Chicago

To celebrate our 9 year anniversary (and since I'll be nursing a baby for our 10 year) we decided to drive to Chicago for the weekend.  We left Thursday July 2nd in the afternoon and stayed through Sunday afternoon.  We packed our trip full so we could see everything we wanted.  As a result we had a lot of fun and our feet and lower legs ached the whole time and a few days afterwards!  We walked a ton.

We started the trip off by going to Navy Pier and catching the Architectural Boat Tour.  Our tour guide gave us lots of facts and information about the skyscrapers.

Clock Tower 

Willis Tower (Sears Tower)

We then headed over to the Magnificent Mile and shopped and ate at Shake Shack for lunch.  It's one of my new favorite burger places, so good!

Around 4 we caught a train to Briar Street theater to watch the Blue Man Group.  It was quite the show and we were both glad we didn't get picked from the audience to participate!

 We then caught the train back to the downtown area and tried to go to the Purple Pig for dinner but the wait was so long we finally found another place to eat.  It seemed a lot like Cheesecake Factory with a different name, even the take out bags looked exactly the same with a different name on it.  We don't like eating at chains when we are in new places, but we were starving at that point and I do have to admit that my entree was amazing! After dinner we went to the Hancock Building.  It was fun to see the city all lit up at night.  I finally posted this picture to Facebook and announced that I was 20 weeks pregnant!  The main problem with both towers was the INSANE wait to get up and then the line to get back down.  It was ridiculous!  Also two children threw up in line for both towers right behind us.  What are the odds?

The next morning we slept in a bit and then headed over to Millennium Park.  We got our name in at Wildberry Cafe and then headed over to see the famous "bean" or "cloud gate."  I have to say we were both very impressed with the bean.  It was awesome to see, you can tell we were impressed by all the pictures we took!

Our reflection in the bean

Underneath the bean was really cool 

Loved just walking around the city and seeing cool things like this clock!

Famous landmark 

After some light shopping we headed over to the Willis Tower Skydeck more commonly known as the Sears Tower.  Like I said the lines were ridiculous and it took us about an hour in a half to get up and then about 30 minutes waiting in line to get down.  I went on the skydeck to look down 100 flights, I didn't think it would be scary, but it kind of was looking that far down!

Paul was getting very antsy to get to Wrigley Field for the Cubs game.  We had originally planned to get there about an hour early and walk around, but because of the long lines we got there just in time for the first pitch.  The seats were teeny tiny, but it was worth it to see the smile on Paul's face.  This has been one of his bucket list items for quite some time! The Cubs beat the Marlins 7-2, Go Cubs!

We ate a pulled pork sandwich at the game but we were still starving.  We had been told by a friend to try Gene and Jude's hot dogs.  It turned out that this place was right by our hotel, so at about midnight we both ate a double dog!  It tasted great!

Sunday morning we were pretty exhausted, so we slowly woke up, packed up and headed to Chicago.  Here I am at 20 weeks, can't believe I'm halfway done and still nauseous!!!

We had lunch at The Gage and then headed over to the Chicago Art Institute.  This place was HUGE!  There is no way we could have seen everything, so we used the map to make sure we saw all the most famous pieces of art. 

 We saw Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

Grant Wood's American Gothic

Marc Chagall's American Windows (one of my favorites) just to name a few.  They had lots of Monet and Manet as well as some Picasso's.  

The Art Institute is located where the Chicago Stock Exchange use to take place, so we had to go down and see the original room! 

After the museum we got cupcakes from a food truck and Paul was so annoyed with me the whole drive home because I could not stop talking about how amazing they were!  Seriously the best cupcakes I have ever eaten.  They ship them all over, so I may seriously have to order some in the near future.

It was so fun getting away just the two of us without any kiddos. We did miss them and frequently throughout the trip would comment on something that Hayden would have just loved, or how Reid would freak out if he were here right now.  Thank goodness they were in such good hands with the Housers!  They had a great 4th of July weekend without us.  So grateful that we were able to kid swap this summer.

They went to the zoo, saw a movie, played all day, and had lots of fun watching fireworks!

How cute is this little man!  Amie said when they tried to take the scarf off he lost it!  He wanted to wear it all night long. 

We got home around 1:30 am and I picked them up the next morning.  It was fun to see how excited they both were to see me.  Having kids changes your heart forever, even when you are away trying to have adult fun, you can't help but think about them and miss them!