At Thais and Lenin’s.

Sunday afternoon. While Sophia (and Mom) hosted a Friendsgiving celebration at home and Dad and Avery were in San Jose for a volleyball tournament (which they won), I had the good fortune to take Carson to his basketball game.

Thais and I finally found a day we could both go back to the woodworking class to finish our cutting boards.

Final touch: wood butter.

Thais had a laser image “burned” onto hers.

A better picture of mine.

A rainy morning but .. off I went to St Ignatius to see the 4th grade presentations of the saint each student had researched and crafted. St Hubert: patron saint of hunters, archers, foresters, trappers and the city of Liege.

I picked up the boys from St Ignatius after school. Avery is definitely getting better at popping a wheelie.

Carson and Hudson were doing their homework together via FaceTime (I think). I couldn’t help but hover a bit, out of curiosity, as they worked on a grammar assignment. Hudson’s mom was on the other end advising him. LOL – she and I both got stuck on sentence 7: find the “noncount noun.”

So .. we left it up to the boys to decide. 4th grade grammar has higher learning expectations than I remember.

Single elimination today, another early start.

Avery’s Omni team came in 9th in their division.

Grab a taxi, head to the airport. Thank you Air Traffic Controllers for coming to work today.

Our flight arrived in Sacramento at about 7p. Super fun trip!

Every morning was an early start. The boys had to arrive by 7:10, first game at 8:00.

The team always has to ref a game before they can leave which means someone stand in opposite corners with a red flag to call a ball in or out. Later, while Avery went with his friends to Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse, Thais Carson and I went to the Field Museum.

The exhibit halls were to the left and right of the main hall on two levels.

at the McCormick Place – a huge convention center. Saturday was day 1 of the tournament.

Teams from all over the US were there. 14 and under played in the Skyline Ballroom with 14 courts. Two other huge ballrooms also held games. There were a total of 92 courts, 2000+ players ages 12-18.

After dinner at Beatrix, we went for a walk – no slow-walkers in this group!

A five-story, 35,000 sq ft, Starbucks.

A visit to the Nike and Lego stores, then ride-share back to the hotel.

Cold morning!

After breakfast at Goddess and the Baker, we walked along the riverwalk to the starting point of an architectural boat tour.

The Wrigley building:

Next stop: Millennium Park. The Bean:

Looking up from under The Bean:

A sculptural bridge across a busy wide street

to a huge “Play Garden.”

Early dinner at Giordano’s known for their (serves 2-3) deep-dish pizza!

Should say “serves 6”.

Thais, Avery, Carson and I arrived late afternoon – just in time for rush hour traffic. What could be a 15-minute drive from O’hare to the hotel turned out to be over one hour. The taxi driver was quite knowledgeable and shared a lot of facts and information about Chicago.

Dinner at Ramen-San.