CHICAGO

WARNING: extra long post ahead!

Danny and I took a quick trip to Chicago, Illinois last weekend! And there was just so many cool buildings and things that I had never seen that I just kinda went picture crazy, hence the super long blog post....

We walked around Soldier Field where the Chicago Bears play

There were Chicago-style tall and skinny houses and apartment buildings all over

We saw some crazy architecture and designs

The NBC building

We visited the Navy Pier

We took our first ferris wheel ride together

There were enormous buildings everywhere you looked

These are the five boys i was stuck with for the weekend :) It was a good group and we had a lot of fun together

We visited the famous giant Chicago Coffee Bean

We rode the trains and busses just like the ones you see in the movies

The Willis Tower is the tallest building in North America at the moment! I can't believe we got to see it :)

We walked around the Chicago Board of Trade building and the Chicago Stock Exchange

We ate some extremely delicious deep dish pizza at Gino's East. This is the place everyone we talked to told us to go and it was good advice. It had a really fun atmosphere and even better pizza.

We even got to make our mark there. Can you find us in the crazy maze of names?

I have to admit that I never thought I would ever get to go to Chicago in my whole life so it was really awesome to get to go together and just see what it was like and how different it is from Moses Lake, Washington and Boise, Idaho. We were kinda stunned and I felt like I was visiting a movie set almost everywhere we went.

Halloween Party at Southwest Airlines

Danny was told to dress up for his Halloween work party and this is what we found:

Creepy, I know! When he tried it on the night before I told him to hurry and take it off because he was creeping me out to bad. It was pretty funny to walk around with him and watch the different people and especially little kids point and stare at him.

Southwest put on the best Halloween celebration that I've ever heard of any company putting on. It was nuts! Almost everyone dresses up, and most of the departments is given a theme and puts on a different event/halloween thing. There was an Alice In Swanderland production, SWA Night Live, an incredible Count On Me stage show, a Swamazing Race, Toy Story, SuperMario, etc. They had everything and the decorations, costumes, and talents were so good. Danny and I had so much fun walking around and going to all the different shows.

All of these pictures were taken of things inside of the SWA headquarters. It was insane! Some of the employees had been planning and working on this for over a month, including getting dance lessons. Tons of employees had gotten their kids out from school just so they could bring them to the party.

The whole thing was unbelievable and I'm just glad that I was invited to go, because I don't think I would've believed it if I didn't get to see it for myself.

After we went around to all of the Halloween festivities, Danny and I went to Babe's with a bunch of Danny's coworkers and his Materials Planning Team. They had been telling Danny about this great Texas BBQ place for awhile so it was great to get to go and try the food. Yum!

Six Flags Over Texas

A couple weeks ago Danny and I decided that since neither of us had ever been to Six Flags, we would take the opportunity while we had one so close to us. It was crazy! I have never been on such insane roller coasters and I don't understand what kind of psycho created these monsters. Despite how scared we were most of the time, we had a lot of fun and I am glad we went.

TITAN: this thing was a monster! It took us up over 25 stories and then dropped us down and sped up to over 85 mph. We thought we were gonna die, and while we were gradually climbing up to the top Danny was wishing his harness would come loose so he could jump off.

Mr. FREEZE: this stupid thing spun us all over and then took us up to the highest point, paused and then dropped us and we did the whole thing over going backwards!

BATMAN: this one was pretty crazy-- instead of sitting above the rail, we were dangling below it and spinning in a million circles, which in the end left me with a very upset stomach.

SUPERMAN: This picture speaks for itself I think-- it shot us all the way up (32 1/2 stories), made us sit up there in horror, than yo-yo'd us up and down then made us sit up there some more and then shot us down to the ground. It was terrible and very fun.

SHOCK WAVE: This one was my favorite ride of the night. I loved it. It took us in two crazy loops and yanked us all over the place.

They also had a roller coaster called Runaway Mountain that was inside a building and was in complete darkness. We couldn't see anything at all and it spun in a million circles until our bodies felt like jello.

By the time we walked out of the theme park, Danny and I were dead. It was a very thrilling experience to say the least. When we got home I couldn't shut my eyes without my head starting to spin all over the place like we were still strapped onto one of those death traps.