Chitown

Okay, this is take two of this post, because after I had spent like 3 days writing and posting pics, I lost it all!

So here it goes. Vacation this year was a trip to Chicago! It was a vacation from our every day lives, but it wasn't that restful. We had a blast though, and boy did we fit a lot in.



We arrived in Chicago on Wednesday June 9th. We stepped off the plane and onto the train into downtown. We stepped off the train onto a platform that only had stairs. So Joel with 3 bags of luggage, and me with a stroller and a baby, we made it down the stairs....I don't know how really, but we did...Oh, I carried the stroller down WITH Izzy in it, and somehow Joel made it down with 2 roller bags and a duffle. Joel didn't know which way to go exactly, so we headed out one way, then thought we should turn around. So we did, then he dicided that we were going the right way the first time, so we turned around again, and finally made it to our hotel. That afternoon we loaded up the stroller and hit Michigan ave in awe of the tall buildings and nice fancy shops! We saw the old water tower, stopped by the Hershey's store ate some chocolate, walked some more, went in and out of stores, oohing and ahhing over the very high priced items, and of course, visited the Drake hotel.

We were taking pictures and then a bell man came up to us and in all seriousness said "we have a policy...that when we see a pretty family, we have to take a picture." The policy part scared us. We thought that we were in trouble.

After the Drake, we headed to the lake. It was a warm day, so Izzy and I waded in the water while Joel took pictures. It was gorgeous. It is a lake that looks like an ocean.We at at Uno's that night after waiting an hour for our pizza to cook, and Izzy didn't have enough patience, so he fell asleep.


Thursday we hit the road runny pretty early and headed to the train station. But not without stopping by one of the many Starbucks. We took an hour train ride into Lake Bluff where my mom grew up. It is a very quaint little town that you could walk through in 2 hours. We saw both houses that she grew up in, saw the lake again, and took lots of pictures. We had a great time!

Lake Forest was another stop, where we walked around the cute little square and had lunch in a quaint sandwich cafe. By this time the weather was moving in, so it was getting a little cool. Then we missed our train. We were actually there at the station, but on the wrong side of the tracks! So we killed another hour before we took the hour long train ride back to the city!

Once back in the city we hit the library, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography that left us completely depressed, but we were quickly cheered up by Degas, and Monet at the Art Institute. Dinner was at the Italian Village where Frank Sinatra supposedly ate. It was good, but we were all tired, and Israel wouldn't stop moving. We dropped dead that night.

Friday we woke to the whole city in front of our hotel. There was a parade for the hockey team who had just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 49 years. We had to walk a little farther to catch a bus to the zoo because of it! We missed our Starbucks that morning, so we were a little sluggish at the zoo, but it was still a good time. The next stop was Wrigley Field, and to get there we had to walk a little was, and then wait for a bus that wasn't already full. We found out that the Cubs and White Socks were doing an exhibition game and it was the first one. Wrigley field was alive and hoppin'. It was so much fun. We took the El back to the city to visit the man eating lions at the Field Museum. On the way back to the hotel we walked through Grant Park and then saw the Bean. We then took a sheet from the hotel, stopped and picked up some Chicago hot dogs and headed back to Grant park to enjoy some Blues with thousands of other Chicago poeple. It was so much fun!

Saturday it was raining, so in between the rain we finished up seeing the sights, and taking pictures and eating yummy burgers at the world famous Billy Goat's Tavern. Then we started the long trek home which ended at 10:00 that night!

We had a blast...came home tired, but we miss it already!

Thanks mom

This weekend we went out of town to Little Rock Arkansas for a wedding shower for a cousin. All of us girls minus Molly went and of course our babies. So Izzy and I packed up our whole house (or at least it felt like it) and loaded up in the car and drove 4 hours to Bama's house.  Bama's house means warmth, yummy smells, delicious coffee and lots of food! She always has mixed nuts out to tempt you and to cause you to give into temptation. Creaky doors always announce another beloved family member as they come in and we squeal, hug and begin to catch up. Upstairs is full of beds to accomodate all of us, and we usually fight over who gets the single bed all by themselves. Now, portacribs (2 this time) share the room and we stress out over whether or not the babies will sleep well together or if they will cry and wake everyone up. This time we had not just our family but some of our extended family staying at Bama's. That made things interresting and a little awkward since one of them was my Aunts boyfriend staying in the room across from ours. Things got a little worse when he spent the whole night throwing up. Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all that night between that and my baby waking up because of the noise, the heat, and no fan to subdue the inbetween silence. I was supposed to stay till Tuesday with my mom while all my other sisters were going home the very next day. I almost threw in the towel and decided to call it quits and go home as well. but I didn't. I had to prove to myself that I could do this, I didn't have Joel there to help me and that always makes it hard. But once my mom got there Sunday all was good again. She was so helpful. She noticed when things were getting hard, asked if I needed help, took him so I could have a break. Played, talked and laughed with him along with the rest of us. WONDERFUL! The next night was a lot better since I moved down to the office where it was cooler, quieter and gave us more privacy. We slept great! Eating was always an adventure since everything around him was new and he didn't really want to concentrate on his food, that he really didn't like all that much anyway. But he acted like a champ when we ate at the country club that I grew up going to. Everyone was impressed as he played on the floor. Although they did ask me over and over again if he was okay and wasn't going to get trampled. He ate mac and cheese, some veggies and some blueberry puffs! My favorite part though was when he fell asleep in my arms, exhausted from the days activities. He took wonderful naps and I really didn't have to compromise naps with our schedule, it all worked out beautifully. A rough start ended well. We are home now, and we all slept in. We didn't know it because the clock in our bedroom hadn't been set forward yet, but it is all good, and now I have the rest of the week to do some spring cleaning and enjoy some time off. Thanks mom for helping so much and for making it a good time.

St. Louis - Day 4

Sunday came too soon. We fell in love with St. Louis, and didn't want to leave. We got up, packed up, checked out, and went back to the West end to enjoy the cute street one last time. We decided to trade our daily Starbucks for a coffee from what looked like a cute local coffee shop on this street. The night before this coffee shop looked very popular and cute. It was very quaint on the outside, but the minute we stepped inside, the whole image was ruined. It smelled like a smoky gas station. Plus it was more expensive than Starbucks (imagine that!) So we decided that we didn't want to ruin our wonderful vacation with a yucky coffee shop, so we walked a few feet down the street to our trusty Starbucks. It was delicious!!! the rest of the morning we spent looking at and taking pictures of the beautiful buildings of St. Louis. All the beautiful churches, especially the steeples, and then we stopped to go through the Scott Joplin museum. After that it was time to head home. We made one more stop for gas, and lunch, and then started the 5.5 hour trek home. Goodbye beautiful St. Louis! We enjoyed our stay.

St. Louis - Day 2

Friday Morning, and so much to do! We headed down stairs for a hot continental breakfast, and then headed out for our big day. As we arrived in Forest part where History museum, Art museum, Science center, and Zoo were, we were amazed at how beautiful everything was. We spent the morning at the History, and Art museum, where we saw all sorts of stuff, including information on the 1904 World's Fair. That was so excited because we were right where it all happened! We then took a little tour through the Jewel box (a green house) and then ate lunch at the park cafe.
The Afternoon we spent at the zoo. I haven't been to too many zoo's but this one was the prettiest one I have been to. After a long day full of walking, we felt it necessary to find a Starbucks. So once we found one near the park and we had finished taking pictures of the beautiful structure around us, we left. Upon arriving at the starbucks, we realized that we have found a really cool part of town. I would compare it to our Brook Town here in Tulsa. We decided that this would be the winning pick for dinner tonight. So after we had rested our feet we decided to drive around and look at all the cute homes, and then we were going to go home, change, and head back for dinner. Well, in the process of looking at the homes, we got lost. So we gave up the idea of going home, and headed back to The Loop (that is what the strip was called) for some delicious mexican food. It was a lovely night. We sat outside, enjoying our dinner listening to the saxiphone accross the street, and the guitarist, and drummer down the street, and watched all the interresting people go by. What a perfect ending to a perfect day!

St. Louis - Day 1

St. Louis Here we come! Joel and I started out Thursday morning for St. Louis! I was so excited to be able to spend 4 solid days with just Joel. No jobs, no computers, no phones, just me and Joel! We arrived at our hotel early that afternoon, checked in, and headed to our first destination. The Arch!! The arch was amazing, and we enjoyed getting lots of pictures. We also enjoyed just walking around the beautiful park that surrounded it. There are so many beautiful parks and classy, fun areas in St. Louis. After we got our fill of arch pictures, we headed to the Old Court house. Again we were amazed at the architecture of the place and the history that filled it. After looking inside the Old Cathedral as well, we headed back to the Arch, and this time we went to the top! We then enjoyed strolling along the Mississippi, enjoying the gorgeous weather, and taking pictures of the "Bridge to the West". Although we had had a very enjoyable afternoon, we had done a lot of walking, and our feet were quite tired, so we headed to The Hill, and went to a restaurant that served Italian, and Spanish food. It was a perfect ending to the first perfect day of our vacation.