Last year, a group of 16p parents planned a gathering to get a chance to meet each other (after meeting on line). It was quite an experience and several months into the planning, we learned about Simons VIP that was interested in learning more about our kiddos. Last year, Simons was our guest, and this year we (the families) were their guests.
They planned a weekend in Chicago with lectures from Dr. Chung and a fantastic night at the Field Museum.
So - off we head to Chicago! This was Amie's first train trip (getting in and out of Chicago is much less stressful going by train than driving!).
Grandma and Amie settling into the train!
Amie loves to turn on the typing function on the ipad and "text".
We arrived at the Westin (which is a really nice hotel, but not exactly family friendly).
Simons had a meet and greet set up on Friday night & Belinda had ordered t-shirts and wrist bands. Nicole had ordered some small magnets and stickers & I brought pictures from the year before's gathering to share.
Belinda and Pepper Darwin
There were several new families that we had not met before.
Amie is probably sticking her tongue out at Logan again! Silly girl!
Hello Miss Kaitlyn!
Oh the looks we get!
On Saturday morning, we all gathered in the lower level for the conference. Here's Hannah & Charlotte burning off some energy before going into the day care!
Hannah's mom Nicole & Charlotte's mom Hayley.
Some of the Simons gang.
Dr. Chung talking with Charlotte.
Time to check into daycare - Miss Amie's group was having a pirate adventure!
Amie's new friend Kate!
Time for lunch!
This years slide show made by Belinda! Hi Emmet!
Our final conference time was a Q&A time with the entire panel!
Looking out the window of the hotel
That evening, we all got picked up by buses and taken down to the Field Museum!
Here we are waiting for the buses! We were a sea of turquoise blue!
Ashley, Krissy and Adrianna were fast friends!
Salt, Cinnamon and Pepper Darwin's!!
She thought she was pretty funny.....
But Dad got her to stop pulling on his nose by tipping her backwards!
On the bus!
Belinda got a text with Christie & Raylin wearing their t-shirts and wishing they were there!!
What an amazing, amazing night! Simons had rented the entire museum just for us!! It was incredible to walk around without worrying about crowds and strangers! The meal was delicious & there was a photo booth for us to do silly photos! It was a great night!
And this crazy guy had a tarantula crawling around on his head that people could let crawl on them. YUK!! Needless to say - I steered way clear of him and his friend!!
You remember the saying about wrangling cats.....that's what you can say we were trying to do to get a picture of all of the kiddos!
Cheesers!
We didn't do too badly! There were a few missing - but there were quite a few in there!
Not sure who was more tired!
Looks like a velociraptor is on the look out for a Little Miss Amie!
The t-shirt that Belinda designed!
On Sunday we were not getting on the train until 3pm, so we took a cruise of the lake.
Miss Amie was not too horribly interested, especially since she had participated that morning in the research and had blood drawn. You know you can't bend elbows when you have blood drawn (that's what she said).
Even though I don't like living in or around big buildings, it is very interesting to look at the architecture and admire what human hands have accomplished.
There's the hotel we stayed at (Westin). Across from it is that corn cob looking building. Crazy looking isn't it!
We passed into this locke area. This is how you get out onto Lake Michigan. The water tables are different between the Chicago river and Lake Michigan. So, you go into this locke, and all of the boats have to pull along side of the walls.
Then they close the gates.
And start filling the locke with water.
After it's full, then you can go out onto the Lake.
I like that picture looking back at Chicago!
After our cruise, we headed over to the rainforest cafe for lunch before boarding the train.
Amie decided to buy a silly hat
Time to head home
Crazy, weird thing happened, the back doors (both the inside and the outside doors) kept opening up. It was very un-nerving! But we made it home safe!
We just got an email from Simons this past week that the 3rd annual gathering will be in Orlando. I am super excited about going to the gathering & we've heard from some of our over-seas families that some of them will be coming in as well!! But oh - wow - it is going to be a scorcher in July!
The other thing that changed - people that didn't know our original group - felt a little concerned about our name "gremlins". So, we have changed our name to 16p VIPS! It's a fitting name!
