Besides some rainy days here in Chicago, we have had some really lovely weather! We are usually in the 70's and 80's around here now. The city has definitely come alive and everyone is constantly outside. We will probably be pretty busy around here now because summers in Chicago are full of festivals, concerts, movies in the park, fireworks, and more. We can't wait for all the fun we are going to have here this summer. We are also looking forward to all our friends and family who will be visiting us soon!
In addition to all the fun here in Chicago, we have gotten a chance to go home to Dallas and Disney World this past month! We went home to celebrate Patrick's grandmothers 90th birthday! We had so much fun and it was so nice getting to spend time with family. As much as we love Chicago, we love getting to go home any chance we can get!
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| Birthday lunch at Via Real! |
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| Whittington Family |
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| At the new Klyde Warren park in Dallas |
Over Memorial Day weekend, Patrick and his classmates attended the annual the American Association of Pediatric Dentists convention to present their work. It rotates every year and this year it was at Disney World. I was lucky enough to get to tag along with him and his co-residents! We arrived on Thursday and checked into our awesome hotel. We stayed at the Disney Yacht Club which is close to Epcot. It's also along a lake with a few other hotels and the Disney Boardwalk. This was such a nice place to stay and it's so easy to walk or take a ferry to the boardwalk to get dinner and walk around.
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| Our hotel from the ferry |
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| Looking out on the Disney Boardwalk from out hotel |
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| Disney Boadwalk |
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| Disney Boardwalk |
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| Disney Boardwalk |
On Thursday evening they closed down and rented out all of Hollywood Studios (MGM) just for the people attending the conference. The entire park, rides, and restaurants were open just for us. All food and drinks were free. They even had a red carpet that everyone entered on with a crowd cheering everyone in. I guess it was to make us feel like celebrities but it was just kind of funny. Riding Tower of Terror and watching the fireworks show were probably my favorite parts of the evening.
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| Red Carpet Entrance |
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| Tower of Terror |
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| Hollywood Studios, Free Mickey Ice Cream, and Fireworks! |
On Friday we took it pretty easy and just hung out at our hotel pool. Several of the residents were presenting through out the day so we would all just meet at the pool whenever they were done. The pool and restaurants were really nice. It was very easy just spending a day outside at the pool. Nice and relaxing!
On Saturday we were very lucky to get free Disney park hopper passes. Our friend and Patrick's classmate, Jillian, has a friend who works for Disney and was able to get us these passes. We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom and the evening at Epcot. Animal Kingdom was really amazing. We went on a safari and we were able to see wild animals up close. This was such a neat experience!
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| Lion King Show |
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| Dino Land |
We took a break from the parks because we had to attend the UIC alumni cocktail reception at the conference. It was nice to clean up and dress up for this event. Many of the past residents and current faculty meet there to catch up.
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| Jillian and I before the alumni cocktail reception |
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| On the ferry headed to Epcot! |
Afterwards we went to Epcot to spend our last evening at Disney. We didn't have a lot of time so we just walked around and found several yummy treats in the different country areas of Epcot. We really enjoyed their nightly firework show.
It was such a great trip to Disney and as always, I can't wait to go back!
We hope everyone had a nice Memorial weekend as well. And if you aren't planning on visiting us already this summer... please make a plan to! We'd love to have you!
Love,
