5 years, time to celebrate

On October 25, 2003 Ben and I got married. It's really hard to believe that 5 years have flown by. Thanks to the generosity of Ben's family to care for our boys, we got to take a brief overnight trip to Chicago to celebrate.

A 2 1/2 hour train ride from Bloomington/Normal got us into Union Station in Chicago.


The train pulling into the station in Bloomington/Normal.


Traveling by train is a unique experience, such a mix of people all in one small space.


Our hotel - the Sheraton, on the river and very close to the lake. Our room was on the 33rd floor. It was a lot of fun to look down on life from up in our hotel room. We could see out to the lake and downtown to the Sears tower.


We traveled to south side of Chicago, to Hyde Park, and toured the Frank Lloyd Wright house, near the University of Chicago campus. The picture above is of the front porch of the house - but it's not where you'll find the front door. Wright liked to hide the entrance to the house, so guests were forced to really look at the house (noticing the architecture) before they could enter the house. The front door to this house is tucked back in behind the tree on the left - just about the last place I would have looked for it.


Circle in a square is a contrast that Wright repeated over and over in the house.


Repetition. The lead glass windows were amazing. By-the-way, photos were only permitted outside the house.


Wright focused on the linear lines. The bricks on the exterior and interior of the house were long and thin. The masonry on the house helped to accentuate the linear design. The mortar in between layers of brick is a light color that matches the limestone. The mortar in between the bricks matches the brick color.




Our silhouettes during the tour.




What my husband thought of all my photo taking.


We ate at Weber Grill. A wonderful place to eat. The food is grilled on HUGE Weber grills. Yum!


The hotel lobby. It was dark, but I loved the furniture and carpet.


Check out the texture on the wallpaper in our hotel room. Really cool.


A live plant in a hotel room - have you ever seen such a thing? Maybe this just goes to show that I don't often stay in nice hotel rooms, but this really impressed me and in a small way, made the room feel more homey.


A self-portrait before we headed into Union Station to catch the train for Bloomington/Normal.


The dark (and scary) world of trains at Union Station.

Chicago - the random shots

I love Chicago. I'm not totally sure why, but it all started when I was in high school and was a huge fan of Michael Jordan. I dreamed of going to Chicago to see him play - it never happened, but I think that was the beginning. In college, I spent one month in Chicago at the Urban Life Center - it was by the far the coldest January of my life - but it was a fantastic experience! So, these random shots of the city couldn't be left off the blog. Ben kept rolling his eyes at me, when I had to stop and take photos, but I simply can't help it. Maybe it's the farm girl in me, maybe it's that my infatuation with this city has never ended.


This house was in Hyde Park, along our way to the Frank Lloyd Wright house.


The river and tall buildings. I love tall buildings, they're amazing.


The landscaping around the city was impressive and inspiring. It wasn't just along Michigan Ave., it was in many areas around town.


I just couldn't resist photographing the Sears Tower when we walked past it. It is SO tall. I've been to the top and seen it many times, but it never fails to amaze me. You feel like you're going to fall over backwards when you stand near it and look up. Maybe I'm just easily impressed....?

What a treasure!

The Children' Discovery Museum in Bloomington, Illinois is a wonderful place! Noah and Levi made it there twice while we were in Illinois and we plan to go there regularly when we visit grandma and grandpa Schrag. Having never been to a children's museum, Ben and I weren't sure what to expect, but this place blew our lowly expectations out of the water. Noah and Levi both had such a good time and there were so many fun and educational activities for them to try and experience.


The second floor was mostly dedicated to agriculture. Noah was in heaven! His first question when he climbed into the tractor was where is the door, his second question was "where is the loader?". So, maybe all the agricultural stuff wasn't "new" to him, but he loved playing on it and I'm sure he learned a thing or two.


Noah helped milk the cows. There was a button to press when you were ready for the milkers to start and it really looked like milk was coming out and going into the tank - just like at grandpa Schmidt's farm!




Ben and I just laughed when we saw that the cows even had ear tags - pretty realistic!


The combine was impressive. It had a split header - one half was a row crop header for corn, the other half was "normal" for cutting beans.


In the cab of the combine, you could turn the key and a big TV screen came on in front of you with footage of corn being picked. It was done at just the right angle to really give the feeling that you were driving a combine in a field and picking corn. I was really impressed. Noah just kept turning the key...


Another look at the header and the soybean and corn plants.


On the third floor was the art area. Ben and I were thoroughly impressed with the design of this space! There were 5 or 6 stations like the one pictured above. The entire area was enclosed in plexiglass. The paint stations were at kid height, and had just a little bit of water running through the tray. So, kids could come in, put on a smock, pick up a paint brush and start to paint on the plexiglass wall. Then, they could use the spray bottle and a squeegee to clean it off.


It was a ton of fun.




Ben's masterpiece...from the outside of the paint area, looking in.


Noah's favorite part of painting was squirting the water on the wall and then using the squeegee to wipe it off.


Levi had a bawl, just crawling around and pulling himself up to all sorts of fun activities.




There is a construction site right next door to the museum and the boys were pretty impressed by what was happening outside.






Noah spent a lot of time in the water play area. There were so many possibilities of things to do with this water. Thank goodness for the blue smock - otherwise he would have been soaked!




Levi loved having so many Levi's to look at!


More water play.


So many Noah's!

An all-Schrag Illinois weekend

Ok, so it wasn't 100% Schrag's at Ben's parents' house, but it was close. Between Wednesday and Sunday there were 9 people in the house, but never all at the same time. Tim and Sue did a wonderful job of managing the various schedules and accomodating all of us. Our family arrived on Wednesday. Ben's brother Andy also arrived on Wednesday. Ben's grandparents, Lee and Mary Alice Hertlzer, arrived on Thursday. Ben and I left for Chicago on Friday morning. Ben's sister Sara and her boyfriend Josh arrived Friday night. Andy went back to Boston on Saturday morning. Lee and Mary Alice left for Kansas on Saturday morning. Ben and I came back from Chicago on Saturday afternoon. Sara and Josh left on Sunday morning. Our family left on Sunday afternoon. Pretty confusing, huh?

Sadly, in all the chaos, I didn't manage to get photographs of everyone, but below are the pictures that best capture our time together at the house. In another post, I'll show you the Children's Museum we visited and the trip to Chicago that Ben and I took.


Noah decided he wanted to walk around on the deck in the rain. So, he found an umbrella and got his boots on.


Sue made many wonderful meals for us. These freshly baked loaves of bread merely symbolize all the hospitality that was extended to us.


Levi and Grandpa Schrag


A trip to Grandma Schrag's house wouldn't be complete without lots of time playing in the kitchen. We got to enjoy Sue's brand new kitchen! Literally, brand new...the cabinet guy left the house just over 12 hours before we arrived! Sue had just enough time to put everything away and get the place cleaned up before we arrived. It is a beautiful remodel that makes the kitchen feel much more inviting and helps Sue to be more a part of the action, even when she's the only one cooking.


Sara brought Noah and Levi the most precious hats from Peru! They're made from Alpaca hair. They are so darn cute in these hats! Thanks Sara!!


Auntie Sara with her nephews at our cook-out.


Levi chowed down and entire hot dog and bun, plus some beans and chips.


Levi eating, again. Thankfully, Sue thought of putting a round table cloth under his chair at each meal to serve as a drop cloth for all his crumbs. Levi was a total disaster after each meal and if you didn't look at the floor you would think he had eaten an enormous amount of food. However, one look at the floor and it was clear that about half of his food had landed on the drop cloth, not in his mouth.