C H I C A G O

So the temple is in Chicago. Temple trips are going to be tricky now that it's a full day trip. I hate to leave my kids with someone for a whole day, and it's impossible anyway since Halle is still nursing. So the plan is to take the whole family up there and switch off. Derrick does a session while I take the kids to do something fun, then we switch while I do a session. Me and two kids in a big city like Chicago by myself? Getting lost? Sounds nerve wracking, especially since I had never even been to Chicago. So we decided to take a quick trip and check out the place together before we had to do it solo.

We set out Friday night. We first stopped in Michigan City to go do some outlet shopping. By the time we actually got to Chicago, it was really late and both kiddos were asleep in their seats. When we tried to transport them to the hotel room, they of course both woke up and started acting silly. When I realized it was going to take a lot of work to get them back to sleep I just turned on the lights so we could get all our things inside and us all ready for bed before we tried again. Derrick realized it was the first time our whole family had gone on a trip in a hotel, so we had to take a picture! Notice the time on the clock. 11 pm!

Then Halle got really really silly. She's so funny. She had us all laughing pretty hard.

You can imagine how the rest of the night went. Derrick and Hayden took a bed while Halle and I took the other. Hayden would not go to sleep resulting in a very tired/frustrated Derrick. Halle finally went to sleep with her bum right in my face, and the walls were so thin we could hear the neighbor's conversation word for word, even though they were just talking normally (until 3 am!) resulting in a very tired/cranky Erin. 7 am came fast.

But we were excited to be on a mini vacation! Hayden was very confused, I'm sure because of moving twice last summer. He kept saying, "Our new house!" He came to find me while I was in the shower and told me that he was going downstairs. I kind of chuckled thinking it was funny that he thought this was our house, and he was going downstairs like he did every morning. And then he walked out of the bathroom and started opening the door to our room! Since I was in the shower and couldn't get him, I yelled for Derrick a bunch of times. But Derrick was still getting ready so he was just in his underwear, and Hayden was out the door and a little down the hall by then. Did I mention that our second floor room looked out right over a rail into the lobby downstairs? He had to just yell out the door for Hayden to come back. I found the whole thing quite hilarious and cute, but I'm not sure Derrick did. Hayden's always good for some entertainment.

We went to the temple first, which Hayden was very excited to see. I had seen pictures of the chicago temple before and have to admit that I was not that impressed because it was gray, and just didn't think it was as pretty as other temples. But it was pretty! And a temple is a temple, and the sacred feeling you get there, even when you are just on the temple grounds was still there.

We then went and saw some parks and libraries that would be good to take the kids. They have some amazing things that I wish we could take home! There were lots of fun games and discovery packs, puzzles, and even cartridges to leap frog games (which we don't have.. but those are like $40 so if we did it would be so nice to be able to just check them out). We just happened to be there during a story time and the kids got to play some musical instruments too. I think Hayden will look forward to temple trips.

We found a place called Gillson Park. It's a beach right on Lake Michigan. This was Hayden's first time at the beach. (Does it count as a beach if it's not on the ocean?) He loved the waves and thought walking on sand was funny.

A trip to Chicago wouldn't be complete without some famous deep dish pizza! We went to the famous Giordano's, and OH MY, was it ever delicious. I'm craving it already.

Our last stop was the Lincoln Park zoo. (Free! Just like all the other activities we did today) What a fun day!

We got home late, but luckily the kids transported into the house much better than they did at the hotel so we got a much better night's rest.