We survived Chicago....hey we even managed to have some fun!

Chicago was great! We have many wonderful memories and the kids were tremendous troopers in the cold weather and hustle & bustle of the city. We love to travel and see all the wonderful sights but we do love our little home in the country. I started at the beginning of our trip and will post events in order (as I find the time). The kiddos were tuckered out after all the cold, fresh air and lots of walking. All in all it was an amazing trip. Here are a few shots!

Carter catching some zzz's in the stroller


Enjoying the beautiful and larger than life decorations

Us with the family of snowmen

We walked around Michigan Ave and decided to join all the madness in Crate and Barrel. Ella and Carter loved riding up all three escalators in the store. I stayed at the bottom glancing over the merchandise and manning the honking huge stroller.

We went to our hotel first to drop off all the equipment and vehicles. Then we caught the city bus. We figured this experience would be highly entertaining for Carter since he loves books about buses and is always excited to see them on the road. I underestimated how thrilling it would be for Ella. However, when her teacher asked her on Monday about her favorite part of her trip to Chicago all she could think of was " the ride on the city bus! " Lovely! We could have saved tons of money and just taken her to downtown GR for a trip on the city bus. Ahhhh!

We woke up early Saturday morning filled with anticipation for all the fun that the weekend would hold. Going to Chicago to celebrate our birthday's was a great idea....right! Absolutely! The kids couldn't wait to give me my gifts so we opened them in the middle of the floor right before we walked out the door. It was fun to see how excited they were to give me stickers, ornaments, and new black leather gloves. It was so sweet how much time and thought they put into their gifts. Scott and I had decided earlier that we were going to spend our birthday money on a new camera. I can't wait to get it and play with the new features. Then we loaded up and headed South. We didn't manage to escape a little white knuckle driving, luckily it didn't last too long and I do have an expert driver for a husband!

Mom has a new kitchen 'tool'-my Houdini corkscrew-this gift was from Dad!