Well this is about a day late but finally decided to get around to this.

Finally back home from visiting family in Chicago, got to admit this was probably one of our more enjoyable trips as a family. It was far less stressful then visiting the island (though it still had it's fair share *coughmomcough*) and the plane ride was mercifully short for a change. I actually had a lot fo fun hanging out with my cousins and driving around Chicago on the days we actually went out, regrettably we didnt' get the chance to visit any of the museums or aquariums we talked about going to though that couldn't really be helped so I'm not too bummed about it. We spent the week at one of my many cousin's places where my brother and I noticed a few disturbing, but humorous similiarities between our family and theirs. Found out that pretty much everyone on that side of the family is a health nut and practices some form of martial arts (Jujitsu appearing to be the most popular), one of my cousins was actually kind enough to show me so basic maneuvers for ground fighting. All in all that was actually pretty fun despite him nearly slamming my face into the floormat and cracking my back, needless to say I think he had a little too much fun using his dad for a practice dummy. Got roped into DMing a session of Pathfinder while we were over there, was definately a fun experience despite taking 8 or so hours to roll up the necessary characters to play the game but that was unavoidable.

Christmas eve was spent at another cousin's house, one that I must point out was quite beautiful with an impressive fireplace that we were all quick to abuse as we sat around watching Jim Carry play the Grinch, sipping hot coco, roasting marshmellows, and going to town on pretzel sticks dunked in nutella (I happily report that I got one of my cousins hooked XD). The next few days my cousins took turn barbacuing a number of things in their garage, I'm talking in a pot over a fire, which i have to say made for some damn fine eating. Was a lot of fun to go out in the garage with them and crack jokes with them and my dad, got a few interesting life lessons from a few of my older relatives while I was out there. Spent New Years Eve with my dad and his cousin watching the first season of Game of Thrones on their computer and munching on a bucket of chedder popcorn, all in all a rather enjoyable way to spend the evening

We visited the Chicago Zoo the day before we shipped out, it was AMAZING! There were a few animals that had been relocated due to the cold weather that we weren't able to see (the polar bear was one of them oddly enough) but asides from that most of the animals were in their exhibits, a lot of them were even right next to the glass in their enclosures so I was able to get a real close look at them and some great pictures. Brother was psyched over seeing his favorite animal the jaguar actively moving around it's enclosure. However I think my favorite exhibits had to be between the grey wolves and the African wild dog they had roaming around, both of which I've always wanted to see. About the only way things could have gotten better would have been if the otters had been in their enclosure and I had seen a civet.

About the only thing I'm really bummed about is the fact that it didn't snow the entire time we were visiting until like an hour before we were supposed to be heading to the airport, according to what we heard on the news they really got hit which is a drag since I was really looking forward to having a snowball fight with my family. The flight back could have gone a little better too given that the stewardest woke me up practically shouting over the loudspeaker for everyone to sit in their seats "no exceptions", crazy chick had everyone thinking we were goign to crash when we hit a little turbulance. All in all though it was a fun trip and I look forward to going back again someday =3