Surprise Trip to Chicago aka The Time I Turned into a Creepy Stalker

So in the crazy rush of finals, I forgot to talk about my latest adventure!

I went on a quick weekend trip to Chicago earlier this month!

This all started one Sunday morning in mid-October when I had this really weird dream about some of my roommates in college randomly showing up in San Francisco, without telling me and I ran into them there. And there was something about a bus driving on the sand and not getting stuck until someone asked how we were able to drive on the sand. Anyway, I digress...

So one of the roommates was Lisa (and Nicole--who I had seen in August when we went to Utah and I got to go to the Salt Lake City temple with her and do a session...so super cool...and again I digress...)--one of my roommates both our junior and senior years. It was epic. Anyway Lisa and her family live just outside of Chicago and about a year and half ago, I went and spent just over a week with them. It was super fun!

I've missed them since then. So when I had this dream, I woke up with the certain knowledge that I need to go visit them asap.

Then a plan, a deviously awesome, secret plan began to unfold in my mind. Lisa was going to turn 30 on December 2nd. What if I surprised her for her 30th birthday?! [Insert maniacal laughter here.] I immediately texted Adam, her husband, and asked what he thought. He got so excited. So after several days of checking ticket prices and stressing and getting disappointed when I thought it wasn't going to happen, I found the ticket.

A direct flight from San Francisco into Chicago-O'Hare. YES! Interestingly when I looked up this flight, it was cheaper to have a layover in Chicago and then continue on to Milwaukee. Well that's silly, so I just decided to skip the Milwaukee portion. Which ended up being a really good thing because the return flight from Milwaukee to Chicago ended up being cancelled on Sunday. So glad I didn't have to deal with that.

So the ticket for the weekend after Lisa's birthday (which was also the weekend of her party) was only $226! That's almost half what my ticket last time was. Yippee! So I quickly texted Adam to make sure the dates and times worked (someone needed to pick me up!) and then nothing. I didn't hear back! After a frantic hour of waiting for a response, I said a prayer that it would work out and bought the ticket.

Turns out Adam was tied up in a meeting, but called when we were both off work and said the times were perfect.

Can I just say how hard it was not to spill the beans?! I thought it would be easy since Lisa and I don't chat all the time, but suddenly she was messaging me on facebook and commenting on things and emailing me, etc. It was like she subconsciously knew or something. There was one particular day it was really hard because Adam and I were texting making plans, and then Lisa started emailing me the same day and I was having conversations with both of them. It almost drove me crazy. It was quite hilarious.

So that Wednesday after work, and school, I made a somewhat mad-dash to San Francisco (super confusing to find the long-term parking!) to make my red-eye out flight, landing in Chicago about 6:00am. Perfect. Adam picked me up and then we headed back to their house to wake Lisa up and surprise her.

It was totally awesome.

6:30 in the morning, we both walked into their bedroom and Adam woke her up. Here's the conversation:

Adam: Lisa, honey, wake up. I have a surprise for you.
Lisa: Nothing. She sleeps like the dead. And is totally not a morning person. Mwahaha.
Adam: Lisa, wake up there someone here to see you.
Lisa: Wha?! Who? [she was so confused]
Me: Nothing. I was just standing in the doorway.
Adam: Its someone special all the way from California.
Lisa: a couple of seconds go by of her looking at Adam confused.
Me: Hi Lisa.
Lisa: She whips her head around. "Megan?" and attempts to fly out of bed and gets tangled in the blankets. It was hilarious. She was so confused and mostly still asleep.

We hugged and she just stared at me.

Lisa: You're here. In my bedroom.
Me: Yep. Surprise! Happy Birthday!

Another hug.

Lisa: You're really here!
Me: Yes I am.

Another hug

Lisa: When did you get here?
Me: About half an hour ago.
Lisa: I can't believe it! You're here in my house. Oh! You haven't seen our new house. I need to give you a tour. This is our bedroom.
Me: It's nice and big.
Adam: Happy Birthday, Lisa. I'm going back to bed so you guys go downstairs to talk, okay?

We laughed and went downstairs. And talked as fast as we could for about an hour and half catching up on everything under the sun and then both fell asleep till Lisa's two kids woke up. It was pretty fantastic.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Lisa and her family and their friends. Lisa's party was really fun. Adam themed it as a "Death to Lisa's 20's" and everyone wore black and gave eulogies. I then realized that Lisa and I have known each other since we were 19 so I had known her all of her 20's! 10 years we've been friends. It's crazy!

Thursday and Friday nights we had "game" nights with their friends, the Sessions and Atchinsons. Love those people. They are super fun and so nice. Thursday night, during the conversation about how Lisa and I knew each other, we realized that we knew way too much about each other. And at one point I realized that I was pretty much a stalker because I knew so much about her AND showed up in her bedroom in the "middle" of the night. Yeah....creepy. And freakin' hilarious! :)

The weekend was totally casual and we never made into the city. We planned to, but Saturday kind of got away from us and so we didn't make it. But it was okay. Lisa and I went to breakfast at this little restaurant we went to before (Wildberry--soooo good!) and then went to the Chicago Temple. We didn't have time for a whole session so we just did some other stuff. It was really fun to hang out with her there and have a really great discussion--and I got to see another temple. We both needed that. Later the three of us went to a really awesome hole-in-the-wall Chinese place. Their group of friends have a babysitter swap each week (genius!) so the kids were left with some of their friends.

The days were long and involved lots of playing with the kids, reading, relaxing, eating, and talking. There was little sleep and it was awesome--exactly what I had anticipated. I hardly even took pictures because it just felt so normal. It was perfect. Lisa and Adam even tried to convince me to move in with them--"rent free." Ahhh. I wish. :)

It snowed all day Sunday (yes!!) which led to my flight being delayed 3 hours (2 of which were spent on the plane on the tarmac--but I honestly didn't even realize it was that long. It didn't feel that long.). This meant that I few in that Sunday night and landed at 12:30am (technically Monday morning) and then had the two hour drive home. Fortunately I had texted my boss before my flight took off that I was going to be in late due to the delay, so I was able to get some sleep.

So it was a perfect trip (except the part when Adam got really, really sick--but he survived...) and Lisa was beyond surprised and excited. It was totally worth it.

Handmade ABC Wall

For my friend, Fallon's baby shower, I thought it would be fun to do a little crafty activity instead of playing games (I'm kind of over the baby/bridal shower games). It would let everyone do something fun and creative, and allow us to talk--since that's why we're really there. :)

Fallon and I decided that an ABC wall would be really fun (and easy!) to make at the party--she really wanted one. But buying the letters (average price: $3-6/letter) and then all the decorating stuff was going to be really pricy and way out of my budget. And collecting all the letters would take too long.

I decided to make them. Ok. I decided that I would design and set it all up and then have my awesome brother-in-law, Nick, make them from me. (Don't worry, he was willing. :) )

I used my Cameo to figure out sizing and fonts and then I cut out templates for each letter.

Home Depot had a sheet of MDF that was perfectly sized and priced.

I laid the letters all out on the MDF and arranged them so they all fit, leaving room around each one.

Then Nick cut them out with a jigsaw. :) I was willing to do it, but he was faster and better and so I let him.

Once they were all cut out, I sanded the edges and then primed them with a white spray primer so they were pretty. Easy Peasy.

I realized that after they were dry the primer was really thick and needed several sandings. I wasn't really happy with it. Next time (yeah, right) I'll use just regular Rustoleum white spray paint + primer (easier and cheaper) or just paint them white with regular acrylic paint--which is what I ended up doing for all the edges since it didn't really cover them well.

I was going to use a staple gun to put staples in the back to use as hanging brackets, except Caitlin forgot it in all the hustle to get out the door the morning of the party. Fallon decided that she was going to use the 3M hanging things for picture frames that don't put holes in the wall. Brilliant. Better than the staple idea.

The custom letters cost me a grand total of $18 (MDF & primer), plus decorating supplies (most which I already had on hand). That sure beats $130+ for just the letters in only 2-3 different fonts. :) Plus all the time Nick put into cutting them out for me. He vowed never to do it again. The look on his face was priceless when Cait announced she wanted one too. Hahaha.

At the party, I put letters in baskets and laid the supplies out on a table, along with a sample I had made.

Then we went to town and decorated. I bought a scrapbook paper pack (so all the paper coordinated), glitter, stickers, rhinestones, pearls, mod podge, sharpies, ribbon, and twine.

We traced the letter onto the back of the paper and cut it out. Use a thin layer of mod-podge onto the letter to glue the paper onto letter. Perhaps, decorate the paper a bit more. Then another thin layer (or two) to seal the paper. Let dry, add a bit of ribbon or something to decorate further and then all done.

 

 

I had leftover flowers from the mobile I made (more on that coming) and so I tossed them in the decorating goodies. Now it all matches. Yay!

Everyone that made one signed the back and so now Fallon has a personalized gift from everyone that was there and something fun to hang on the nursery wall! :)

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert

First off, AMAZING!

So a couple of days ago, I was offered tickets to our company's box for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert that was last night. So I took my friend Trulie. We had a blast. The music was fantastic.

It wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was expecting a bit more orchestra with a little rock flair. But it was the exact opposite. Sometimes I couldn't hear the orchestra over the electric guitars.  

Those people are CRAZY talented! I never saw sheet music and they played over 20 songs. And I loved the storyteller's voice.

I think my favorite part of the whole show was everyone's hair. Yep. They ALL had long hair and kept swishing and flinging it all over the place. It looked so cool. :) And their outfits were awesome.

The stage was awesome too. I had a hard time with the strobe lights, but the fire (lots of it) was awesome. The flames were even different colors (blue/green/pink)--and yes we could totally feel the heat from them. Awesome. It's funny how pictures make it seem further away than you actually were.

I loved seeing people get really, really into the music. It was entertaining.

Here are some pictures. Super awesome. :)

 

I have a video of one of my favorite songs--Hall of the Mountain King, but I can't get it to upload. :( boo.

 

The concert was great.The seats were great. The free popcorn and soda were great. And the music totally rocked. *snicker*

Butterfly Quote Wall

Over the weekend I worked on tons of projects, including this one. Actually this is one of the few I actually finished. Ha ha ha

Awhile ago, Lys re-did her bedroom and decided that she wanted a vinyl quote on her wall, like the one I had done downstairs. The quote she picked out was "If nothing changed, there would be no butterflies" by Walt Disney.

I loved the quote and thought it was perfect. Things kept coming up and so the project kept getting delayed. Well this weekend while she and her family were out of town, I surprised her with the quote. 

I used my amazingly awesome Cameo and cut the letters out with vinyl after much consternation and decision making about the font and size of the letters. I also found a fun butterfly graphic on the Silhouette graphic site (so awesome!) and cut it out too.

I taped up all the letters to see about the spacing and to see how they lined up.

Once I liked it, I started sticking them to the wall, very carefully. And then rubbed them onto the wall with my finger. I was using the stick the vinyl comes with, but I was pressing too hard and didn't want to break the stick so I just my finger, which was better.

Then once all the letters were done, I was trying to figure out how to do the butterfly and I realized that the end was the same size as the end of the "s", so I just attached it there.

Here is the project when it was all done.

Here is the message I got on facebook when Lys got home from vacation and found it:

"hey, it's totally late [um, it was 10:18pm when she posted this] so i'll text ya in to morning, but THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR DOING MY WALL! IT LOOKS SOOO AMAZING!! LOVE IT! YOU'RE SO THE BEST EVER :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D"

I think she liked it. :) It was a fun little surprise and I liked how it turned out. :)

Highlight Reel: Nauvoo

During my trip to Chicago, Lisa and Adam arranged for us to take a short road trip to Nauvoo, since I hadn't been there.

It was amazing.

I will never forget it.

It looked different than I expected, but I loved it.

Here are some of my favorite pictures:


The view of the temple on our wagon ride. So beautiful.

Lisa and I watched a movie in the Visitors Center. While we did, Adam hung out with Matthew. When we came out, Adam, a proud pappa, showed us what Matthew learned. Adam pointed at a picture of President Monson and asked who it was. Matthew smiled up at us and said it was Prophet Monson. It was so cute!

I tried my first piece of Catfish while I was there. It was okay. I really like fish and so I wanted to try it. Adam "stole" a small piece of it from the Buffet we had at the Hotel Nauvoo. The buffet was delicious, and the fish was alright.

 Matthew loved Dinner. :)

Our first night there we went to the "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo" in the Cultural Hall. I loved it. It was hilarious and touching. And the Senior couples that put it on were so totally awesome. I could totally see my Nana in it. :)

In Brigham Young's home, a Sister Missionary explained that when the city was being rebuilt, someone discovered Brigham Young's wife's dishes in the cellar of their house. She had tried to quickly bury them in order to protect them from the looters that came in after they left. when they were discovered, they were all broken and almost destroyed. Eventually a Senior missionary came along that was a ceramics glazier and was able to put the dishes together and re-finish them so it's impossible to tell that they were ever broken--and probably stronger than they were originally. The sister missionary likened it to the Atonement. It was a beautiful analogy.

We were also able to go to Carthage while we were there. It was quite an impressive place. It was incredible to be there.

All four of us standing in front of the Brickyard.

 A Sunstone from the original temple.

The view of the Mississippi River from Inspiration Pointe. We went there as part of the Carriage ride tour that is there. It was a beautiful experiance. It was very cold that day, but the missionaries gave us lots of quiltes and so we were quite cozy and warm during the ride.

We also took some time to walk around Joseph Smith's properties and the cemetary. It was beautiful and serene.

The view of Parley Street towards the Mississippi River, where the saints walked as they were leaving the city. It was a humbling and cold walk, especially since all I had was a thin sweater. It was easy to imagine how difficult it was for them to leave their lives and their temple for an unknown world. My heart ached for them as I turned and saw the temple on the hill and thought of their immense sacrifice. My gratitude for my own 4th Great-Grandmother, Margaret Cowan Bryson's sacrifice multiplied as I imagined her walking down to the river in the dead of winter. Her sacrifice lead directly to me here. For that I am eternally grateful.

 Touching the Mississippi River!

The river is huge! I can't imagine crossing it in below freezing temperatures and then seeing it freeze over.

On our way back to Chicago, we took a bit of a detour so I can say I've been to Iowa. Unsurprisingly, it looked just like Illinois. :) ha ha ha.

And yes, I did feel so welcome.

I loved Nauvoo. It wasn't crowded and it was fun to have time to wander through everything and spend a lot of time talking to the Senior Missionaries. Some of them had only been their a week, while others had been their about a month. It amazed me how much they already knew and how well they explained everything.

Overall, I throughly enjoyed it and was so glad we had, and took the time to go. :)

Highlight Reel: Chicago

I got home from my trip to Chicago last night. I really, really didn't want to come home. I wanted to stay.

Usually when I go on a trip, I'm ready to go home after 4-5 days. Not this time. I was there for 8 full days, and I could have stayed for months. I already want to go back. It was so fun to spend time with Lisa, Adam, their son Matthew, and Adam's family and friends. So much fun. I can't believe that it's been 3.5 years since I've seen Lisa and Adam and when we were together it was like no time had passed at all. That is true friendship right there. :)

We did soooo many things and it didn't feel like it was crammed or rushed at all. Busy, but a total blast.

Here are some highlight pictures. I took over 600, so I'll try to cut out a few. ;)

After Lisa picked me up at the Milwaukee Airport (about an hour from her house), we stopped by the Mars Cheese Castle. Basically it was a store just for cheese, but built so it looked like a castle. I don't really understand the point, but it was hilarious that there was even a Cheese Castle. :) Now whenever the question comes up if someone's been to a cheese castle I can say I have. (And you know I will ask the question, just so I can say I have. lol!)

Lisa and her son Matthew in the Cheese Castle. It was kind of funny Lisa and I were even there, we're both lactose intolerant and so we don't generally eat cheese. But Matthew loved it and was so cute wearing a cheese head hat.

The next day Lisa, Matthew, and I took the train into the city. (My first time on a train!) It was incredible. It's been a long time since I was downtown in a major city and the immense height of the building was incredible. I loved it. It's amazing what Man can do when he puts his mind to it.

The city was beautiful. And there were tulips blooming everywhere!

This is the Sears/Willis Tower. It was really hard to look up to the very top of the building. So cool. And at the very top, you can see the little glass boxes that extend out over the city. I totally stood in one! More pictures below.

Here are some pictures from the top of the Sears Tower. The water is not an ocean (which is what it looks like), but actually Lake Michigan. So huge, and beautiful.

 

We made our way around the building to the side that looks over downtown and has "The Ledge" which are 4 glass boxes that extend out beyond the building so you can stand over it. Very Creepy and a bit terrifying considering it's 103 stories above the earth. Lisa wasn't sure how Matthew would react, but he LOVED it! And was mad when it was time to leave.

I knew about this and so I was totally mentally prepared to step out onto the ledge. At least I thought I was.  I wanted walk out on it all confident-like since I had flown all the way out there, but then I looked down and freaked out a bit. After a little coaxing from Lisa ("Do you really want to say that you came all the way out here and DIDN'T step out onto the glass?"), I did it! This picture is of my feet (and Matthew's cute little legs). I still have a hard time looking at the picture, but it's one of my favorites! :)

A panoramic view from the glass box. And yes, in the left corner is a person doing a hand stand in another ledge. Yeah, I definitely couldn't do that. :)

After Sears Tower, we went to Lunch at this delicious little corner bakery cafe. When we came out we found that were across the street from the Art Museum and decided to go. It was part of the City Pass that we had bought at Sears Tower. When I was deciding where I wanted to go, the Art Museum was low on the list, but I am so glad that we went. There were some incredible pieces of art there. Including the Hall of Miniatures--which I kept waiting to come to life a la Night at the Museum. :)

We discovered that Milennium Park was right across the street from the Art Museum and Lisa really wanted to show me the GIANT jellybean. When she had told me about it before, I was skeptical and didn't really care about seeing it. BUT AFTER seeing it, it was totally awesome. Super fun. And I decided that I want one in my backyard some day. :) The view it gave of the city was so awesome!

Thursday morning, before we headed to Nauvoo, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Yeah, that was incredible! It was huge and we didn't get to see a lot of it. But what we did see was amazing. Easily our favorite exhibit was the U-505 german submarine that they have there. Adam got us tickets to go inside for a tour. Outside it is HUGE! Inside was so small and cramped. There were 15 people on our little tour which was too many, but there were 59 men living on the ship for 100 days! Eeek! Yeah, NO THANK YOU! But it was amazing to see inside.

We played Ticket To Ride a bunch of times while I was there. I love that game and so do Lisa and Adam! Perfect. Adam won every game, but he started going out before we could finish our routes and so unbeknownst to Adam, we added the extra train cars to his bag--so he had three extra trains to deal with. It ended up giving Lisa and I several more turns. Adam still won, but Lisa at least finished her route. :) After the winner was announced, Lisa said to Adam, "But what you didn't know..." and then explained how we "cheated" and gave him extra cars. He thought it was sooo hilarious! The next time we played, he counted to make sure we didn't do it again. :)

This is Matthew's cheesy picture smile. It is so cute! And when he does it he starts giggling. So precious. I totally fell in love with this little boy. So precious. :) We took this picture right before we went to Lisa's ultrasound appt. where she found out she is having a little girl! Yay!

We also stopped by the Chicago Temple to look around. I was surprised that it looked exactly like the Dallas and Boise Temples. I guess I hadn't ever seen a picture of it. I thought the Marble on the building was very pretty.

The day before I left, Lisa and I decided to head downtown and check out Navy Pier. It was very empty and cold, but still cool to look around. And no, I didn't ride the Ferris Wheel. It kinda freaks me out. I figured that standing out on the "Ledge" at Sears Tower was enough for me. :)

When Lisa and I were roommates in college, we had a hilarious experiencing high fives first thing in the morning--thereafter dubbed "Morning 5's". A few years ago, I was able to see one of our other roommates, Jennifer and gave her one, so I passed it on to Lisa (they were the ones that did it the first time in college). So funny. :)

And there you have it, a very brief summary of my trip to Chicago. We did go on a little road trip to Nauvoo, so I'll post those pictures too.