Chitown

So Steve goes to optometry school here in SoCal year-round. No more summers, just 4 one-week breaks in-between quarters (they're on a quarter system instead of semesters), plus a Christmas break. SO, how we spend our rare weeks off is usually planned out WAAAY in advance. Steve's mom claimed us for this last break, my mom has claimed us for the next break in August, and goshdarnit we may just stay at home by ourselves for the break after that! Traveling is stressful! And we think it'd be fun to have a stress-free vacay and explore the awesomeness we have right here and be together as a family...we'll see.

ANYWAYS, I digress.

This last break we got to go see Steve's brother and sister-in-law in Chicago, and it was such a blast. I've never been to New York, but I imagine downtown is the closest thing. We loved it so much, Steve checked into seeing if there were rotations (we go around the country to 4 different rotation sites during 4th year 3 months at a time) in downtown Chicago...there were none downtown, but we might be able to make one work?!

I hate flying with Parker. Love the kid, hate flying with him.

I slipped him a little benadryl again and he peacefully drifted off to dreamland, only to awaken 45 minutes into our 4-hour flight. It was a struggle, but I got him to go back to sleep (this was an early flight and we had to wake him up 3 hours earlier than he usually sleeps, so I KNEW he needed his sleep!) for another 30 minutes, then he was up the rest of the time happy, playful, and talkative (we have very intense conversations these days). Luckily we were sitting next to a very understanding mom who missed her 9-year-old. Ooh, while walking the aisle, Parker met a little friend. Conversation with said friend's mom went as follows:

mom: "Oh look, Nixon, you have a little girlfriend for the flight!" (referring to P)

me: "Oh, tee-hee....ya!" (Err...what?)

mom: "What's her name?"

me: "Ummmm....ya, he's a boy....his name is Parker....yaaaaaaa."

mom: "OHMYGOODNESS I'M SO SORRY! I saw the top of his outfit and I thought it was a dress and I'm so sorry! (he was wearing a navy and white striped hooded romper) He's just so pretty!

me: "Yaaaaa......thanks.....don't worry about it, he gets that all the time...."

(Lies! Lies lady, lies! He never gets that!)

Finally home to Dave and Katie's new beautiful home. We went to downtown Naperville for some deep-dish pizza (amazing) and checked out the local park and shops. It was such a cute little place and perfect for everyone to catch up and for the little boys to run around.

It is INSANE going out to eat with 5 kids under the age of 3.

My two nephews insisted on helping me push "the baby!" (Parker) in his stroller, so it was a (difficult, but entertaining) team effort.

The next day was Sunday, we did the whole church, Sunday nap, dinner and games thing...then

Memorial Day and Steve's birthday!!!

Started out the day right with some homemade doughnuts after Steve and Dave's run. 

I about died, they were so warm, crispy, fluffy and amazing (the doughnuts, not Steve and Dave).

Katie's parents offered up their gorgeous pool for us to hang out in.

    

Steve's sister, Lori, nephews Jeremiah and Caleb, brother Dave, sister Michelle, 

nephews Jacob and Mark, and his mom

 they had these streams of water shooting out from the ground the kids loved playing with

    

 We came back, got rinsed off and headed off to do some shopping with the girls and the guys hung around to watch Thor. They were quite insistent that we couldn't watch The Avengers without seeing Thor first....so FINE. Thor it is.

We were feeding Parker little pieces of brownie, and after gnawing on each piece, that's the face he'd make after about 1 second. YAY for chocolate!

 Tuesday we went to the zoo, Parker's first time!

Did he care? No! He didn't get it...maybe next time.

 Polar bear time. The thing was pretty massive

Lion right next to my head. He didn't do anything cool, no Lion King moments or anything...I think it was too hot.

The rest of the day we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for Steve's birthday, played whirleyball (look it up, so much fun! Combo of lacrosse and basketball IN bumper cars), then saw The Avengers. I didn't get half of if (who was the red-headed Scarlett Johansen supposed to be??)

Next day, Chitown!

I was shocked at how big it was and how many buildings there were!

It was a beautiful city with so much to offer. Brooke and Katie, definitely jealous.

The Chicago River

Millenium Park. All of the boys except Mark. It was so cute watching all the boys play and interact with each other! I have some cute nephews!!

Arm wresting, checking out our reflection in The Bean.

  Every couple of minutes, the screen would show a different face (real people who paid to have their faces filmed) blinking, making small movements, smiling, then at one point their mouth would form the "O" shape and water would start to spew out like it is there. There was another fountain screen across from it, so kids would play in the water puddles you see on the ground there.

Through the years, they add rock fragments from buildings all over the world to The Tribune Tower and I found The Alamo! Others included The Colosseum, The Parthenon, The Great Wall of China, 

The Taj Mahal, etc.

We ate dinner at one of Dave and Katie's favorite thai places, did a little more shopping, then headed to The John Hancock building to check out the best view in Chicago. Apparently you need your ID to get in because it's a bar (because I frequent bars all of the time) and I had left my wallet in the car. Dave and Steve ran back through downtown to grab it, and 20 minutes later we were sitting at a table on the 97th floor overlooking Chicago eating cheesecake. BUT the best view is where this picture was taken...from the women's bathroom! We sent Steve in to the men's bathroom to see if it was comparable, and he texted me a picture of the toilet paper dispenser....HA! 

No view in the men's bathroom...

fireworks off Navy Pier

 Thanks for such a fun night out guys!

 Steve's mom was sick with a flu-like bug a couple days before everybody came out for the trip, then the first day we got there, Steve's sister had it. A couple days later, Steve's other sister got it. On the car ride home, Steve suddenly started shivering profusely and declared that he was going to pull over or we'd all get a peak at what he ate for dinner, in more than one way...luckily for all of us he actually made him home in time, took some drugs, wrapped up in a blanket and was able to stay up talking with everyone for a while. We went to bed and he slept like a baby. The next morning, Parker had 4 poopy diapers (which NEVER happens), and he was kinda fussy, so I gave him some tylenol and prayed he wasn't getting sick for the flight home! We said our goodbyes, SO SADLY missed lunch with my friend Brooke because of everything that had come up, including the rain, grabbed some Portillos' Chicago-style hot dog, fries, and cake shake for me and chicken-noodle soup for the sicko (AMAZING btw!), and barely made it on time to our flight.

  

Coolest toilet in the world! You wave your hand over that motion sensory and it rotates the plastic covering over the seat for a brand-new one! Is it weird that that made me really excited?

 So again, slipped P a little benadryl, especially because I could tell he wasn't feeling very well, he slept about 20 minutes, then woke up. WTH. So I slipped him a little more. BIG MISTAKE. He became psychotic excorsist baby. I'm thinking the second dose wired him, because he was NUTS. Eyes wide open, couldn't keep still, kicking the little fold-down table, his attention span was 1.2 seconds, fussy (not screaming), so it was tolerable, just exhausting. Steve had some red australian licorice he was snacking on, so we gave him some to gnaw on. Pretty soon, he was leaning over, clawing at our arms to get to the hand holding the licorice.

We still had 3 hours to go.

 We made it home alive.

Chicago was a blast, but it's good to be home.

We love home.