Girls Trip to Chicago

Anna, Ashley and I went to Chicago this past week. And had a BLAST. Seriously, I can barely believe they did as well as they did. It was awesome.

We landed in Chicago around 2:30 Tuesday. All luggage in tow, we battled the "L" train and made it to the hotel; we even did a train transfer. Pretty impressive if you ask me. On our way to the hotel (and throughout the entire trip) Ashley was shocked at all the Chicago "smells" and when we'd walk by something stinky she'd look at us, shake her head and says, "I smell Chicago." She did say the smells got better throughout the week; or simply her nose got used to them :) We checked out the hotel (and got our first of many free complimentary lollipops from the endless lollipop bowl in the lobby) and then walked to our first dinner, Lou Malnati's pizza. Yum. Then we walked the streets of Chicago to Michigan Avenue, passing cool sites like the only McDonald's with an escalator inside of it and the McDonald's museum. Once we hit Michigan Avenue we went shopping at the Water Tower. American Girl, Build-A-Bear, Claire's and Garrett's popcorn the Water Tower shopping area was a hit to these little girls. With new makeup from Claire's and a new Build-A-Bear in tow (and the decision made on what American doll the girls were going to purchase with their own money) we walked down Michigan Ave back to our hotel. We stopped at Dylan's Candy bar for a sweet bite and encountered a near hospital incident. Anna was walking down the concrete stairs while eating some candy and she completely missed a step and went head first down several stairs. I of course freak out. Thankfully she just had a couple of scratches.

The next day (Wednesday) we enjoyed free breakfast at the hotel. Then we caught a bus to Lincoln Park Zoo. We stayed there just under 2 hours and the girls enjoyed writing down all the names of the animals we saw (zebras, big cats, monkeys, gorillas) before taking a bus to a burger place, DMK, that was near the theatre we were heading to. Lunch was super good and the girls all tried their first "flight" tasting session of their homemade sodas since Ashley just couldn't decide what she wanted :) After lunch we then stopped at Walgreens (for Anna and Ashley's first lipstick that Daddy okayed them to get) and to Michael's for a big eye guy. This was al on our way to Briar Street Theatre to watch The Blue Man Group. Although the show may have been slightly too long for Anna and Ashley, we all loved the show. The girls giggled and thankfully the staff had given them headphones since it got very loud at times. I don't think they will ever forget watching a man catch 28 jumbo marshmallows in his mouth (seriously.... and didn't swallow one). After Blue Man Group we headed back to American Girl on Michigan Ave for the girls to make their big purchase of the trip. Using their own money,Anna bought a Bitty Baby (and named it Mia) and Ashley bought a Bitty Twin (and named it Rainbow Blossom... we just call her Blossom). Then we tried to have happy hour at the Drake hotel but the bar we wanted to drink in was closed for a private event. So instead we enjoyed the pretty lobby. Then it was dinner time (even though Ashley kept telling us we just ate) and we headed to Rosebud on Rush (one of Dad's favorite places in Chicago). The food was super yummy and they even brought out a birthday dessert for Grandma! After dinner we walked back to the hotel and played, played and played with our new babies!

On Thursday we headed in the direction of Millenium Park. We started off by catching a water taxi and enjoyed a 30 minutes boat ride of the Chicago River. It was one of our favorite things we did on the trip. After the boat dropped us off at Michigan Ave, we explored the streets by stopping at Fannie May Chocolate and at a "I am happy today because" chalkboard. The girls had fun trying chocolate samples and writing on the big chalk board. When we got to Millenium Park we checked out the Family festival where the girls hoola hooped, listened to the end of story time and made a kite craft to have in the windy city. Then we headed out to see the "Bean" and the Crown Fountains. They splashed and got soaked in the crown fountains and decided next time they visit they are bringing a swim suit :) Then we walked a little bit more through the park before settling at Giordano's pizza for lunch. With another awesome Chicago pizza in our bellies we headed back to Michigan Ave. On our walk back the Mattress Firm workers persuaded the girls to do the tempurpedic wine glass challenge. The girls each jumped on a side of the mattress in hopes of knocking down the wine glass. No success in knocking down the glass but they did succeed in scoring a free eye mask worth $25. After a brief stop at the hotel to change into nice clothing, we hopped on a bus to go to dinner at American Girl. My mom treated each girl to an outfit to wear and then we had a fun time eating in the cafe with our girls and their dolls. The food was good and the girls had a blast. After dinner we walked home and did some swimming at the hotel.

The next thing we knew, we were waking up on our last day :( We had originally thought about doing Shedd Aquarium but with how the girls were slowing down we decided not to push our luck with spending all the money and them just wanting to be at the hotel. So we caught the Navy Pier Trolley and headed to Navy Pier for the morning. We walked the pier, rode the carousel, rode the ferris wheel and enjoyed a snow cone. Ashley had a bit of a meltdown on our walk out (we were all tired and hot) when I let Anna ride in the stroller and not her. She got it together and then we took the trolley back and ate at a hot dog place called Portillo's. It was so crazy there (I named it my own personal version of hell) but we were glad we ate there. I was glad we had found a place on the patio away from the insanity of it all. I am not kidding- the place was a madhouse. MADHOUSE. After that we made our way to the John Hancock Building to enjoy happy hour on the 96th floor in the signature room. This was such a cool place; offering views of the city that were pretty amazing. The most amazing view though was from the ladies bathroom :) After we finished our drinks we then tried to walk by the American Girl store without walking in but were unsuccessful. Spending the last bit of their money the girls acquired an American girl dog (Ashley) and cat (Anna). Yes, American Girl makes animals too :) With our wallets empty, Grama treated us to the gold popcorn at Garrett's popcorn (Ashley's favorite) and then we headed to dinner. Todd's rep told him that he had connections at a place and could get us a good deal. So after being asked 10 plus times by the rep we finally gave in. Turned out the place was Giordano's (the place we ate lunch at the day before). We got right in at 6 (this place usually had over an hour wait) and was seated at a great seat. We enjoyed drinks, salad, a great Chicago deep dish pizza and a surprise dessert for the girls. The dessert was a smore pizza and it has their names written on the plate. They thought that was awesome!!! Then we were treated to our entire dinner; we just had to tip! What a great hook up :) Then we walked home to the hotel to play for an hour or so on our last night. I had a splitting headache and somehow managed to get us all packed up for the trip home the next day.

On our last morning (today) we woke up early and ate at the hotel. Then we lugged our luggage through the "L" rail one last time. We probably went up and down 7 different elevators but we made it to the airport with much time to spare. The girls once again were trooper lugging their backpacks, babies and suitcases along. It is something I will never forget :)

Overall the girls LOVED Chicago. Loved it so much they were already talking about bringing Daddy and Abby back soon. Oh and they also mentioned that someday they want to live there!

And boy they were troopers! We walked and did a lot. They were great. We went on all different methods of transportation and they were right along with us. They really thought this was a cool, cool trip. Ashley was shocked at how many times we ate (just breakfast, lunch and dinner but we ate out and most meals took us over and hour so it did feel like we were eating a lot :)) Anna really developed a good sense of where we were in the city and could pick out landmarks we had been to and places that were near our hotel. She really thought Chicago was awesome.

I loved the trip. So good to spend time with my mom and sister and the girls :) Hope to continue to do trips like these!

Pictures will be posted soon. Wanted to get this all written down before I forgot :)