the day off and Sean Vanhille came to visit. He stopped by on his way in from Europe and could only stay for a day, but it was the best day we have had in a long time. It was just great to have someone so familiar around.

In the morning we went to the ward breakfast and then went to Lincoln Park to walk around the Lake for a little bit.

After the lake we went home for our picnic, naps and some QT time with Sean. 

 

After a quiet afternoon, we decided to head downtown to show Sean Chicago. 

The train was like 20 minutes late due to the amount of passengers, but luckily we were able to keep her off the tracks.

 We gave Sean a very short walking tour of Chicago and then went to Millennium Park for the 4th concert. The music was a little less patriotic than I am used to but it was still a good time. It was fun to see everyone stand up and sing along though during the Star Spangled Banner. Made up for the lack of Red, White, and Blue.

 As we were watching the concert, Kelsey decided that the family next to us was way cooler. She hung out with them like the whole time.

As we were showing Sean downtown, we realized that we had never been downtown in the evening/night either so it was kind of a bucket list thing for us.

 After the concert we walked over to Museum Campus and watched the firework show from there. It was beautiful but it was no Holladay. Holladay is pretty unique itself allowing you to be right under the fireworkds, but we really missed that small town feel.

 All these lights are actually boats. This was maybe the coolest part about the show. All the boats gathered around the pier where they were shooting off the fireworks and when the show was done, they all honked their horns for like 20 minutes. If we ever are here on the 4th again, we ARE watching the show from a boat!!

 All the buildings had red, white, and blue lights as did the Buckingham fountain.

 The 4th was wonderful, but on the way home we accidentally got on an express train which took us all the way to the air port. BECAUSE of the 4th, the taxis were all busy and the buses weren't running their normal routes. We felt so stuck not to mention that we were all really tired and hungry. FINALLY at like 12:45 we were able to find an Uber and made it home by 1:15. Kelsey fell asleep in the Uber so it wasn't too bad. She actually may have been the happiest in the whole group!!!
Once we got home we headed straight to bed despite the war zone we like to call our neighborhood. Apparently our neighbors LOVE fireworks and are known for shooting them off for hours!!!! It got pretty loud at times, but by 1 is was pretty quite. I still look out the window every time they shoot them off. It sounds like a car bomb! 

It was a 4th for the books, but we definitely missed the small town feel to it. We still did some great things and saw some great things, but Chicago just has too many people to get an united feeling like other cities can. People cared, but we were all just spread so it felt really different.