CHICAGO

I can hardly believe I caught up over 8 months of blogging in 2 days...Phew

 

Our last adventure as a family for the summer was a trip to Chicago. 

 

 I had known about the first surprise for awhile and we kept it secret from the kids.  They are well versed in the rigors of air travel and so when we went to the airport and went to a different building at the airport I thought for sure the questions would start flying but they didn't.  Even as we waited and our plane landed and we pointed it out to them they didn't say anything.  They just didn't quite get it until we were sitting there and David said,  "Where are all the other people going to sit?"  and one of the grownups said no it is just us and then he said, "Oh we must be on a private jet." Yes we were on a private jet as a special treat from Grandpa and I tell you this is the way to travel with children.  No security, no waiting, no checking bags, no having to take shoes off and back on again, none of it and it was fabulous!!!

 

 

When we arrived at our hotel room the kids were surprised by this:

 

 

They each had their own bath robe, coloring book, and  a bedtime treat for them.  We thought it was a first night at the hotel treat but just wait to see what was waiting for them the next night.

 

 We went to Shedd Aquarium here we are waiting

for the dolphin and whale show to start.



 

It was spectacular and the kids loved it and the jellyfish exhibit

 

Jensen as soon as he saw this turtle he laid right down on top of it like this..he is my funny guy.

 

And I am realizing right now David is the one who took

most of the pictures at the aquarium so this is about what i got of the aquarium.

 

 

Our second night treat...someone stole a gummi bear????

 

 

We shopped on Michigan Ave. and if you have a little girl it is almost a must to go to the American Girl doll store.  Julianna was on a mission to get Julie as soon as we stepped foot in the store.  She loves Julie and the main reason is" She loves Julie's style."

 

 

and if you have a boy don't fear there is a Lego store too and the boys were in heaven!!!

 

The only said thing is the only store Christian wanted to go to was the

 3 story Nike store...guess what closed for renovation BOO HISS!!!!  Sorry C2!

 

I did however get to go and ooogle at 4 stories of

Crate and Barrel and try to hunt down an antique store to no avail.

 

Off to Navy Pier we headed and our first order of business was the Ferris Wheel...well no it wasn't, the kids were so excited about the Ferris Wheel they wanted it to be the first order of business.  The first thing we needed to do was go see Beauty and the Beast this was a bit of a bummer to them they wanted to go on that Ferris Wheel I had shown them a picture of on-line and I had kept Beauty and the Beast a surprise this back fired until it started they all loved it absolutely loved it!!!

 

After sitting through a play and lunch The Childrens Museum was just the thing they needed.  So while Christian and the grandparents shopped and designed hats and tshirts and went on the beloved Ferris Wheel,  David and I took the younger kids and climbed, played, crafted, took an art class, built airplanes, and other inventions too.

 

We meet up for dinner on the Pier and then departed from each other again..

we wore them out I think and we went on the Ferris Wheel.

 

For anyone that knows me well knows at this point my heart was beating out of my chest and my hands were dripping with sweat.  I felt near a panic attack actually.  I am not a fan of heights at all.  SO for me to be on this Ferris Wheel was a huge deal and once we quit going up it wasn't so bad.

 

Treat for night number three

 

Julianna and Julie in their matching jammies.

 

Christian also gave us a huge gift this trip we actually had 2 rooms on 2 different floors and all of us could have stayed in one room but he really wanted to take the kids and sleep in the other room so he could spend some time with them before he left for college and to give myself and David a break.  It was wonderful to have peace and quiet every night and morning at a huge sacrifice of Christian's beauty sleep.  Thank you Christian!!!

 

The view from our room at night it was awesome...

 and during the day

We went to The Field Museum

 

Here they are in the Egyptian exhibit

 



 

I forget exactly what this exhibit is called but

 we were shrunk to the size smaller than pennies

 

and worms

 

and katydid(I think that is right) skins

 

We went into other exhibits too but no photography was allowed..bummer but we loved them too!

 

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for our fun fun trip to the Windy City!!!