Chicago!

For several years, we've been talking about taking a girls trip to Chicago to go to the American Girl store. With the recent move of some of our family, this trip finally became a reality. It was a bittersweet trip as we had lots of fun with our extended family, but were so sad to have to bid them farewell. Our children are very fond of their cousins and miss them terribly!

The first stop was at Navy Pier. After doing some research, true to form, I was able to find several free things for us to do. We went to the Chicago Children's Museum located at Navy Pier. Thankfully, it was free because the dinner at McDonald's and parking came to nearly $50!! It was more of a recretional museum vs. an educational museum. Regardless, the kids loved it!!
There was a construction area where we spent a long time! This structure was mostly in place and Elizabeth loved sitting on the stool inside.

Caroline showing off that she is 7 years old!

The cousins and our middle two constructing.

Coolest mom of the year award!! We also tried to coordinate our goggles with our outfits.

A boy with true style.

My biggest kid! David had fun building stuff with kids and pretending he was shooting his gun.

I love Matthew's chubby hands. I like to say he's like a Great Dane with his big paws! Matthew would appear to be taking after my side of the family. As David says, 'They grow 'em big!"

We've taught Elizabeth to do a 'Rock 'n Roll' face. After we'd perfected the girl's clubhouse, we felt we needed a group shot with all of us doing our best rock 'n roll faces!

The kiddos were digging for dino bones.

Jonathan has a fantastic imagination! Here was a display for dinosaur claws, but to him, it was a phone! Love it!

AAARRRGGGHHH! The T-Rex is attacking the boys! It must not be to bad as they both are smiling.

They had an amazing water play area. What kid doesn't love to play in the water?? I loved that they had little raincoats for the kiddos to wear while playing.

Matthew was giggling at LaLa while playing in the water.

Jonathan was manuvering his boat through the locks.

Jonathan and Caroline worked together to raise and lower buckets.

Matthew loved feeling the water on his hands. He was mostly soaked from head to toe, even with the rain coat on!

Daddy playing with some chalk with the little two.

Jonathan showing off his clay snowman. Handsome fella, isn't he?!?

After we left the museum, we went out to ride the ferris wheel. It was a bit disappointing to me. I'd assumed it would be similar to the one we'd ride at Cedar Point, where you go around 5-6 times. Not on this one. You get one time around. Glad I took pictures the first time or I would have been out of luck! Here was looking toward Downtown Chicago.

The view of the ferris wheel at dusk with the lights on was beautiful! We had 3 extra tickets -- thankfully, we bought the group package so it was about half price -- so the oldest three kiddos got to ride the wave swinger. They all had lots of fun!

FRIDAY

We split the group for the day, the boys went to LEGOLAND and the girls went to American Girl. I don't have pictures from the boys day, but may eventually get those...

We adventured out with out the help of husky voiced Tamika (my in-laws GPS) to find the 'L' to get to downtown Chicago. With only a few misturns, we made it to the train terminal where a very patient and friendly man, helped a bunch of out-of-town womenfolk! The girls were pretty impressed with the train!

Next door to Water Tower Place, where American Girl was located, was the John Hancock building. It was amazing to stand and look up at the skyscraper!

We finally made it! It was 95 degrees out when we came up from the train! I was turned around and we walked 2 extra blocks the wrong way - ICK! So, needless to say, we were thankful to get into some air condtioning!

Caroline and Elizabeth with the girl of the year, Lanie.

Afternoon Tea at the American Girl Cafe. The girls loved having seats at the table for their girls to join us!

The real stars of the day!

Getting ready to board the train home.

SATURDAY

In celebration of our 11th anniversary and our last day together, we were treated to a fantastic lunch at Wildfire Grill. We had a private room, which was nice for our big crew! The food was delicious! Thinking back to our wedding 11 years ago, it was a hot, steamy day as well. Who knew that we'd have 4 kiddos and be able to celebrate our anniversary for the second time in Chicago. David and I also came for our 5th anniversary when I was pregnant with Jonathan.

We headed to Long Grove after our yummy lunch, but it was so miserably hot that we didn't stay long. We went back to the hotel where some got to enjoy the pool and other napped. We had fun swimming and playing together. Afterward, we got Chicago Style Pizza (super yummy!) and played some games. We hated for the day to end, knowing that we'd be heading in different directions in the morning. It was a tearful good-bye, but we look forward to reuniting soon!