Chi-Town Trip!

We had a really fun trip to Chicago this past weekend as we celebrated one of my college friends' marriage on Saturday and then did some touristy stuff Sunday and Monday.


My pledge kid from Pi Phi and roomie, Megan, got hitched at the Hotel Intercontinental in the city. Our hotel room looked over Michigan Avenue and was right next to the Trib Tower. My brave sister-in-law, Gina, cared for both kiddos - including a fussy Alivia - while Andrew and I had a GREAT time at the wedding. It was so beautiful, and we enjoyed catching up with old friends. Meanwhile, Gina took the kids down to Millenium Park and then to dinner. It's a juggling act with two kids, but she managed by pushing Tyler in the stroller and carrying Alivia in the Bjorn baby carrier with a blanket over her to fend off the wind. I would have loved to see her in action! Instead, we came home close to midnight to see her zonked out with one kid on each side of her. It was too cute. :-)





On Sunday, we all went back to Millenium Park so Andrew and I could see the Bean. It was much bigger than I figured it would be, and very cool. Then we met up with our cousin Lindsay at the Shedd Aquarium and spent the afternoon there. Tyler says his favorite part was .... the gum Gina gave him. But after some additional prompting to help me feel like we got our admission money's worth, he conceded to also liking part of the sealife show and the sharks and whales. After the Shedd, we enjoyed a great dinner at a seafood place downtown.

Tyler at the Shedd. That's a mama and baby beluga!


Miss Alivia at the Bean.

Our best touristy pose!

Then our very tired family headed to the suburbs so we'd be closer to O'Hare for Andrew's business trip the next day. We slept in, had a good breakfast, swam in the pool, soaked in the hot tub, and then headed for a quick trip through Ikea before Andrew had to leave. Then I headed home with both kiddos. It took us four hours to get home (we needed to make two stops...not TOO bad). Andrew beat us to D.C. by about 5 minutes. He landed just before we made it home. Totally not fair.

A long weekend with the kids is certainly more exhausting than a real vacation, but I really enjoyed the family time we had. Hopefully we can do more things like this in the future as we get braver and braver venturing out with two children.