The Air Up There

Yep, we hauled Nathen, Jennifer and Annie up to the top of the Sears Tower. This is all part of the Kason and Sara tour of Chicago (admission to buildings not included). Just the other day Sara was telling me that we have far too many pictures from the observation deck on top of the Sears Tower. She's probably right. I am quite proud of myself though for having not posted all of them on my blog. Here's Nathen dancing with Annie atop the Western Hemisphere's tallest skyscraper. Just look at those building way down there, from the ground those buildings are no short chunks of steel, but from big daddy Sears, they look like toothpicks. Zoe has a strange addiction to the step that surrounds the telescope thingies in the observation deck. As soon as the elevator gets to the top floor she makes a bee-line to one of them and steps up and down the entire time, while the rest of us are pointing and picturing.

Sara recently informed me of an upcoming Chicago skyscraper scheduled to be completed in 2011, the Chicago Spire. I'm so excited about this I might wet my pants. Check out the new Chicago skyline:

The skyscraper will be 150 stories tall (compared to the Sears Tower's 110 stories) and when completed will be the Western Hemisphere's tallest building (by the way, the CN Tower in Toronto is taller than the Sears Tower, but not a skyscraper). Look how close it'll be to Navy Pier, too! The coolest thing about this joint is that it will be twisted from top to bottom, and designed by Santiago Calatrava, the same guy who did the Milwaukee Art Museum. This isn't some architect's pipe dream either, the foundation has already been poured and the plans have been set in motion. For any of you skyscraper fans, the wikipedia site is worth a read, be careful though, as you click from building to building, you will get lost in a fantastic maze of super structures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Spire. The world's in a skyscraper fever pitch right now, with most of the action happening in Asia, so its nice to have some fun getting built close to home as well. Oh if only I could visit the United Arab Emirates to see the completion of the Burj Dubai...ho hum.

The Pier, Pizza, and a Promenade

On the way back to Milwaukee from Nauvoo we made a touristic stop in Chicago. This was our first time to walk the length of Navy Pier, and I'm still not certain if I liked it or not. I think the view at the end of the long plank is worth the walk, but I can't say it was worth the parking fee. It was a beautiful day, and I really like this picture of us against the Chicago skyline. No matter how many times I've been to Chicago I can never get over its sheer immensity and energy. What a great town. We saddled up the strollers and took a hike up and down Michigan Avenue this time as well. When it comes down to famous streets in big cities Michigan Avenue just about fits up there with the Champs Elyses and Park Avenue. I guess the big difference is that I was hoping to see some world-famous monument or building as we marched from cross street to cross street, but I never really saw anything. Maybe I'm just not well enough versed in my Chicago lore.

One thing I do know about Chicago though is that the best pizza joint in town is Giordano's. You better believe we patronized this fine establishment and stuffed ourselves with stuffed pizza. The good people at Giordano's know how to make the perfect pizza pie, but they do so under the premise that it takes about 45 minutes to turn an order into a product. This is why the picture above features the blurry versions of Zoe and Annie. In 45 minutes the two of them had run out of new things to chew on and throw across the room and had begun to channel their energy through more wiggly pursuits. Notice that all the spillable vessels had been relocated to the less reachable ends of the table. The pizza was great and there were no left overs. Mmm Giordano's.

Zoe in the Onion

About two weeks ago we went with Sara's parents and brother to the Lakefront Brewery. Randy, Diane and Tyler were looking for a stereotypical Milwaukeean experience, so we delivered to them a fish fry, a polka band, and a brewery tour all in the same evening. During the tour, the Brewery people took pictures of Zoe and interviewed her for their ad in The Onion. The issue with her add came out today, and we couldn't be prouder of our little brew princess. I guess we are now officially an integral part of Milwaukee culture.

You can click on the picture over there and a larger view of the picture will show up so you can read her answers to the interview questions.

Sunset by the Mississippi

Utahns haven't the foggiest idea of the immensity of the Mississippi River. First time I crossed it was on the way out here back in October of 2006 as we were hunting for a hotel in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We ended up crossing the river about 9 times that night since Burger King had some sort of patty flipping seminar in town which booked every hotel in the county. Since then I've developed some sort of Mississippi river fedish that I can not get over. There was plenty of river to go around the days we were in Nauvoo, as the prior week's storms caused flooding the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades. And the mosquitos came rolling in. We had a great time with Jennifer, Nathen and Annie in Nauvoo, it was a lot of fun to go on a road trip.

To your left you will see an old red brick building...

Did you know that when it came down to getting the City of Nauvoo official in the eyes of the state of Illinois (the Nauvoo Charter), one of the main Illinois legislators to support the Nauvoosians was Abraham Lincoln?

Look what a beautiful day it was when we went on our horse-drawn wagon ride through the City of Nauvoo! Last time we sat in this wagon Sara was great with child and every bump put the funniest of looks on her face. This time there were plenty of funny looks on Sara's face, most of them generated by the frustration of trying to stop Zoe from squirming right over the side of the wagon. Even Mike and Mack, our quadraped chauffers, weren't able to extend her attention span to the necessary 45 minutes of the wagon ride. This wagon ride is the best way to see all of Nauvoo without having to do all that walking. After the ride you go back into town and visit the little shops and see the river. This makes Nauvoo pretty doable in one day. Of course, you want to stay at the Nauvoo Family Inn and Suites, and perhaps stay an additional day just to lounge about in the hotel and take it easy. Zoe really liked her bonnet, probably because when something is tied to your head you get to be pretty close friends.

The Lion and The Zoe

This is Zoe on a lion that she found behind the Nauvoo temple.

The City Beautiful

Part of the reason we invited Nathen and Jennifer to come visit is so they could take pictures of us. Clearly we made it to Nauvoo. We've decided that the best road into town is the one that runs along the Mississippi from Carthage. It is so cool to make the turn into town and see the temple show up around the corner. The building itself is huge to area standards (there's a lot of nothing between Chicago and Nauvoo), but can you imagine showing up in old-days Nauvoo to see this gorgeous building...perhaps the tallest building you've ever seen? Too bad it got all burned down and tornadoed. I'll never forget the general conference session when President Hinckley announced its rebuilding.


We went through the temple this time, and had the oppourtunity to do a little bit of tourism while inside. The little old man took us down to the basement of the building to see the baptismal font, and showed us the spiral staircase that climbs from the basement to the top floor, whithout a pillar in the middle. Call me sappy if you want, but I found it very emotional to stand at the front door of the temple looking out towards the Mississippi River, wondering if Daniel D. McArthur did the same thing 160 years ago. His farm was located where the Visitors Center currently stands. Meanwhile, Sara's relative, Ira Allen, arrived in Nauvoo to find that the house he had previously bought was in the process of burning to the ground. This house was directly across the street from the temple to the South. He then returned home to earn the money for buying a new house. When he finally returned to Nauvoo, Brigham Young asked him to donate the money to the church, which he did. Ira and his family ended up spending 3 or 4 years in Winter Quarters helping other families get to Salt Lake with financial support. We appreciate the struggle our relatives went through, and we show that appreciation by camping very rarely. Nauvoo has become quite a special place to us.

Jail Break at Carthage

As we were leaving Salt Lake City to move to Milwaukee Sara pulled out a wallet-sized picture of Annie and taped it to the gear shift. This was back when Annie was a wee lass of only one month. We were pretty sad to be leaving home, and were very worried that we would never get to know our new little niece. Over the last year and a half though, we've found a lot of reasons to visit Annie and her parents, and we were very grateful that they came out to see us. Zoe and Annie were certainly not in the mood to sit through a tour, and we'd been through Carthage Jail before, so we took Annie and Zoe outside to run around and eat rocks. Hopefully Nathen and Jennifer enjoyed their brief jail break. While we were out there Sara took some of the best pictures of Zoe and Annie ever. I particularly like the one on the top up there where the little sun beams are coming in. But I don't want to go on and on about the kids all day, just let it be known that regardless of our living 1440 miles from Nathen and Jennifer, Zoe and Annie have turned out to be best friends forever.

Carthage Jail was as good as an experience as ever. From there we were off on our way, along the river road from Keokuk to Nauvoo. That's right, I said Keokuk. Only two weeks before our trip there was some very severe flooding in the area and I was amazed how high the water level was. We made it through without getting our feet wet, got settled into our hotel and went out on the town.

Carthage Jail in the Rain

My favorite part of the entire Nauvoo experience is the tour of Carthage Jail. When Sara and I went in April we were relatively by ourselves during the tour of the jail where Joseph Smith was martyred. We were able to sit together in the upper bedroom for nearly twenty minutes just listening to the room. There is an icredible spirit there. It was amazing. This time around I had a different sort of experience at Carthage, but it was great none the less. Right when we got into the visitors center it began to rain; a real Midwest down pour. Zoe was not interested in doing anything but playing in the rain. I had a blast watching Zoe walk out into the rain, trying to figure out where it was coming from. This proved to be very therapeutic to me after a few weeks of being super busy at work and not able to play with my Zoe as much as I want to. While Sara, Nathen, Jennifer and Annie were in the building, Zoe and I stayed outside playing in the rain and chatting with the missionary people. Have you ever noticed that missionaries like to talk about their families back home a lot? Anyhow, the rain stopped and in a matter of a few minutes the sun came out and it became a beautiful afternoon. This was fortunate since Annie and Zoe were far more interested in touching the dirt outside than going on the tour inside. I guess a one and an almost two-year-old just aren't fit to be tied.

Albanian-American Islamic Farmers of Illinois

After recovering from our baseball game we woke up bright and early, packed up the cars and made our way west to the Midwest's Mormon Mecca. Sara and I visited Nauvoo last April and had a great time, regardless of Sara being very great with child. We figured we'd show Nathen and Jennifer what a cool place it is, besides, how often do you find yourself five hours away from the place that most Utahns only get to see in the pictures in the back of their Book of Mormons during very boring Sunday School lessons. As anticipated, Zoe required a few stops along the way, one of them being at the building pictured somewhere in the middle of Illinois. We found it strange that the only non-farm building for miles and miles happened to be the Albanian-American Islamic Center. There was no time to waste though, we had to get back on the road so we could pick up our Godfathers pizza in Moline and make it to Carthage before it got too late in the afternoon.

What's for eating at Miller Park

Here's a picture of Nathen goin' to town on a defenseless bratwurst. The only reason you don't see me in more of these pictures is that I spent at least 3 of 9 innings squirting far too much secret stadium sauce on my various sausages. They sell Hot Dogs, Bratwursts, Chorizos (my favorites) Polish and Italian. I capitalize the titles of these delicacies so they can receive the respect they deserve. Yes, I will write al about the world-famous Miller Park Sausage Races in a future blog (including some edge-of-your-seat footage), so don't worry!

Miller Park is a super cool place. Since it is very likely that it snows during the baseball season, the place was built with a retractable roof. No kidding! Here's a picture of Zoe laughing it up while the roof was opening (the rain had stopped). In order to allow more sunlight to get in, the construction plans included as many windows as possible. I love that you can actually see into the park as you drive by on the freeway. And they have a really cool slide that the mascot goes down, and fireworks go off with each homerun and tailgaiting...the list goes on. Man, I love the summer time!

Our local sports team is superior to yours!

Go Brewers! Here in Wisconsin we are very much surrounded by sports fans. I've decided that the reason there are so many professional sports teams in Wisconsin is that there are so many professional breweries in Wisconsin. Its great that the state's 3 professional sports teams are named after uniquely indiginous people and animals: The brave men that brew our beer, the hard-working packers that grind our sausage, and the majestic bucks that get blown away by bearded men from Up North with high powered rifles. In order for you to prioritize your cheering, the following is an official state-recognized ranking in the importance of sporting teams and events:

#10 The Bucks
#9 Competitive Eating
#8 Ice Fishing
#7 State Fair Pig Races
#6 International Lumberjacking
#5 The Admirals
#4 The Badgers
#3 The Brewers
#2 The Packers
#1 Brett Favre

You aren't allowed a Wisconsin ID card until you've pledged allegience to at least one local team, and have taken an oath to never support any out-of-state team (especially one preceded by the word "Chicago"). As you can tell in the picture atop this post, Zoe not only goes to the games, she also gets very involved. Nathen is sporting the hat that they handed out for free as you entered the stadium. Sara and I were very impressed to see that Nathen had walked off the airplane a few hours earlier wearing his Brewers shirt.