Chicago - FCCLA National Convention

Our little FCCLA mascot!

We survived our trip to Chicago! It was the FCCLA National Convention. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago. It was a good time! I am glad Josh and Elsie came with me. It was a lot of fun to have my mom there too :) I wasn't in as many meetings as I thought I would be, but I sure stayed busy! It seemed that for an entire week I never sat down or slept! I was so exhausted! Josh was able to go to Wrigley Field and watch the Cubs lose. I am glad he went, but I was super sad I didn't get to go with him. :( Elsie was a trooper! She traveled so good and was a little charmer :) It was fun having her there so everyone could see her :) I like the compliments we get about how beautiful she is :) Every person that looked at her and smiled or talked to Elsie, she smiled right back and pretty much melted the hearts of everyone that looked at her :) I have said it before, but, Amanda, you baked a good brownie :) Elsie is so beautiful! Thank you Amanda! I was in charge of 9 State Officers and the other 180 people that came from Utah. It was a lot of work, but we all survived! When we got there, I realized that I had forgotten two people when I booked everyone's hotel rooms. Don't worry, the hotel was COMPLETELY BOOKED! I cried 3 times, then one of my State Officer's moms came to the rescue and helped me out. The 2 people stayed in her room for 2 nights, then I got them a room for the rest of the week. It was stressful, but we all survived :) Before we left, the State Officers and I all decided on our tours while we were there. We decided on a bus tour and to go to Six Flags. The bus tour ended up being fantastic! I thought we would all die being in an enclosed tour bus for 4 hours (with high school students :) ) but we made some photo opportunity stops and it ended up being one of my favorite things we did. Our tour guide, John, was fantastic! He was probably about 80 years old, had lived in Chicago his entire life, and had a sharper memory than me :) He was amazing! It was cool to see all of Chicago :) Josh's favorite part was the University of Chicago, it is an amazing campus! I wish we had $27,000 a semester so Josh could finish his degree there :) Six Flags was a ton of fun too! I realized that I didn't take ANY pictures while we were there. :( I guess once you have seen one amusement park, you have seen them all :) The only ride Elsie rode was in her stroller :)

Overall, this was a fantastic trip and I want to go back to Chicago and see all the things we missed :) We are so lucky that Elsie was so good! She loves seeing all the faces. After spending a week of constantly being on the go, it has been a challenge to keep her entertained since we have been back. I love Chicago, FCCLA and most of all Elsie and Josh!

What is a trip to Chicago without stopping at the famous photo spot :)

Waiting at the airport for Elsie's first flight :)

Elsie's first ride in an airplane :) She did so good!
She slept most of it :)

Elsie's first taxi ride!

Happy 4th of July from Chicago!

Elsie's 4th of July outfit :)

Cutest Miss America I know!

Don't be fooled...we got to the Taste of Chicago about 15 minutes late. We didn't get to go inside :( However, some of my state officers were already in there and they bought us some tickets and got us a bunch of food. The food in Chicago is FANTASTIC! One could gain 100 pounds easily there!

The view from Taste of Chicago of Downtown Chicago

"The famous Bean"

Elsie's "home away from home" - her stroller :)

The Navy Pier - FCCLA rented out part of the Navy Pier for our party, it was super fun to see the fireworks from the pier :)

Family photo :)

Elsie and Grandma Gay :)

No, my mom and I didn't plan our outfits to match :)

Elsie LOVES her daddy!

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip :)

Another family photo :)

Fireworks set off from the barge

Don't be fooled, this was the best firework of the night and I just happened to snap my camera at the right time. :)

Elsie loved the fireworks

Mesmerized.

This is my favorite firework picture of Elsie :)

A view of the city from the Navy Pier

Touring the Sights of Chicago

We would have gotten Elsie out, but she was asleep :)

We took a walk to get some lunch - lets just say we walked A LOT further than we needed to :) It was a good adventure though :)

McKell, Elsie and I at my new favorite sandwich place: Potbellys :)

Outfit of the day in Chicago :)

I wish I had gotten closer than this to Oprah :)

It is a dream of mine to one day meet Oprah Winfrey :)

I love Oprah...Josh loves the Bears :) - Soldier Field :)

Posing :)

I wish I had gotten to go to a game here...maybe next time :)

Makes for a great photo opportunity though :)

If you look at the 2 pictures above, you see the Willis Tower (used to be the Sears Tower), I think I may have left some of it out :) - the tallest building in the US. There is only one building that is taller and it is in Hong Kong. If you look closely at the top of the building, on the left hand side you will see some small things that are attached to the building - that is where these next pictures are taken from. We were up on the 103rd floor :)

Oprah has me beat in height, I even have my shoes on :)

Elsie's first time eating her toes happened to take place while we were waiting in line to go to the top of the tower :)

LOVE this girl!

One of the many views from the 103rd floor :)


Family photo :)

Another view from the top :)

It took us 59 seconds from the time the elevator doors closed to when they opened at the 103rd floor - the kid next to me in the elevator timed it on his cell phone :)

This was the view right out under the glass outlook

This is my FAVORITE picture I took of Elsie :)

My heart was beating so fast the whole time she laid there!

It seemed scary to look over the glass edge , it was much worse standing on it - I held my breath the whole time :)

Another view :)

The best proof we have that Elsie was at her 1st FCCLA National Convention :)

I LOVE this! - Elsie loves her daddy!

Trying to keep Elsie entertained on the airplane :)

We were at the Chicago airport waiting for our plane to leave and we saw Slyler, Laurie and Kinslee (my cousin and his wife and their cute baby girl) were there and ended up being on our same flight :)

This is how we all felt by the end of our trip!