Spring Break 2013 - Xierra visits Chicago

As much as I hated leaving Winnipeg after my brief visit, I was super excited to get back to Chicago with Xierra, to spend Spring Break with her.  We only had a week, so we crammed as much 'awesomeness' into it as humanly possible.  Here's a summary:

Last time we flew together, just the two of us, was when she was 2.5 years old!

We love breakfast!  Especially when the pancakes are shaped like Mickey Mouse!

Brought the kids (and grandma and grandpa) to Monkey Joe's for some bouncy fun with friends

Visited the Kohl's Children's museum -- this was Xierra's second time going, but Xander's first.  Fun when you're 2... but still fun when you're 9!

One of Xierra's pre-vacation requests was to eat at an "Authentic Italian Restaurant" -- so that she could order "Fettuccini Alfredo, with Spaghetti noodles"... um.. okay.

Spring Break landed on the week of Easter, so what better way to get the kids excited than to decorate Easter eggs! Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to host the egg dyeing party.  Look at these gems:

And her visit wouldn't have been complete if she didn't get a chance to see the rest of the Schmid family -- Easter brunch at our Aunt Jennie's house was delightful and delicious

a rare family photo

We went up to Milwaukee for a couple of days, to hang out with Brian during the week -- did some swimming, brought the kids to the movies, did some shopping, made some crafts at the hotel and Xierra discovered Culver's -- which is now in her top 5 favourite places to eat (that darned grilled cheese sandwich is just soooo goooood)

At the Fox Bay Cinema -- super oldschool theatre with table service.  The kids loved it :)

Braved the crowd on the Easter long weekend, and brought the kids to Legoland in Schaumburg.  Such a cool place but it was crowded as hell.. Whelp, at least the KIDS had fun..

The last hoorah consisted of a one-night-stay at Key Lime Cove -- a hotel -slash- indoor water park -slash- resort.  Whatever you want to call it, it was effin awesome, and I'm so glad we did it

Hey! We know you!  We just saw you at Walmart a couple of days ago!

Water slide fun!

Our sweet family photo

A final visit to Nibbles Café for some breakfast, before the little diva and I headed to airport for her drop-off

Big sibling hugs xoxo

This was Xierra's first time flying as an unaccompanied minor, so we made sure to get to the airport SUPER early to take care of the extra paperwork that's involved.

She did perfectly fine on her flight back - the airline took really good care of her.  What a brave girl :)

It was so much fun hanging out with my little Yaya Monster for her Spring Break.. but a week just wasn't quite long enough!

Brief visit to the 2-oh-4

I took a short trip back to Winnipeg to visit with friends and to pick Xierra up for Spring Break.
[Ha, funny they still call it "Spring" break -- when I landed, there was still 6 ft. of snow on the ground (slight exaggeration...slight)]
It was super nice of my friend, Edwin, to let me stay at his place.  Saved me the expense of a hotel!  Also, I got hooked up with a rental car by a good friend - which really helped me out.

Optimus Prime and Iron Man...err... Edwin and Xierra

I was super stoked that so many of my friends made it out to see me, the night that I arrived.  We went to Clay Oven for some of my favourite Indian Food in Winnipeg

Spent the next few days hanging out, spending as much time with my friends as possible, and fulfilling Winnipeg-staple-cravings along the way

"Friendsday" - Breakfast at Stella's, an impromptu GoKart race, a visit to Ikea, an Apple Store visit and billiards

My life is not complete without poutine [at Smoke's Poutinerie]

Another lunch date with my (ex)Apple crew -- this time, Caribbean food at our favourite hole-in-the-wall restaurant, Tropikis

Chicken Roti

Made sure I took an afternoon to visit with my dad -- and of course, he had my favourite filipino dish hot and ready to eat, as soon as I got there :)

Tough to get my mom's side of the family together, since everyone's always so busy -- but thankfully, we managed to coordinate a night for some delicious sushi at one of my favourite sushi restaurants, Sushi Hon

The 'cousins' - growing up so fast

And what better way to end the trip, than with a visit with my longest-standing friends from back home -- my Famous Players crew.  Bistro 7 1/4 for dinner and then Tapp's for drinks

Bloody Mary's are alright, but it still isn't quite a Caesar.

I was only there for a few days, but it was so awesome to spend time with the people I love.  You don't realize how much you miss your friends and family, until you move 900 miles away, and never get to see them - ever.

xoxo

Public Market

Taking a much needed week off (from wedding planning, ugh!) to hang out in Milwaukee with my boys.  The last time we were here, the weather was bitterly cold so we pretty much stayed in the entire week.  Strangely enough, the weather is the same this time around.

The "I'm from Canada! Minus 40 is the norm" voice kicked me in the ass and I braved the cold on day #2 to visit the Public Market.  Happy that I did, because this place was utterly amazing.

There are only a handful of places where I would choose to be stranded in the event of an apocalypse. The Public Market is one of them.

Visa Received, USA entered!

My interview was on a Thursday, and on the following Monday, I received a call from the Loomis office, saying that my package had arrived!

Loomis in Burlington

the 'package'

WOOOOO-HOOOOO!!!

I had already booked our flight for Tuesday evening, and was packed and ready to go.  The next day was just spent hanging out and making sure that we had everything we needed for the big move.

bye kuya Tyler!

The day of our flight was long -- we got dropped off to the airport SUPER early because I wanted to give us plenty of time to go through immigration to settle our paperwork.  We got through security and headed through customs with no issue.  We were directed into the Immigration Office, where an officer took our sealed package and went through it.  It didn't take more than 15 minutes.  He welcomed us to the States, and we continued on our way to our gate.
We had a couple of hours before our flight, so we got some food, kicked up our feet and got comfortable:

The flight was nice and easy.  We landed in at O'hare with no issue.  Xander was super awesome on the plane and was so excited to see his dada

We made it!

And just like that, we were landed immigrants -- the 6 month journey was finally over, and we were together as a family again!

Safe and sound

Waiting for this moment was excruciating, but now it’s here, and I’m beyond excited.

En route to Toronto, which will be my temporary ‘home’ until my Visa gets approved.  I anticipate being there for a little over a month and a half.  It’s gonna be nice to chill with my sister and the kids, before moving down to Illinois for good.

I asked my dad to drive us to the airport today.  Sad news is that he got a traffic ticket on the way to coming to get us (failing to yield at a pedestrian crossing=175 bucks!? Geez) I’m paying for the ticket cuz he wouldn’t have gotten it if I didn’t ask him for a ride.  Oh, dad.

The nice thing is that we went to visit my mom at the cemetery before heading to the airport.  I think he was really happy that I made the suggestion. I can’t remember the last time I was at the cemetery with my dad -- it’s easily been over 15 years.

We didn’t spend too much time there cuz the wind was super brisk and fierce.  I’m glad we got to share that moment today though.  It really meant a lot to me.

With Xander, 3 overweight (but no charge) checked bags, a car seat, a stroller and 3 carry-on bags, I managed to get onto my flight with no issue...with dad's help, of course.

I’m excited for this next adventure -- I can’t wait to see my sister and her family, but most of all, I’m eagerly awaiting being reunited with Brian in a little over a week!  He’s coming up to visit us in Toronto for a weekend - a visit that is LONG OVERDUE.

As this post is currently being written 41274 ft. in the sky, I will already be in Mississauga by the time I publish it.  And if it actually makes it to the World Wide Web, that’ll mean that I safely landed.