Trip to Chicago

Kars and I just got back to Spokane on Monday from a 10-day trip to Chicago and OshKosh. OshKosh '09 was going on up in Wisconsin last week and Moody Aviation had a booth at the airshow to tell people about mission aviation and MBI's missionary aviation technology training. All of Kars' class was sent to the airshow for part of the week to help man the booth and talk to people. The week happened to correspond with one of my week's off of work for the summer, so we decided to drive out to Chicago so I could go along. Kars' youngest brother, Lennart, had flown into Spokane the week before we drove out, so we took him along for the ride.

We left on Friday, July 24th at 8:45 pm....and we drove straight to Aurora, IL, where my sister Jess lives. It was a very long drive: 26.5 hours. But we were able to switch off drivers and sleep some on the backseat when needed. There is no way we could have done it without Len with us. =) He kept me awake at the most difficult stage for me...1 AM to 3 AM. Thanks, Len! We made it to Aurora a little after midnight on Saturday night.

Sunday we went to church with Jess and her husband, Pedro. Then we went out to lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out with them. We went to play mini golf and then tried out the batting cages (a first for both Kars and I).On Monday we took Lennart downtown Chicago to show him Moody's campus, as well as other sights in the city. He wanted to see the "Bean", so we walked to Millennium Park from Moody.


We got to spend Monday evening with our friends from Moody, Josh and Kathryn. We had a great time reminiscing together about the "good ole days". (You can see in the picture how excited Josh was to see us...;-)
Tuesday morning Kars drove up to OshKosh, dropping Lennart off at the airport to fly over to North Carolina. I got to hang around Chicago area the rest of the week. On Tuesday afternoon I went to visit my second cousin, Diana, who I hadn't seen in 3 years. Then on Wednesday I went to see one of my best friends from Moody, Ana. Ana has a son who is almost 2 years old and is so adorable. The last time I got to see him was when he was a week old! Unfortunately he had just gotten sick and wasn't feeling well the day I was visiting...but it was still so good to reconnect with Ana and get to see her being the great mom she is. =)
Thursday Jess was off of work, so Pedro, Jess and I went downtown to Lincoln Park Zoo. It got me excited for our trip to Kenya in December, where we will hopefully get to see all the animals in a game park! Afterwards they took me out for my first experience of Puerto Rican food in Pedro's childhood neighborhood. It was good stuff! And it was really special to get to spend the whole day with my sister and bro-in-law--something that doesn't get to happen very often.

Friday Jess and I got to go to several garage sales together--one of my favorite things to do, but not exactly hers. They just moved into a beautiful new house last November and have some things they could use. It was fun to hang out more together. Friday evening Kars returned from OshKosh and we left the next morning. On the trip back we decided to go through Northern Nebraska to visit some friends we hadn't seen in a while. Our first stop was to see Eileen Bramer, a sweet lady who has supported my family for many years. Kars had not had the chance to meet her yet and I probably hadn't seen her in 7 years. We had a very encouraging visit with her.

Saturday night we stayed with our friends, the Thieszens, in O'Neill, NE. The Thieszens are close family friends of my family. Their youngest son, Troy, is in South Carolina and came to visit us last year when we were in North Carolina. His parents are always so welcoming of us and encourage us so much each time we visit. We got to attend church with them on Sunday morning, where we saw more family friends, the Waymans, Lorraine and the Kliewers. After church we went out to lunch with the Thieszens and Kliewers. It was a fun, although brief visit.

We made it back to Spokane on Monday evening. Kars started back up at Moody on Wednesday, with his first flight of the semester on Thursday. Keep your eyes out for our next newsletter....