Chicago Weekend

 Andrew had to spend the week in Chicago for work so we decided to join him for the weekend prior.

We started the weekend by going to the Brookfield Zoo.  I hadn't been there since I was in elementary school.  Turns out, they have dinosaurs there now.  How did they pull that off? ;-)

 We brought the stroller.  We needed it.  They never would have walked all that way.

 First stop, CATS.  Big ones! You can kind of see him in the far back left of the picture.

 Then we HAD to visit the Dinosaur exhibit.  First we learned about lizards and dragons.  Plus a lego statue of a dragon was there so that was cool.

 Then we got to see all the life size dinosaurs too.  Tommy was elated.  Charlotte was scared. :)

 They had a dragon or two from folklore along with the dinosaurs.  Interesting.

 We saw the primates in exhibit.  That was pretty cool.  Actually no, it was SUPER HOT.  The family next to us was hot too.  They were getting short with each other and the mom was saying, "Zephen, move so your brother Zaniel can see."  Yes that happened.  Hmm...

 Had to snap a pic in the water exhibit!

 We pushed the stroller all the back over to the dolphin show and got there just in time.

 Yay dolphin show! The dolphins were no stranger to getting the audience wet. We sat up high and we almost got wet.  It was amazing.

 We got to do Charlotte's favorite thing- the carousel!

 Photobombed by an ostrich!!

 We went to Rain Forest Cafe for dinner.  The kids got these overpriced souvenir cups.  Neither of them drank hardly any of their drink.  But look how cool the cup is!! It came with a removable bottom cup that holds snacks.  It came with a tiny frog in the snack cup part.  So cool!

 You can see Charlotte's elephant that was in her snack cup.  So cute! Worth the overpriced price. :)
 

 After dinner, we dragged the kids to Whole Foods for dessert.  DELISH!! I had chocolate cake and Tommy had vegan chocolate cake. YUM!

 We put the kids to bed but had a hard time sleeping since the people next door were partying for a wedding.  We finally called the front desk and they sent security to bang on their door.  We were THOSE people. :) Oops.  We asked to be moved the next day because that was just rehearsal dinner night! Yikes!  We didn't sleep well but luckily the kids slept right through it.

 Our new room was probably the most private and secluded room in the entire hotel.  It was AWESOME.  This was our door and this was down a weird hallway away from all the other rooms.  Too funny.

 The next day, we decided to head downtown.

 We went to the Watertower Mall.  Charlotte, the Cubs first basewoman, got photobombed by Tommy.

 We walked down to Navy Pier but not without stopping for a selfie.

 We took a shoreline boat ride.  It was fun!

 The kids were a little bored of hearing about Chicago architecture but we enjoyed it.

 Photocred goes to Dada for this one.

 Dada took Charlotte to Build A Bear.  He didn't not realize what he was getting into with that until he got the bill.  YIKES. Lesson learned. But WOW, Charlotte loves that Princess Unicorn.

 We were so tired after all that city-ing, that we came back to our private hotel room and settled in with twizzlers and popcorn and watched Despicable Me.  It was a perfect ending to our little weekend with Dada before he had to stay in Chicago for the week.

 So much fun snuggling and movie watching.  What more could you want for your weekend in Chicago? :)

 More stuffed animals maybe?

 The next day we headed home and stopped at the most fabulous gas station I've ever seen.  Not only because of the fab gas station attendant but because of this cool kid's car.  Sweet!

We stopped at Grandma's on the way home for watermelon with Uncle Adam.

The weather was beyond gorgeous.  It was a perfect weekend getaway.  Ahhh the memories. :)

Chicago Getaway Weekend

 For Father's Day, I decided Andrew needed a quick getaway for the weekend.  I found a groupon for a hotel in an awesome location and we booked it for the following weekend.

 One of the reasons that really attracted me to the hotel was the rooftop pool! It was on the 5th floor and the kids loved it. We spent the afternoon there Friday. 

 Tommy practiced jumping in the pool.

 The sun came out occasionally.  It was beautiful.  It wasn't too hot or too cold.  Just perfect!

 Until Tommy swallowed a bunch of pool water and he decided to check out of pool time for the day.  Andrew was sure he was going to throw up.  I kept saying NO HE WON'T! HE'S FINE! I'm sure lots of people at the pool had their eyes on us.  Yikes. 

 Charlotte was jealous and wanted to lay with me too. Really blocked my sun but oh well.  It was pretty sweet. 

It was time to go inside and get ready for some Chicago nightlife.  

 So what did we decide to do? We were a block away from two large movie theaters so we decided to see Finding Dory.  We stopped to see the Ninja Turtle promotional statue first. 

 Then it was time to see the movie.  Andrew got a number one.  NEVER a good idea at the movie theater.  I swear it was a gallon of pop and two gallons of popcorn.  Sheesh. 
The movie was great and people actually clapped at the end.  There were some really funny scenes.  I really enjoyed Stringer Bell and McNulty from The Wire as the Sea Lions.  OFF OFF OFF OFF!!!

 We did not bring the stroller with us so we walked all the way down Michigan Ave to the Disney Store.  We really stretched the kids to their limits. 

 But it was definitely worth it for them.  Charlotte got a baby Dory and Tommy got a Jacquin.  He had never seen it before but it was basically a cheetah with wings so he loved it.  Looks like this:

He's a big fan.  So now we have to watch that show/movie/whatever it is. 

 We watched the boats on the river and took a selfie.  We stayed up way too late but it was vacation!! :)

 The next morning, we were up early of course so we headed to the Ohio St beach.  What a view, huh?? A beautiful beach too. 

 The kids were so excited!

 We took a lot of selfies that day.  :)

 Photo cred for this pic goes to Andrew.  Great shot!

 Hey another selfie! We actually thought to bring a bunch of snacks and sandwiches with us but you can still tell that Charlotte had a popsicle earlier that day.  It stained her mouth for most of the day.  Yikes, what was in that popsicle?

 We had a someone take a family picture for us.  Not too shabby.  I asked someone from the selfie generation so she knew what she was doing.  She and her friends were basically standing on the beach taking selfie after selfie so I knew I asked the right person. 

 Hey there they are in the background right there!

 After our beach day and a nap, we headed over to Navy Pier.  Charlotte HAD to ride the carousel, of course. 

 Tommy wanted to ride the Ferris wheel.  You can tell everyone is so excited to stand in line!

 The Ferris Wheel is pretty awesome.  It's so huge! We could see everything.  We went around 3 times.  We figured it would be a one and done type of thing. 

 We got to know the people in the car with us.  They took our family pic for us.  How nice!

 After Navy Pier rides and dinner, we went on a architecture boat tour.  Yay!! The kids did not know what they were getting into. 

 This is how we were able to enjoy the boat tour.  Some day they'll want to pay attention to something like that.  Today is not that day. 

 It was a great tour.  The views were amazing.  We really got an education!

 The docent was awesome. I kept looking at Andrew and saying, "Um is he making this stuff up? That can't possibly be true."  Very interesting stuff. 

 We had stayed out late enough that everything was closing in Chicago but we knew one place that wouldn't be closed... Whole Foods! There was one right by our hotel so we visited every night for snacks and desserts.  An almond butter and chocolate cup for Tommy and a cake pop for Charlotte.  I got a cannoli.  Oh man, it was amazing. 

 The next morning we got up and went across the street to the egg cafe.  Such a bad idea to go to an egg breakfast place with a kid with a milk and egg allergy.  But our waiter was an amazing professional and he found some granola cereal that didn't have any of his allergies in it and we brought our own milk so we were all set.  Plus they had their phones because they were NOT in a good mood after two late nights being dragged all over the city. 

Charlotte fell asleep shortly before we got home.  How is that comfortable to sleep like that?? Kids are amazing. 
But what a great spontaneous mini vacation we had.  It was so nice to get away and just hang together as a family.