- \n
- Brunch with the family<\/strong>: On Sunday morning Liz & Jim were terrific hosts at their house, fueling us up with bagels, bacon, and more. It was great catching up with Sarah, Andy, Katie, Ryan, Young John, Jimmy, and Mary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Chicago-Fam.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n- \n
- Skating at the Bean<\/strong>: Our resident hockey player literally skated circles around his brother & me while Mom wisely looked on. This episode was special enough to warrant its own photo gallery<\/a>!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Chicago-Skating-3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n- \n
- Touring the Art Institute<\/strong>: Finn re-enacted<\/a> a famous scene from Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off (getting up close & personal with a pointillist masterpiece) as we enjoyed everything from \u201cNighthawks\u201d to the Thorne Rooms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Walking around Chicago<\/strong>: We traversed downtown, dropping by Marshall Field\u2019s, grabbing German chow & souvenirs at the Christmas market (where Henry & I had a long chat with ND football super fans), taking the Lego Blues Brothers to the Bean, and hitting Harry Caray\u2019s with Finn.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Meeting up with the Aunts<\/strong>: On our way to Galena we met up with Aunts Judy & Mary Kay at Portillo\u2019s. After getting past some transportation drama (\u201cWe\u2019re going past Guzzling Guzman!\u201d reported Aunt Judy was we watched them drive by :-)), we had a lovely time seeing them again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Aunts.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n- \n
- Thanksgiving dinner<\/strong> with Ted & the fam was a ball. Jenna, Austin, and Morgan were their cheerful & energetic selves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/NextGen.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n- \n
- Exploring Galena, East Dubuque, and Dubuque<\/strong>: revisiting Mulgrew\u2019s for chili dogs! (watching trains & dropping by the lock & dam). Later Henry & I toured the breweries in Dubuque and Potosi, WI, and sourced some squeaky-fresh cheese curds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Milk truck rides with Uncle Ted<\/strong>: Each dude got his own session with the big guy, with Finn doing 8+ hours (and subsequently sleeping for 15!). Nothing like meeting some dirty dogs (literally) and funky farm cats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ted1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n- \n
- Exploring the fort<\/strong>: Henry & Grandma ventured to the Apple River Fort in Elizabeth, then enjoyed some deli sandwiches & pickles nearby.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Visiting with Kristen<\/strong>: We joined Margot’s cousin and her husband for breakfast in Freeport on our way back home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
All in all we feel so grateful for our families and for the chance to spend time with them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Man, amidst all the hustle & bustle as we closed out the year, I’ve hardly had a chance to update the blog. Let’s change that up! We enjoyed a whirlwind tour to Illinois over Thanksgiving, staying at a great AirBnB on Printer’s Row before heading to Galena. Here’s a gallery of images from the trip. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos","category-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10128"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10138,"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10128\/revisions\/10138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/micronaxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Visiting with Kristen<\/strong>: We joined Margot’s cousin and her husband for breakfast in Freeport on our way back home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Milk truck rides with Uncle Ted<\/strong>: Each dude got his own session with the big guy, with Finn doing 8+ hours (and subsequently sleeping for 15!). Nothing like meeting some dirty dogs (literally) and funky farm cats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Exploring Galena, East Dubuque, and Dubuque<\/strong>: revisiting Mulgrew\u2019s for chili dogs! (watching trains & dropping by the lock & dam). Later Henry & I toured the breweries in Dubuque and Potosi, WI, and sourced some squeaky-fresh cheese curds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Walking around Chicago<\/strong>: We traversed downtown, dropping by Marshall Field\u2019s, grabbing German chow & souvenirs at the Christmas market (where Henry & I had a long chat with ND football super fans), taking the Lego Blues Brothers to the Bean, and hitting Harry Caray\u2019s with Finn.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Touring the Art Institute<\/strong>: Finn re-enacted<\/a> a famous scene from Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off (getting up close & personal with a pointillist masterpiece) as we enjoyed everything from \u201cNighthawks\u201d to the Thorne Rooms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Skating at the Bean<\/strong>: Our resident hockey player literally skated circles around his brother & me while Mom wisely looked on. This episode was special enough to warrant its own photo gallery<\/a>!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n