Chicago...Here We Come!

Beautiful Lake Michigan

A fantastic and charming candy factory in Indiana

The "giant" PEZ...well, you have to know the story behind my facination with PEZ. As a kid my parents did not deprive me of candy, but PEZ were like the "specialty" and were rather expensive. Living on a fairly meager income, I was not treated to PEZ. When I was in college, I told my mom about my lifelong craving for PEZ and she made sure I received a whole pile of them on the next holiday. For what it's worth, the dumb things don't even taste good...but hey, they were cool! Anyway, this giant PEZ is about a foot tall, plays music, and costs ten bucks. I almost bought it, but figured mom would eventually feel bad and get it for me...HA!

Ryan with a huge jawbreaker...no, we did not buy it...I figured it would make a better facebreaker for whoever would attempt to chew around on it!

For all like-minded women out there, this is a gigantic chocolate fountain! It was incredibly tall, and looked very yummy!

The base of the fountain was loaded with goodies and crafts.

The boys at Cabella's

There was an ex-pro football player at Cabella's, although I cannot remember on which teams he played, and he autographed the boy's hats.


Kaitlynn tried out the shooting range.

The "Old Lighthouse" on State Street in Chicago. This was home to Pacific Garden Mission for the first how many years, and they are currently in the process of moving into the new, incredibly nice, facility that God has provided. They are doing a wonderful work in the city!

The new taping room with the cast in place.

Unshackeled's announcer - he's been doing it as long as I can remember, and I'm not going to attempt to spell his name!

The faithful organist who knows just how to add the right amount of fright or calm to the script at any given moment!

Getting ready for taping

This progression of pics just cracked me up. What is her problem, anyway?

Ryan guards our massive box lunches, courtesy of the Mission.

Evan "preaches" in one of the small chapels

The new facility with Sears Tower in the background.

My sweet kiddos

Olivia loves to play the piano and sing.




Whew! 36 weeks...I'm feeling like this baby will be comin' soon! So far 99.9% of people are guessing it's a boy...I haven't had a baby boy in 6 years, so that would be fun again, and a girl would be fun, too. Just so I don't get one of each!

Most of you know that my brother and his wife recently moved to Chicago, Ill. They planned Olivia's dedication for this Sunday, and although I had silently vowed to make Homecoming my last trip before the baby's birth, things worked out that we could leave early this morning for Chicago and do an overnight stay. We left home about 8 a.m. (7 a.m. Chi time), and hit the road. We ended up making unexpected stops at a candy factory and a new Cabella's store. My kids had never been to Chicago, so I wanted to take them to Pacific Garden Mission. Greg had never seen the Mission, and it had been 10 or 12 years since my parents took us there for a tour, dinner, and taping. We were able to watch an Unshackled! taping today (yes, try keeping a 3-year-old dead quiet on a tile floor for 45 minutes) and see their new facility, which is incredible. Having just eaten a few minutes before, we turned down the cafeteria dinner invite, but they insisted on sending us boxed lunches. They were pretty impressive lunches! After leaving the Mission, we headed to Lake Michigan where the kids ran around for awhile and scared me to death by getting pretty close to the edge of the water. We weren't at a beach, just on the edge of the concrete. Next time we plan on doing the Children's Museum and other things at the Navy Pier, but there just wasn't time today, and the thought of walking 10 blocks (instead of paying $23 to park at the Pier) didn't really appeal to me at this stage! We crammed quite a bit into a few hours and later this evening we made it down to Eric and Meg's apartment. We spent some time playing with a very happy, energetic Olivia. She was such a show-off, and had Evan giggling to pieces. Now we are at our hotel, and I am able to blog thanks to their great wireless connection! We plan to attend the dedication in the a.m., have lunch with the family, then head back home. Cridersville will be lookin' awful good after a day in the crazy city!