On Monday, Eric got to have lunch with Asher at his school for VIP (Very Important Person) Lunch Day. Asher was thrilled to get a Happy Meal for lunch with his Daddy.
Video: Asher Cheers Up Avery
On Wednesday night Asher found a small superhero pin in the parking lot at his school and gave it to Avery. On Thursday morning Avery was playing with it and Asher told Avery that he needed to take it back to school to see if anyone would claim it. Avery was not very happy about this, but Asher stepped nicely into the big brother role to cheer his little brother up.
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| Avery reading to his buddies during nap time on Friday. |
On Friday afternoon the boys and I decided to make some cookies and since I'd been thinking recently that it has been a VERY long time since I'd had a peanut butter cookie we made those for the very first time. The boys helped me make the dough and then I let them smush and sugar them before they went into the oven. I even added dark chocolate chips to half of the batch and they were delicious!!
On Saturday we headed down to Chicago for a family adventure to enjoy Chicago's Festival of Lights. Originally we had planned to attend the event with friends, but they had to cancel just a few days before. Since we had already booked a hotel for the night that was nonrefundable we still headed downtown without our friends for our own family fun time.
Our first stop on the way to Chicago was at the Metro station in Libertyville. We grabbed our backpacks, the stroller and the boys and then waited for our first family train ride downtown.
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| The boys looking at all the other trains together. |
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| I have no idea what The String Cheese Incident is about, but the name alone was entertaining. |
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| Asher's first subway ride. |
After making it to the subway, transferring from the Orange Line to the Red Line and then walking a few more blocks (still sprinkling) we made it to our destination and home away from home for the next 24 hours: The Park Hyatt Hotel. By now it was about 1:30pm and we were soggy and tired. Since check-in time was not until 3:00 pm, Eric had called earlier in the week and asked if we could drop off our luggage earlier so we wouldn't have to lug it around town. We headed inside and found that our luck had changed. They had a room available for us and we could check in immediately. Therefore instead of dropping off bags and heading back outside we were able to head right up to our room to get out of our wet clothes and enjoy the city view of our corner room (yay!).
A few pics from our second stay (a first for the boys) at a five star hotel. It wasn't as luxurious as Trump Tower, but we enjoyed it very much and the price (a great deal on Priceline) was great!
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| The bathroom was huge (not much smaller than our actual room) with a large tub, separate walk-in-shower and a separate toilet room! |
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| Our room. It was small but very cozy...complete with an Eames chair to relax, an iPad and button-controlled shades. I loved the view from the corner windows! |
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| Avery enjoying the view. “Mommy, mommy! I can see evweythin!” |
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| Asher's roll-away bed came with a strap...to hold him in??? |
(2) Videos: Testing Out the Bed
After relaxing in our room for a bit our tummies were rumbling so we headed to Giordano's (which we could see from our room) for some Chicago Style pizza. Unfortunately, the wait at Giordano's was really long so instead we found Gino's East a few blocks away and headed there for our late lunch. We were seated right away but because the deep dish pizza that Chicago is famous for takes about 45 minutes to bake we also enjoyed some garlic breadsticks and some fun making our mark (literally) on the walls.
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| Yum!! |
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| The pouty lip because he was tired, hungry and insisted that the pizza was too hot |
When we were finished with our late lunch we walked back to our hotel to get changed for the parade. Once we did we took the subway a little ways South to get to the opposite end of the parade route. In hind sight this was a bad decision. Our hotel was basically at the start of the parade route already but we wanted to get to the opposite end so that we could see the fireworks at the river afterward. Since the kids were not up for more walking and Eric and I really were not up for more carrying we took the train. Unfortunately though when we got off the train and made our way to Michigan Avenue, we ended up at the level BELOW and since security was beefed up for the event the police had blocked off most of the stairs up to the street. We had to walk another four blocks or so East to find stairs and then once we were at the right level another few blocks West to get to Michigan Ave. By the time we made it to the parade route we had gotten a little turned around and were still further North than we had wanted to be and we had arrived about 15 minutes later than I'd hoped to get in place for the parade. Thus, even though we were still about 30-40 minutes early there were already people lined up along the entire parade route about 4 people deep and while I could have reached out and touched the parade barricades, with everyone standing in front of us we couldn't see a thing. We waited for the parade to start hoping that the parade floats would be high enough for us to see despite the people in front of us. While we waited we made some friends for the boys to play with and got them each a light-up sword (which was worth the $10 to not hear them constantly begging for one like all the other little boys around us had).
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| Chicago waiting for the parade to start |
Eventually the parade started and made its way to where we were waiting. Mickey and Minnie were on the first float to kick things off. We did our best to see everything but were bummed to find that we could see very little. Eric and I each put a boy on our shoulders (Asher on Eric and Avery on me) so that at least they could see a little better. I pretty much couldn't see anything unless I stood on my tippy toes or looked at my phone held up above the crowd. On top of that disappointment Avery was WAY overtired from walking all over Chicago and not getting a nap AND his boots were hurting his feet (I realized later that they were two sizes too small for him). So...while we tried to enjoy ourselves for the entire reason that we'd come down to the city for the weekend the parade itself was pretty much a bust.
After watching about half of the parade with the agony of winter-clothed, antsy children weighted on our shoulders we decided to move from our space in the compact crowd and watch the remainder of the parade from the sidewalk as we walked North again towards our hotel. While we were further away from the route, the perspective was actually a little better this way.
After walking a few blocks in the direction of our home-away-from-home, we found some parents standing on the sidewalk next to a 7 foot tall traffic light control box with their little girl perched on top. Noticing immediately that there would be room for three small butts, we asked if they would share the space with our boys to watch the remainder of the parade. This was the best part of the whole thing! Finally, we could all see the parade and Eric and I no longer had to carry our heavy little loads on our shoulders (I think I am permanently shorter after this experience)!
Video: Waving to Santa
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| Our crazy family! |
When the parade was done we looked at the mass of people walking to the river and our tired little boy crying that he wanted to go to bed and decided the fireworks just were not worth it. Instead we continued our way back "home", enjoying the opportunity to walk right down the middle of Michigan Avenue along the way!
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| Our Abbey Road Album Cover copy. |
Video: The Street Sweeper Parade
While the Festival of Lights Parade was a bit of a bust, the clean-up crew's after "party" parade did not disappoint. As soon as the parade went through, city workers got down to business to get Michigan Avenue back in pristine shape. Men came down the sidewalks with garbage bags, large brooms and leaf blowers while a fleet of small street sweepers set to work on the Avenue itself...and THEY MEANT BUSINESS. Watching the street sweepers was almost more fun that watching the actual parade. It was like watching little clown cars cruise up and down the strip and turn on a dime to get everything cleaned up!
We finally made it back to our hotel, but rather than going inside we continued on for one more block to pick up a quick McD's dinner for our hungry guys who despite a very large and late lunch were wanting something to eat. We got them some happy meals and then headed back to our hotel and our room to get some sleep. Then, while I got the boys ready for bed, Eric headed out one last time to go across the street to Potbelly and get some milkshakes for the two of us.
Video: The Most Entertaining Happy Meal Toy Ever
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When you hide your shake in the bathroom cause you just don’t want to share... #donttellourkids |
On Sunday morning the boys both woke up much earlier than we would have liked. Lucky for me though, Eric took them out to walk around the hotel while I got to sleep in. Once we were all up and at 'em, we walked around the block to Einstein Bagels to get some breakfast. Then, after filling up on juice and breakfast sandwiches we headed back to our hotel for some fun in the pool.
(2) Videos: Pool Fun
The boys enjoying the pool and a snippet of Asher swimming on his own for the first time!
Once Asher and Eric got back from the pool it was time for us all to get cleaned up and packed up to check out.
When we were checked out of our hotel we didn't head home straight away. Instead, since we were right by the Water Tower, we headed across the street to check out the Lego Store with the boys. From there we took a quick jaunt to see the Hancock building and then we walked all the way down Michigan Avenue to Millennium Park (with a stop at the Disney store) to take in the city before we headed home.
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| If only I had $800 to spend. #MilleniumFalconLego |
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| My boys getting a full view of the Hancock Tower |
As soon as we left the Hancock Tower Avery wanted to ride in the stroller. By the time we had made a few more blocks South he was curled up in a ball sleeping. Asher, on the other hand, walked all the way from the Hancock to Millennium Park all by himself (save two blocks South of the river)!
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| The tree at Millennium Park. |
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| Watching the Zamboni Machine. |
From Millennium Park we hailed our first ever city taxi for a ride to Union Station to save us from dealing with the subway. Then we got a quick lunch and hopped on our train ride home to close out our weekend getaway.
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| Looking at their Lego catalog from the Lego Store. |
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