Sweet home, Chicago!

This fall, a combination of important occasions brought us back to Chicago for several visits, and Nana and Bapa were more than happy to host us!  First, we all made the trip for my 10th high school reunion (and sadly I have no pictures from it...but it was a lot of fun to see friends and reconnect!).  Then, being an election year, I had two trips back for work (Hannah tagged along of course), and finally, we all came back to celebrate Thanksgiving and my Grandpa's 90th birthday (more on that in a separate post).

It was a whirlwind of travel, and Hannah is officially a travel expert (if I'm counting correctly, she's taken 9 flying trips, several more driving, and has visited 8 states in her first two years).  We really enjoyed the chance to spend time with my family and Hannah enjoyed a plethora of activities that kept her busy and made for lots of fun photos!

We got lucky on a few flights and Hannah got her own seat! Watching Frozen got us through many hours of travel.

When she wasn't watching Frozen, we were armed with lots of snacks and other activities - coloring was a favorite.

On our first trip, Hannah (with Dad's help) got to ride her first pony, and she seemed to love it!

Scott and Stacy came for the weekend too, and we all got to enjoy a festive fall hayride.

We caught up with some good friends at a park - it's been so fun to watch our families grow - 2.5 years ago, it was just grownups!

Around the house, Nana introduced Hannah to the wonders of sparkly jewelry - these clip on earrings were a big hit.

She even got her own Frozen necklace - this girl likes her bling!

The slide might have been her favorite activity - she spent hours climbing all over this treehouse! Well worth the years of storage by Nana and Bapa :) 

Our little prodigy noisemaker on the piano - she does love music, but it sounds better when Nana or Scott play :)

We even got to celebrate my birthday while we were there, and Hannah helped blow out the candles.

Nana and Bapa have a small zoo within walking distance that we explored several times...Bapa gave her the best view.

Hannah rode all by herself on the "choo choo"!

And she even brought her own purse to carry the essentials - hairbrush, sunglasses, and a toy or two

We spent a day exploring a local children's museum and it was super fun!  The water activities were her favorite, and even with the smock, she required a quick wardrobe change afterwards :)

Hannah got to join in the festivities as we celebrated another successful election with Congressman Roskam