Making our House a Home!: Spending 13 days in Chicago

The longest I've been away from home for work was a recent trip in mid-November to Chicago. American Heart has an annual city-wide conference each November and this year we were in Chicago. I've been to New Orleans and Orlando for this meeting with AHA but I've never been gone for such a long work trip. I was in charge of a week long meeting before our city-wide so in the midst of being newly pregnant and not being able to tell anyone yet, I had the privilege of working 15 hour days for 13 days straight! Luckily my mom and step-dad joined me for the first couple days to keep me company. We all shared a pretty tiny hotel room at the Hilton Chicago (absolutely gorgeous hotel) but with me sleeping on the fold out couch 2 nights and sharing the king bed with mom and Jim the other night, I was a bit excited when they left so I could have the bed all to myself. :)

It was my mom's birthday weekend (don't worry, I won't say her age!) so we had lots of fun things in store! We went to see The Lion King and actually had really good seat about 15 rows up on the left side of the stage. My mom saw this musical in Houston on the front row but luckily she was open to see it again with some first timers. It was absolutely amazing and one of the best Broadway shows I've seen. Truly magical!

Another day we walked all around the city, taking in many of the attractions. We walked through Hyde Park, all along the Magnificent Mile and Navy Pier, toured the Modern Museum of Art for hours and ate our way through the city.

Can you see Willis (Sears) Tower behind them?

Beautiful Lake Michigan in the background.

Right after this picture was taken, we got a text message from my cousin M.L. saying she just got engaged. We immediately called her to tell her congratulations. I can't wait for the fall wedding next year!

We ate lunch at a yummy restaurant overlooking the water. Mom and I actually ate at this restaurant in April and just had to take Jim there. Thank you for joining me in Chicago and for making the first few days a lot of fun!

Now for the real reason, I was in Chicago...WORK! Our conference attracts over 25,000 each year so it takes a village to put together. I took a couple pictures with my phone to show. I won't bore anyone with the details, but it truly is an amazing conference to be a part of. Plus I got to meet Jaclyn Smith from Charlie's Angels. Her husband is a renowned cardiologist from LA and was speaking at one of the educational sessions.