Chicago!

Two weeks ago, we headed up to the Chicago area for my mom's family's reunion. The last time we were in Chicago, Caroline was in my tummy, so we decided to enjoy one day in the city with the kids. We couldn't have picked a nicer day. It was overcast, breezy and very nice. And to top it off, our kids were angels the ENTIRE day!! This made the day so much more enjoyable!!

We passed by a huge statue of Marilyn Monroe doing her famous pose:

Marilyn had nice little white, lacy panties drawn on:) You should have seen some of the poses other tourist were doing!

One of the highlights of our day was seeing sweet Caroline's reaction to the American Girl store. We had taken her to the one in Minneapolis when she was 3 but she could have cared less. This time, she was so into it. Once we got closer to the store, we saw people everywhere carrying those signature red bags. I could tell Caroline was so excited. When we walked in, she was giddy!!! She was in awe of all the dolls, the clothes and the accessories. I think we had to do a few walk arounds before we realized that there was an upstairs, too!! She picked out a new dress for Samantha.

We have already decided that we'll have to go to the one in Atlanta soon:)

Roy Austin was very good and patient in American Girl. He actually enjoyed it, too, I think! We were happy to see a big Lego store next door for him. He loved it!

Woody made of Legos. How Cool?!

As we walked to lunch, I couldn't help but smile at this sweet girl. She was SO proud of her American Girl loot and held that bag and Samantha with pride:

We ate lunch at Giordano's Pizzeria. All I can say is that it's a good thing we don't live in Chicago because between Giordano's deep dish pizza and Garrett's Chicago Mix Popcorn, I think I ate my caloric limit for a week! Both of those places are SOOOOOO good! Yum, I wish I had some of that popcorn right now!
Then it was off to the Hancock Building. We took the world's fastest elevator to the very top: We saw these two cute window washers way up there:

The kids loved seeing all of the swimming pools on top of the buildings!

And they enjoyed watching the boats go under the bridge:

Poor Charlotte was a trooper all day. She never once cried, even though she missed two naps. She finally couldn't take it any more and fell asleep!!!

Then we went to Millennium Park to run around and let off some high energy. Here we are in front of the big Bean:

Look who we saw as we were walking around Millennium Park!

Auntie Dolly and baby Eleanore were with them, too! They had been at the Aquarium all day with my sister, Dayna, and her family and decided to come into the city to find us:

We had a light dinner with them and then headed out to the fountain/splash pad at the park. We told the kids they could get their feet wet....

....which made this boy all the more curious....

....until he finally couldn't take it any more and got totally wet. At one point, he was standing under the "shower", as he called it (the fountain).
He was in heaven:) Caroline is our rule follower and she obeyed until she saw that her brother was having all the fun. We figured we were in Chicago. They could get wet and we'd figure out how to dry them off later:) Good thing we changed the kids into their pj's in the car the night before. We had Roy Austin's old clothes he wore the day before still in the car and I just happened to have a shirt in the car that we put on Caroline. All the touring and splashing made for two tired kids and they were out in no time:)

The next night, my dad took Roy and Roy Austin, my brother-in-law and my two nephews to a White Sox Game. They had a fun "Boys Night Out"!

Grandaddy bought Roy Boy a White Sox hat. He LOVES it. On the way home, he wore it over his headphones as he watched a movie:)