Chicago - Here We Come!

Since we wouldn't be going to either of our homes for Christmas vacation, we decided to take a weekend trip to Chicago. Neither of us had spent much time there, so we were pretty excited. A storm coming almost thwarted our plans, but we beat it to Chicago just in time. Once there, the snow came and Claire was excited. We spent the weekend doing lots of kids things - children's museum, American Girl Cafe, searching for Santa (Read the Happenings for this week for more details) We had a great time and can't wait to go back - especially for a mommy and daddy weekend so we can see some more sites and enjoy some other activities that don't cater to 4 year olds and 1 year olds. Here are some pics from the weekend in the Windy City.

In the Children's Museum, Mommy and Claire transformed into a fireman and fire dog.
Rachel transformed also.
Claire and Daddy built a bridge out of "Stones" and it was strong enough to hold everyone up - even pregnant mommy!!
We then moved on to Asia where Rachel and Claire tried on traditional garb.....
to go fishing in a traditional boat.
Onto our next adventure! - (Claire was the only one allowed to climb through the seaworthy rope obstacle course.)

Rachel loves anything she can color on and not get in trouble.
And, of course what would a trip to a Children's Museum be without grocery shopping.
Thank goodness there were other "cashiers" there to check Claire out.
Rachel had a bit of a time trying to get to the fresh veggies and fruit.
And once the grocery shopping was done, the meal could be prepared and cooked.
After a good home cooked meal, we were ready to set off on a new career as an archeologist.

After digging and digging for 30 seconds, a dinosaur skull was discovered!! I'm sure it was a Clairosaurus.
While waiting for the trolley, Claire and Rachel became Eskimos and played in the snow.
I loved the lights all set up at the Navy Pier. (where the Children's Museum is located)
The next morning, we had reservations at the American Girl Cafe to have brunch with some American Girl dolls. (Since we don't have any ourselves, we were able to borrow a few friends)

Rachel and her friend.
Claire and her new lifelong friend.
I told Paul as we were sitting in the pink restaurant surrounded by little girls and their dolls with hair bows and heart shaped pancakes that if this baby in my tummy is a girl - he better get used to this, because this is his life!

The friends were glad to meet each other too.
They had a game where you drew a conversation card out of a box and asked the question to the other people at the table. Rachel sure enjoyed that game - well, at least dumping the cards out of the box.
I was sad to say good-bye to our new friends - although not sad enough to pay $100 for one.
We then walked back to our hotel and even though it was cold, we enjoyed looking around. Claire wanted to know where the penguins that lived here are - upon further questioning, she figured that since there was ice in the river and it was so cold that penguins MUST live here. I guess they were all swimming at this time.
This crazy building was apartments up above and a garage on the lower floors. It is difficult to see, but the cars are backed right up to the edge with only a chain or cable blocking them from the edge. Wonder how many valets they've lost.
We made a special trip to Macy's to see the Christmas windows and then decided to go inside to search for Santa. While on our search, we seemed to have found the zoo and the girls seemed to have made new friends.




We also stopped to write some letters to Santa.
And after finally figuring out where Santa was only to wait in line for 45 minutes before we figured out we were only about 1/3 of the way through the line, we gave up and left to wander the store some more. We loved looking at this enormous Christmas tree which is in the middle of the Walnut Room Restaurant in Macy's. We stood on a landing deck a couple floors up so we could get a better view.


That night, we went to a little Deep Dish Pizza Place and the pizza was delicious - but who could resist licking butter out of the little butter tubs.

That night everyone was pretty worn out!!
But it's always fun to stay in hotels - doesn't Rachel look like she's having a blast?
The next day before leaving, we realized there was no Lego museum in Chicago, but there is a huge Lego store so we went to browse. The nerdy side of Paul was in heaven.

Claire makes friends wherever we go and this was no exception.In the mall there was a huge wreath decorated with purple, blue and silver. Claire was wanting to know why we couldn't have a wreath like this in our house.



We had a great time - snow, American Dolls, Children's Museum, hotel suites, deep dish pizza, Christmas, toys - what could be better. Paul and I got our big city fix for a while - next time it's just us.