Chicago!

**Disclaimer**If you are not ready to read about every single detail of our Chicago trip and see mass quantities of photos documenting every second, turn away now.**

Tim needed to attend the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Convention this past weekend in Chicago. James and I had never been and since we have friends who live there we decided to make a family vacation out of it. We had so much fun, seriously I LOVE Chicago. If it weren't for the God awful weather half of the year, I think I would be packing my bags and moving there next week. Illinois is (I think) the 9th state that James has visited (most of those he has been to multiple times) and I seriously think he should become a professional traveler. His flexibility when we travel amazes me. He was a happy camper virtually the whole trip and did not throw one tantrum the whole time as opposed to the numerous daily tantrums that happen at home. We slept in 3 different places, and James did great napping whenever we put him down-whether it was early, late or not at all. And he slept great at night even when staying up well past his typical bedtime each night. We started the trip in Wheaton, a suburb outside the city where Erin, Matt and Alec Sungy live. Their town could seriously not be any cuter. They have an amazing house within walking distance from the downtown area and train tracks. James and Alec were beyond excited to see each other. When Erin pulled up to the curb at the airport to pick us up, James was jumping up and down and Alec was convulsing with excitement in his carseat. The boys had so much fun seeing each other and cracked us up the whole trip. They actually do a great job of playing together and interacting with each other. They were constantly playing chase, holding each other's hands, getting filthy or making the other one laugh. Our first day there we just hung out at their house and watched the boys play together and had a great barbeque.

James worked up quite an appetite playing and ate half a cheeseburger (a first for Mr. I hate meat) and an ear of corn!

After dinner we went into town and got ice cream. Here are the Daddies and boys-are they cute or what?

Watching the trains go by-about as exciting as it gets for 2 year old boys.

Mucking in the muck and getting insanely dirty in the fountains downtown. Being the wonderful house guest that I am, I left these clothes with Erin to wash and return to us when she came into the city later in the week.

Wednesday

We spent the day in Wheaton again on Wednesday and went to a little zoo right by the Sungy's house. There is a duck feeding each morning and Alec had been dying to take James. 

After checking out the animals, we went to an Arboretum that has a huge children's garden. We probably saw about 1/20 of what there was to see. The boys loved it because there was plenty of water to play in and things to explore. 


Looking for tadpoles.

Wading in the river and sorting rockes. I think the boys could have done this all day long. It was SO HOT this day that the adults were ready to get out of the sun and get home though.

Tim's cousin Katy is in a different suburb of Chicago for an internship right now and she came down to meet us for dinner this night. We all ate pizze together in town and then Tim, James and I caught the late train into the city where Brynne and Peter picked us up and took us to their house. It was pretty late, but James was way too excited to be on a train to sleep.

Thursday

Peter was our tour guide on Thursday and showed us around the city. We started out at Millenium Park and then walked to the Navy Pier. We had told James about the big ferris wheel that was there and he was set on seeing it.

Weird fountains at Millenium Park that James loved playing in. 

This was a banner day for toddler diets. James ate a blueberry muffin, soft pretzel at the pier, a bag of potato chips, rice, and a bunch of late night desserts. Oh and he stayed up until midnight. Awesome.
The ferris wheel. It lived up to James' expectations and he had a blast on the ride. 
He perfected his, "Say cheese!" face while we were up there.

Does it get any cuter than this?
I was fading fast and couldn't make the whole walk back to our hotel so we took a water taxi. James was pretty happy to add a boat to the list of modes of transportation he experienced while in Chicago.
After James and I took a nap until 6 pm at the hotel and Tim went to the welcome happy hour for his convention, we went out to dinner with Brynne, Peter and Tim's co-resident, Kelsey, who was also at the convention. We ate at a super yummy Asian fusion restaurant called Red Light. James was a champ even though he didn't like the food and just hung out during what turned into a very late dinner.
Brynne and Peter absolutely adore James and the feeling is definitely mutual. He calls them his Crystal Friends because the last time we saw them was last summer in Crystal at Brynne's family cabin. We are also going again this summer and James kept confusing the two locations. When we got off the train to meet Brynne and Peter for the first time in Chicago James asked, "Are we in Crystal now?" It makes me feel so lucky to have people who love our little boy so much. They take such good care of him and could seriously not love him any more than they do. James adores them both and nothing made him smile more on this trip than when he would see Peter. Adorable.
After dinner we went to another restaurant called Hot Chocolate for dessert. The pastry chef has won the James Beard award several times and the desserts were amazing. Here is a photo of mine-all I remember is that it involved lemon and blueberries. Yum! James loved it there and ate off of everyone's desserts plates until we realized it was 11:30 and we might want to put him to bed at some point.

Friday

Tim had to be at his conference all day on Friday. Boo to that, but it was the reason for the trip after all. Erin and Alec rode the train into the city and met up with Brynne, Peter, James and I for a day at the aquarium. 

We stopped by the Buckingham Fountain on the way when we were still dilluding ourselves into thinking we could walk there. Soon after we decided a bus would be much better if we actually wanted to see anything at the aquarium.
The aquarium is huge and has a lot of neat exhibits, my favorites were the dolphins and the Beluga Whales. 
Checking out a turtle with his best friend, Peter.
The best part of the aquaarium was the incredible view of the city and the lake front. Chicago is beautiful!
Checking out the touch pools with Alec.
Playing in the submarine.
Friday was also our 5th wedding anniversary. We made reservations at Rick Bayless' restaurant Fronterra Grill and Brynne and Peter babysat James. The food was amazing, here are our dinners:
After dinner, we walked around the city and decided to go up to the observation deck of the Sears Tower (the tallest building in the world). They have glass skydecks that stick out from the building that you can walk into so it looks like you are floating 110 stories in the air-crazy! I was nervous at first, but it was really neat. It was really cool being up there at night and seeing all of the city lights.
You better believe that we bought the souvenier photo-what a good momento of our 5th anniversary!

Saturday

On Saturday we went to the Cubs game with Brynne, Peter and the whole Sungy family. Tim got us all awesome seats and we had so much fun. James had been talking about going to see the Cubs for literally weeks before the trip, and the game was definitely a hit. Wrigley Field is so tiny and old and so much different than Coors Field-we had an awesome time! James and I pre-game brunched with Brynne and Peter while Tim was finishing up at his convention.

Erin and I with our Chicago Dogs-seriously the best hot dog I have ever had. Loved every second of it.
James was much more excited than he appears  to be in most of these pictures, I promise. I think he was just over having his picture taken. I can't imagine why.

Cheering for the Cubs-it worked, they won!

What fun is a baseball game without lots and lots of treats?

Sporting all of our Cubs gear (Tim and I borrowed shirts from Brynne and Peter and James was spoiled rotten by them and got a new hat, shirt, bat and ball).
We also spent all day Sunday at Brynne and Peter's. We ate at Hot Chocolate again-this time for brunch which was equally as amazing as their desserts and then we ate at an incredible taco/street food type place called Big Star. In between eating we just tried to stay cool. It was HOT that day! We had such a wonderful trip and are so glad we got to see our friends! And if you are anyone besides Brynne, Erin or my parents, I am impressed that you made it through this whole post! If there is anyone who takes as many photos as I do, it is Erin,  so we have quite the collection from this trip!