We really aren't traveling kind of people, we are mostly just content to stay close to home (as in within driving distance) but I have always had this desire to see Chicago. After all it is tons of movies, one of the biggest cities in the U.S., and another bonus for this trip was that we have family in Chicago to visit. So when McKay told me that he would be heading there for work this June (so work would be paying for EVERYTHING for him) it was too good of an opportunity for me to pass up. Of course I am still nursing Jensen full time and since he is only 6 months (didn't want him to be done yet) he got to come too. But honestly I NEVER want to have to take a toddler on a plane so Adalyn was not welcome to come too. But don't worry she had lots of fun still. :)
The plan for McKay was to leave Sunday June 24th from SLC to be there for work (His company needed him to do an audit on a company out there for a project they are working on) on Monday. Unfortunately his flight got canceled and he ended up not leaving until Monday morning, so he missed the first full day of the Audit, but it seemed to have turned out ok.
I just hung out at my parents house for a few days (Sunday until Wednesday) and then met up with him Wednesday evening in Chicago. My first flight with a baby was not that great. Nothing went wrong per say, but I was just so darn nervous that I think I made it worse for myself. Nursing Jensen in a busy airport and on a small plane was terrible. He is so wiggly and hates the nursing cover over him so it was crazy trying to keep myself covered up. :P I think I tried to feed him like 3 times before he was actually able to fully eat. Can you say stressed out mama?! The second time around (meaning on the way home) I decided to just go in the family restroom at the airport (they really should have nursing rooms), lock the door, and nurse him standing up (gross germs right? you do what you have to). That worked tons better because I was able to just relax and actually get some milk out :) He also is the type of kid that does not love being held all the time so he was SO done being in my arms by the time our 3 hour flight was over and fell asleep fast in his car seat on the way to the hotel. In the end we survived and got to Chicago safely.
Now I am going to break our adventures up by days just to keep things in order.
Thursday:
Thursday may have been one of my favorite days. Why? Because I didn't HAVE to do anything. I got up with McKay in the morning and ate breakfast with him (I didn't even half to cook it) and then sent him off to work. Then Jensen and I slept on and off until 2 pm. Crazy nice right?! Loved it! We then watched a little TV, did a little shopping, and then went out to dinner with McKay and his work buddies. After dinner McKay and I headed out on our own to drive around town. We were a ways from the actual city at this point so we didn't do anything too big. In the end we found this cute little part of town that had benches decorated with characters from different movies and nursery rhymes. Here are a few pictures...
After our little scenic walk we went to Culvers because I had heard on a blog that they had good frozen custard (we had never been there before). OH BOY I am an ice cream lover so I was in heaven! It was SO delicious. We loved it so much that we made sure to go to one again on the last night we were there. So wish that we had a Culvers in Idaho... If you have one near you, go and get a Turtle sundae. You can thank me later. :)
Friday:
McKay had his last day of work so I spent the morning packing us up to leave the hotel then I went and met up with him at a Chicago pizza buffet for lunch. I definitely got lost on the way to the restaurant, but thanks to the GPS I finally made it there to meet him. The pizza was yummy and I am glad that we got to have a Chicago deep dish pizza while in Chicago. I also got to try my first hush puppy, another delicious creation. :)
That afternoon we drove to my cousins, Brian and Holly's house. They live north of Chicago so we got to drive through the city on our way there. Unfortunately we only got to spend Friday evening WITH them because they were leaving Saturday for Connecticut for a family reunion. But they were very kind and let us stay at their house while they were gone. Staying at their house was MUCH nicer then staying in a hotel. They have twin boys that are Adalyn's age so they already had all of the baby gear/stuff that we needed for Jensen. Also Jensen was able to sleep in his own room for his naps so that we didn't have to be super quiet while he slept. Thank you Thank you Brian and Holly for letting us stay at your house! They were so kind to us and holly can make some delicious pizza! Since Friday night was the only time we would see them we had a fun little party. McKay's cousin Jennie also lives in Chicago with her husband and two little girls. They used to be in Brian and Holly's ward so Holly was kind and invited them over Friday night too so that we could all get together. Talk about a small world! It was such a fun night chatting and catching up with each other's lives. I was a little sad that Adalyn couldn't be there that night because she would have loved playing with all of the kids. Here are all of the "cousins"
From left to right- Clare, Emily (holding Jensen), Carter, Owen
Don't mind that they are all half dressed, it was late
Here is McKay with his cousin Jennie. We think she is a pretty amazing woman so we were really excited to be able to spend some time with her and her girls. Her husband had to work so he wasn't able to come.
The girls (and Brian and Holly's baby boy #3)
Saturday:
Holly made us a yummy breakfast (we were spoiled), and then we headed out for the city. Our first stop was Millennium Park and Michigan Ave. We walked around Millennium Park for a while and looked at the fountains and made sure to get our picture with "the Bean" or I think it is called the cloud.
Can you see us in that last picture?
After the park we window shopped through Michigan Ave and stopped at a little soup/sandwich place for lunch. We wished we would have had time for the museums but we had tickets for a White Sox game that afternoon that we had to get to. So we loaded up after lunch and headed to the south side of Chicago for the game. Definitely different feel to the south side than the north side, but everything went great and we loved the game. Jensen even got a soft baseball to remember his first major leagues baseball game by. The White Sox played the Cleavland Indians that night, but we aren't sure who ended up winning because we had to leave in the 8th inning because Jensen was done. They were tied when we left so it could have gone either way.
Also, I must also take just a moment and say the weather while we were in Chicago was perfect. While the west was having a major heat wave we were enjoying lovely weather in Chicago. Not too hot with a small breeze most of the time. The night of the game I wished that I had packed a jacket, but in the end it wasn't super cold so I was fine. Seriously it was SO nice each day as we went sight seeing. I feel like the weather can sometimes make or break a trip and this weather definitely made this trip. :)
Saturday night after the game we just watched a movie and relaxed at the house so that Jensen could get a good night's sleep.
Sunday:
While visiting with Jennie on Friday night she invited us to her house on Sunday for church and dinner. It happened to also be her birthday so it was super nice that she let us crash their Birthday party and she even made US dinner. Thank you Jennie and Devin we had a ton of fun! Their daughter Emily is SO funny and cute and Clare is so sweet. It was their first week at their new ward in church so I am sure people were confused about who was who and if we were just visiting or staying.
Jennie and I follow each others blogs and we both write fairly often so we felt like we already knew each other pretty well so it was fun to talk more in person. This was only my 4th time visiting with her and my first time meeting Devin but we all clicked right away and had fun talking about Pace family memories and our lives. (sorry I didn't grab any pictures on Sunday)
Monday:
Our last full day in Chicago :( We started out our day by heading to the Hancock Observatory for some lunch. This is dorky but on our way there we saw the American Girl Doll store (and the millions of little girls in there with their parents) and I forced McKay to go in there with me. I loved playing with the American girl dolls as a kid. My friend Courtney had almost all of the historical dolls (Molly, Samantha, Kit, etc.) and I love their books and magazines. So fun to watch the excitement in the little girls eyes and they shopped around and took their doll to the doll beauty palor (yes there was a doll beauty Parlor). I was SO close to breaking down and buy a look-a-like doll for Adalyn. But in the end I talked myself out of it since she is still so little and really loves any doll (doesn't have to cost $100+) . Maybe in the future...
Once we finally made it to the Observatory we rode up in an elevator to the 96th floor and enjoyed a lovely lunch with fantastic views of the city.
The restaurant was a fun way to relax and enjoy the city. Yes I was a little nervous to be up that high, reminded me of when we climbed to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
After lunch we headed to Navy Pier to see what all of the fun was about. :) On our way we ran into a small beach area for lake Michigan so we stopped and enjoyed the view. McKay had wanted to walk along the shore the whole trip so I was glad that he got his chance. Jensen slept the whole time on the beach so it was relaxing for us.
Once we got over to Navy pier we were pretty tired and we knew that we still wanted to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo (we parked by the zoo) so we only walked around for a little while and didn't end up riding any of the rides. We both get motion sickness so it didn't sound appealing to either of us.
It was still worth the trip over to the pier to see Lake Michigan up close and personal. We even took the scenic route back to the zoo so that we could enjoy it more. There were tons of people out biking and running on the path. Seriously a runners dream. I kept wishing that I had brought my running clothes. :) But alas I hadn't and had just stuffed my face with a steak sandwich so we stuck to walking.
Our last tourist stop was the zoo. It is a free zoo that they have there and so that fact alone made it awesome. The animals were pretty tired by the time we showed up so we just saw a few. My favorites were the apes. There were darling baby apes that were SO interested in all of the people so they kept looking at you with these big curious eyes. Melt.my.heart.
Here is McKay at the entrance posing :)
That night we headed back to the house and ate more custard. mmmm...
Tuesday:
Big travel day. We started out not flying on the same flight, but ended up being together in the end (yay!). The flight home went perfectly and I even got to start my book on the plane since McKay was there to help wrestle Jensen.
Once we landed in SLC we got to see Adalyn again. She was really excited to see us as was I to see her. She learned a million new words while we were gone and grew up tons (longest we had been apart) and I was happy to spend my days with her again. Thank you thank you mom for watching her! We ate dinner at my parents house and then headed home to Idaho. LONG day, but we were happy to be in our own beds for a night or two. (we headed to Island Park two days later).
So grateful that we got the chance to visit Chicago. Never could be a big city girl though. After we got home we realized just how small town Idaho is, but we are happy to be here. :) Well, bonus points if you read that whole thing! Hope you are all having a great summer! Good night!
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