* Walk In His Ways *: CHICAGO!

Michael and I had a great- but brief!- trip to Chicago this past week, Wednesday to Thursday. We discovered that they certainly call it the "Windy City" for a reason! We are bummed that we were only there a day because it is beautiful- and now we know we'll have to go back and visit again sometime, and stay longer! Michael was there for ScIP- (Society for Computers in Psychology) and he gave a presentation on a web-based research program that he designed himself and implemented this past year at Univ. of Baltimore. He did a GREAT job on his presentation and everyone seemed impressed. Not to mention he had his beautiful wife and gorgeous daughter as his cheering section... ;o) haha. Lydia was a doll and I bounced her to sleep in the sling in the back of the conference room while Daddy presented. He was wonderful (and by far the most handsome man at the conference!) although as we constantly joked during the trip... "Geez, look at all these geeks here to talk about computers and psychology... who does that??" hahahahaha. It was a very small conference, but actually quite amazing to see so many people from different walks of life. We began the day with coffee and treats after registration and we met a man named "Edgar" who was a professor from GERMANY and then after Michael we saw a presentation by a man from ENGLAND and then there was another man there with such a thick Chinese accent I could hardly understand him! It was amazing! After the first part of the presentations for the day Michael and I skipped out and took the bus to Navy Pier, which was amazing. The pier jets out into Lake Michigan and we could see the whole city sky-line from the tip of the pier and they had many incredible shops as well as an entire Museum of Stained Glass. It was beautiful! (I took SO many pictures of that!) I'll post a few...

Anyway... Michael was great and we had fun. Lydia was a little tricky on the plane, but was still really good overall. I just had to nurse her constantly, which got exhausting. She was the little princess of Chicago for the day, and it was too cute to see her tiny baby self snoozing on her own BIG DOUBLE BED in the historic Hilton Chicago! Check her out!

(Josiah stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa... and from what I hear, the brief day and a half that we were away he just about replaced the room in his heart for Mommy and Daddy with Grandma and Grandpa... I don't blame him- they are so cool! Grandpa took him to the nature center AND the library... who can compete with that!? I think he'd be happy if we left for a few months on a trip, haha!) Too bad we'd miss him too much. :)

Enjoy the pics from the VERY windy city!

Here's Michael giving his presentation...

Here's a picture of the giant staircases which came up both the left and right sides of the main lobby opening to a Grand Ballroom and something else... should give you at least a taste of the grandeur of the Hilton Chicago. I felt rich and famous or something- (for a limited time!) haha

(Sorry I didn't get better pictures of the hotel... just look at their website it's amazing!)

Princess Lydia snoozing on her Hilton bed...

Princess Lydia still snoozing... ahhh the life.

The hotel had it's own Irish Pub with live music each night. We didn't actually go in because it was really loud and we had limited time... but I couldn't resist a picture with the IRISH COW! This one's for you Dad! :)

This is where the bus dropped us off at Navy Pier. You can see the Pier jets out and is REALLY long and full of fun! There is even a small amusement park with a ferris wheel and other rides.

when you get to the end of the pier you see this... and then when you keep walking all the way to the end you see...

This lighthouse out there! It was beautiful. And the waters of Lake Michigan, although hard to tell from this picture, were SO choppy it was unbelievable- but gorgeous.

Then when you turn around and look back down the Pier you see this...