Weekending

We had a wonderful weekend, and even though we didn't go anywhere or do anything out of the ordinary, we are exhausted! Maybe it's everything else catching up to us, but it's only 7:30pm right now, and I think our whole family could go to bed and be asleep in 15 minutes.  Actually, Kevin is in the process of tucking Kate in at this moment.  It's usually my job, but when I asked her who she wanted to read "Daniel" tonight, she said Daddy.  So Daddy it is. :) 

As for the weekend itself, my parents, Kristi, Davis and Nicole came over Saturday morning and stayed through lunch.  We had a good visit, and Kate especially loved seeing Gigi and Pick.  

I've got more from our weekend to share, but this will have to be all for tonight! Check back tomorrow though, for a fun giveaway. :) 

Chicago: Friday-Saturday

Friday and Saturday ended up being our baseball days.  On Friday we headed over to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play the Astros.  It was drizzling when we got to the stadium and then it started pouring, so the game got rain delayed... for four hours.  We didn't wait it out.  We were wet and Kate was getting cranky, so after about an hour, we decided to go back to the hotel.  Our intentions were to see some of the other "Chicago highlights" that were in the same area, but because of the rain, it just didn't work out. 

On Saturday morning, Kevin went to pick up our rental car, while Kate took a morning nap.  Well, not 5 minutes after Kevin walked out the door, the fire alarm goes off in the hotel and they tell us we have to evacuate.  So I carried sleeping Kate down 7 flights of stairs. Let me tell you, the kid is not a lightweight.  After standing around outside for about 20 minutes, we were told that we could go back inside, but the elevators weren't working.  So then I proceeded to walk up 7 flights of stairs with Kate.  It was not fun, and I was sore for two days afterward.  And of course Kevin got back to the hotel with the rental car about 15 minutes after all of this was over.   

Speaking of rental car, THIS is what we got... 

Nice, huh?  We had a few good laughs over our car.  They actually gave him the option between this and some other small sized black car.  He tried to get the black car, but neither of us thought to bring our car chargers for our cell phones, and for some reason our batteries were not lasting long at all in Chicago.  We knew we were going to have to use our phones for a GPS, which drains your battery even more.  The lime-green Ford Fiesta had a USB input so we could charge our phones, so that's the one he went with. 

We left around noon to drive to Milwaukee to go to a Brewers vs. Braves game.  Since the Cubs game got rained out the day before, Kate's first major league baseball game actually DID end up being a Braves game. :) 

I loved Miller Park. It's probably one of the nicest stadiums that I've been to, except for the fact that they didn't plan their stairways very well.  Every stairway on the upper deck blocked the first 3-5 rows of fans from seeing the infield.  Not smart.  It was a nice day, so the dome was open.

Kate's most favorite part of the whole game was not even baseball related.  She loved watching the hotdog race that happened between one of the innings.

After about 5 innings, we decided we had enough so we went to find our car and go home.  It wasn't hard to spot at all.  Guess the lime-green comes in handy when you're in a parking lot with hundreds of normal color cars. 

Chicago: Wednesday-Thursday

After class got out on Wednesday, I met Kevin and Kate and we switched hotels. Navigating the subway with a stroller, 2 bags, and 2 backpacks was a lot of fun. (Not.)

Kate loved the subway.  While we would be waiting on a train to come, she would sit there and look around saying "Choo-choo train! Where are you?"  Also, please note in the picture below the box of Dunkin Donuts. Priorities, right?  

Funny Kate story about the subway.  One afternoon as we were waiting on the train to come in, Kate was sitting in her stroller, eating goldfish, watching a guy playing a guitar.  She must have caught his attention too because the next thing we know, he started playing Old McDonald.  Then he moved onto the Sesame Street theme song, and then even more children's songs. Kate was enthralled.  So Kevin decided to give Kate a dollar and rolled her over there to let her drop it in his guitar case.  Then he rolled her back over to where we were standing, and Kate continued to watch the man with the guitar.  A few minutes later, Kate looked up at Kevin and said "More. More."  We really weren't sure what she was asking for.  More water? More goldfish? More what?  So Kevin asked her "More what, Kate?"  She looked up at Kevin and said "More money!"  Guess she was impressed. 

Thursday was the first full day that we had to go do all of the touristy things.  Kate was ready to go! And Kevin was ready to have a break from being on daddy-duty all by himself. 

We started off by going to the Navy Pier. Luckily we had some great weather. We walked around for a while and ate lunch.  Because of Kate, we didn't try to over plan our days. There was probably a lot more of Chicago that we could have seen, but with a little one, we didn't want to over-do it. 

After the Navy Pier, we decided to walk over to Willis Tower (old Sears Tower). Kate took a nap on the way over there, and stayed asleep while we waited in line, rode up the elevators, etc.

We were starting to doubt hat she would wake up while we were there at all, but she finally did. Not that she appreciated the view or anything. 

You really can see a lot when you are 103 floors above the ground!  We even stepped out on the plexiglass/glass area to take a few quick pictures.  I'm not normally afraid of heights, but this got to me just a little bit.  I definitely couldn't look down as I was stepping out.  The guy ahead of us in line actually went out there and jumped up and down. There is no way I would have done that. 

And then it was the end of our day. Because of where we ended up, we had a sort of long subway ride to get back to the hotel.  My iPhone games kept Kate entertained for most of the ride, but I honestly can't even imagine actually living there with a toddler and dealing with this on a daily basis. 

Chicago: Monday-Wednesday

On Father's day afternoon we headed to the airport (or as Kate would say, air-pork), to fly to Chicago. Our flight didn't leave until 6:30ish, but with the time change, we got to Chicago around 7:30.  We were all relieved to be OFF the airplane.  It was Kate's first flight, and although she did really well, it's still stressful having a baby on a plane. 

We got our luggage and checked into the hotel.  Here is Kate checking out the view. 

I had class Monday-Wednesday but we had time to do a few fun things at night, including dinner at Giordano's... twice.  

There was an hour wait just to get into Giordano's, so we put our names down and then decided to walk around to waste some time. We ended up at the Disney store and were just hoping to find SOMETHING Lion King related.  Luckily, they had one thing- a little figurine set that included all of the Lion King characters. Kate was pumped. 

After waiting an hour to get in to the restaurant, we had to wait another hour for our pizza to get cooked.  Those Lion King figurines came in handy. 

But the wait was definitely worth it. Deep dish pizza... yumm!

One of the other evenings, we walked across the river...

... and ended up at Millennium park.  They were showing the movie Chicago (Catherine Zeta Jones, Renee Zellweger, and Richard Gere) but we didn't hang around to watch it. 

When we got to Crown Fountain, Kate desperately wanted to get in.  She kept saying "Touch it! Touch it!"  To compromise, Kevin walked all in the fountain with her. 

Chicago via the iPhone

I took most of our pictures with my real camera, but here are a few of the iPhone pictures I got from our trip.