The (very) Windy City- Part One

Last week we ventured off to Chicago so Justin could attend the ACHE conference.  It stands for American College of Healthcare Executives.  Justin, Dave, Ben, Ryan and Scott (all in our ward and MHA students) all went to the conference and Natalie and I tagged along to go play in the city.  Our trip started on Tuesday the the 24th.  We left early in the morning for the airport and flew into Chicago at about 8.  We stayed at the Hilton is Chicago, it was VERY nice.  Our room had two bathrooms in it! I could not get over it!  The boys all looked so nice in their suits and looked like actual business men as they checked in to the hotel.

The boys stayed at the hotel for their conference and Natalie and I went out to explore the city.  We first went over to Millennium Park to check out the sculptures.  There was the lovely art with the huge moving faces of chicago natives

Then we went over and checked out the "bean".  It is this really cool sculpture that reflects you and the skyline of the city.  We had fun taking pictures there.  

Try to spot Natalie and I in the pictures.  Hint: I am wearing blue.

After the park we headed to the "Magnificent Mile" to do some shopping.  We found some lovely little treasures along the way.  There was this huge foam sculpture of the famous painting "American Gothic"

and as we were walking down the street Natalie got this look on her face and was like look at that window! This is what I saw

but as we walked past the window you could see in the hole and we went from being grossed out, to laughing our behinds off.  This is what the free peep show turned out to be.

Behind the other holes there were little scenes set up with peeps as characters.  It was pretty fun and it totally made our day.  

We spent the next few hours shopping, but mostly trying on funny things and laughing way too hard.  Here we are pimping out some awesome headbands at Forever 21.  Do people actually wear these things?? Cause I think we totally pull them off.

As we were out in the city we realized why they call it the WINDY city.  At one point the wind was so bad that we were walking all hunched over with all of our strength because the wind was so strong it was pushing us back. It didn't help that we couldn't stop laughing. Lets just say that our hair was awesome and more then a little tangled after that.

After lots and LOTS of walking around we met back up with the boys to grab some lunch.  After lunch at an awesome little deli we took them back to Millennium park.  Here are a few more pics.

 

On our way over to the park the funniest thing happened.  We were all walking down the street and this guy comes up to us with a cup asking us for donations for the poor. We were kinda walking past him and he was like come on aren't you guys LDS.  We were all shocked.  He saw four clean cut boys in suits and thought they were Missionaries or something.  It was funny. 

After all that we went back to the hotel.  The boys went to more meetings and Natalie and I watched Rachel Ray and took a nap.  It was awesome.  Then they boys came back and we all went out and got some Chicago deep dish.  We all had a blast at dinner.  The food was great, the company was hilarious, and I don't think I stopped laughing the entire time. 

Here is the group. Justin, Me, Ryan, Natalie, Dave, Scott and Ben.

Please check out Ryan's face.  It made me laugh for at least 10 minutes when I saw this picture!

After dinner the boys went to some receptions at the hotel and Natalie and I were going to go sit in the hot tub, but we ended up getting in our pjs and watched the biggest loser and dancing with the stars.  When the boys came back we all had some girl talk and watched basketball.  It was a great and LONG day.  This post is getting long so I will post day 2 of our trip tomorrow.  It is mostly pictures from the Shedd Aquarium so check back tomorrow.