the great state of illinois

i have never been to the midwest - i have been as far as Oklahoma but that is considered the Great Plains ... right? anyway, lets just say i have never been to the midwest as an adult and that i have spent most of my traveling time on the US coasts and abroad. lately nate and i had been talking about how living in the midwest or really anywhere would be an adventure. i really would love to live in every part of the country just to see what life is like there. visiting doesn't really cut it. you have to live an everyday life to really get the feel for a place. that is just me. will it happen? who knows! should it happen? who knows! if nate stays teaching at the university level it could happen.

but anyway ... we made our trip out to chicago and normal/bloomington, illinois this last week and had a wonderful time. it was action packed, yet a little bit low key and lazy ... a perfect combination for this lady with swollen feet and ever burgeoning belly. i seriously get noticeably bigger every few days. i feel like fortune cookie has growth spurts and i FEEL it. i FEEL my body stretching and i FEEL noticeably rounder. whoa. but i also started to finally FEEL baby girl move in my belly! just a few days ago (thursday june 16th to be exact) i was spending a lazy morning in my brother's house laying on the sofa when i started to feel a wiggly feeling inside. it happened three more times ... very distinctive movement going on in there. it was magical to say the least. sigh ... it makes the swelling and the labored movements worth it.

i digress (as usual) ... we did so much on our trip before that happened ... here were the highlights (a long list mostly for my remembrance - all images stolen from sara soelberg's blog because the nate and bethany soelbergs are not awesome about taking pictures ... we will have to work on this before baby is born) :

• spent the night in seattle at the gleason's (some of the friendliest, most generous people i know) in prep for our early morning flight to chicago with my parents.
• this trip was the first flight nate and i have taken since our honeymoon in sept 2009.
• this was the first trip by flight that nate and i have taken with my parents ... we all really enjoyed it and i predict more occasions in the future.
• flew into chicago o'hare airport for the first time (for me)
• experienced their heat wave first hand, which was not so bad since we have been innundated with rain in oregon.
• met up with joe (nate's brother) and went back to his house (which his family had just moved into the week before ... we are such courteous visitors) and saw sara, libby, and jenna for the first time since last summer! so so fun!
• spent the next day at the Museum of Science and Industry with sara and the girls (joe had just started his new job) and explored space, the "smart" house (misnomer if you ask me ... we decided it should have been called the "recycled" house - which in my book is great), and an actual U-boat, and watched a cool tornado I-Max movie.
• other highlights of the Museum day included poor jenna getting car sick and tossing her cookies in a the only thing we could find to give her - a fabric bag! word up - fabric bags are not good barf bags - go figure - but that's what we had on hand. she was a trooper and of course felt much better once she had done that and we were out of the car. another bonus to this episode is that i got to see sara in action ... she is a quick and resourceful mom and i was taking notes big time.
• toured around Downer's Grove ... the cute suburb that the joe soelberg family live in and we fell in love. i could totally live there. cute houses on tree-lined streets ... where do i sign?
  

• the village is quite and quaint with a main street to make my little heart pitter patter. just a few short blocks from their house is the train to commute into the city (but not loud at all), the tivoli theater with $4 movies and $1 bowling in the basement - as shown here:

• there is also a library a short walk down main street which we visited with the girls and stopped in to grab a donut at a local bakery. while eating said donut we sat out along the street and listened to the oldies they were playing from speakers atop the old brick buildings. i loved it.
• we also spent a day in chicago walking the miracle mile and seeing the sights. needless to say we caught the bus whenever my feet demanded it, but i was pretty impressed with the walking i did. its hard when you know that movement is good for the body but the feet might not be able to do it. sitting for train rides and then walking for long stretches made for some swollen feet but fun was still had at the classic millenium park bean and fountains as well as Ghiradelli's:

• on the way to see steve (another of the soelberg brothers) who was the master of ceremonies at the Chicago Ragnar race we found ourselves in the middle of a "zombie walk" which apparently had no other purpose but to have thousands of people dressed as zombies and walking the streets of chicago. interesting, but really they had no cause? strange.
  

• we ended the chicago day with chicago pizza ... super yum! deep-dish-delish is what i say!
  

then off we went to the south to a small city of Normal, Illinois. it was also delightful with delightful people we love there. my brother and his family moved there last january and braved their first mid-west winter. their new found friends swore that this winter was worse than usual ... those former North Hollywood-ites are hoping that's true. they just moved into new house they just bought and it is AMAZING. a beautiful beautiful home i would not mind calling my own ... and this is a big deal because its a new house (only 3 years old) and my preference is towards old houses.

located next to Bloomington, Illinois, there are quaint downtown areas with historic districts and old homes to make me swoon. there are also beautiful tree-lined streets and two Universities in this little neck of the world. its the biggest thing between St. Louis and Chicago. here are some highlights of this part of the trip:

• drove around to view the historic districts and gawk at all the lovely old homes with porches and gabled roofs and even turrets on some!
• helped do some unpacking and organizing in the house - they let us come visit even though they had just moved into the house a week before!
• played with the kids and held the baby - ADORABLE - when he would let us (he's kinda a momma's boy)
• went to State Farm Park and rode water slides and the lazy river (okay nate rode water slides with the kids and I floated the lazy river and sat on a chair with my feet in the awesome water feature filled kitty pool ... it was awesome)
• had ice cream at State Farm Park and got a little bit of a sunburn (oh so welcome tho ... we are sooo sun deprived in the pacific nw ... at least were were until this week!)
• went to Nauvoo, Illinois and saw the temple and it is beautiful and magestic ... next time i would like to go in and do a session with my hubby.
  
• went to Nauvoo and took a wagon ride through the historic town of Nauvoo (i really want to go back one year for the pageant and stay a day or two).
• made a list of all the things i would like to see in Nauvoo next time when i am not almost 6 months pregnant with swollen feet
• saw a cute kids play about life in Nauvoo
• learned how to be a cooper and make a water tight barrel
• learned how to make rope and bread and weave a Nauvoo rug
• had yummy food in an old timey shop
• took a "short cut" through a few farms on the way to Carthage to see Carthage jail where Joseph Smith was martyred ... the whole scenario and the film depiction of what happens makes more sense to me now that i have seen the location.
• the town of Carthage really is a beautiful community.

its funny that now that i am a little bit older ... mostly because i have found the person i want to spend eternity with .... and also because i soon will become a mother ... i am a bit nostalgic for a small town life i have never known. i have always been enthralled by the big city and the offerings of a metropolis. but as i grow up i realize that i am really just a home-body that pushes myself to go out and do all the fun things around. i am happy to hang out with the ones i love.

the vacation was wonderful and i am so glad we did it.