Our trip to Chicago

First of all, the weather was perfectly fall and we love love loved it. The leaves were colorful and falling. Sometimes we could smell burning leaves, sometimes we could smell wet leaves, either way it was wonderful and nostalgic. We wore sweaters and jeans, and put our girls in the same. I didn't realize how much I love (and now miss) the landscape there, especially in comparison to Havasu. Lisa's family livesin Crystal Lake, and their town couldn't be anycuter. Lovely old houses with tons of character, a quaint downtown, but still plenty of shoppingand other resources, and the Metra to take you right into the city. We really loved it. Here's how the whole thing went down:

We flew out of Vegas on Wednesday evening, and the flight was as much of a nightmare as you can imagine it being with 2 babies in tow. We couldn't sit together, so that was tough. Lucy actually did OK. She was sleepy in my arms for the first hour or so. Olive was screaming and

contorting in Chris' arms for that time. After a while we traded kids and seats, and Lucy fell asleep in Chris' arms for the rest of the flight. Olive did some more screaming and contorting, but also made friends with some other kids and was a little bit playful for a while. But mostly, she screamed and contorted. We got into Chicago very late, had some difficulty and frustration getting our rental car and baggage and finding our way out of dumpy Cicero. We landed at Lisa's house at some unsightly hour, and she and Morgan got out of bed to greet us before we all crashed into bed.

On Thursday Lisa's family all had to go to work and school, so we let the girls sleep as long as they could and then decided to drive to the city. We drove along Lake Michigan up Lake Shore

Drive and saw Soldier Field, the Shedd

Aquarium, and Buckingham Fountain. We could see the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it whatever it is now) and the Hancock and Navy Pier. Then we drove out of the city a little bit in search of the Frank Lloyd Wright museum in Oak Park. Except we took a wrong turn and ended up in Niles where we had some delicious gyros at a little Greek dive. Yum! We made our way back to Oak Park and got to the Frank Lloyd Wright house just as the last tour of the day was wrapping up. Darn it. Still, we walked around and took pictures and enjoyed it. It was 3:30 by this time, and we had reservations at the Lou's in Crystal Lake at 6:00 with Lisa's family and Sadie and Gabe. You'd think we had plenty of time to get out there, right? Wrong. Traffic was ridiculous. I remember experiencing it when I lived there, but that was 10 years ago and traffic has pretty much become a foreign concept to me since then. There we were inching our way down 290, cramped in this awful tiny Toyota Matrix rental, and doing our best to resist getting totally grouchy. We made it to Lou's just after 6:00. The pizza was just as good as I remembered it. And it was delightful being with everyone. Afterwards we went back to Lisa's where she made everyone these huge ice cream sundaes. I was sufficiently full of good food, and plenty sleepy, by the end of the night.

Friday was my favorite day. Lisa and Morgan both took the day off, and we all went to Goebbert's. Goebbert's is the pumpkin farm that I grew up going to with my family every year. We saw lots of animals, most of which Olive had an aversion to. Lisa bought her tickets to ride the

camels and the ponies, and she pitched a fit over both of them. So I took her ticket to ride the camel and went on with Morgan. It was funny. As for the ponies, Morgan just walked around holding Olive next to them because she refused to get on. We picked a couple of tiny pumpkins for Olive and Lucy, had some apple cider donuts, and took some fun pictures. From there we grabbed Portillo's for lunch. Chris had a Chicago dog, and I had a variation of the same. I won't admit how I changed it up because it will rob me of any Chicago-bred dignity I have. We drove around Palatine and Barrington and showed Chris all of our old houses, and did some reminiscing. It was sad and sweet and funny. After all that fun, we let the girls take an afternoon nap and then it was time to gear up for Nick's football game. I had t-shirts made for all of us, including the girls. I put them in their feet pajamas and then jeans and shirts over them. It was cold that night - somewhere in the 40s - and we downed a ton of hot chocolate at the game. Sadie was sweet enough to drive out and meet us at the game. I can always count on her to be a superfan with me. The girls did pretty well. Lucy was bundled in the Baby Bjorn all night, and stayed pretty quiet. Olive was entertained by Morgan and her buddy the whole time. It was such a thrill to watch Nick play. He's so talented. We're really proud of him. His team won 31-0! Chris was rallying the crowd like crazy. I was slightly embarrassed but mostly just so amused. It was a fun night, and such a great day in all.

On Saturday Morgan had a volleyball tournament. She's a tough little cookie! She's really competitive, a little too hard on herself, and such a pretty girl. Her team went all the way to the championship game and came in 2nd place. We were super proud of her. Immediately after her last game, she jumped in the car with Chris and me and the girls, and we met Sadie and Gabe at Wrigley. We had tickets to tour the park at 1:30 (the last tour of the year) and barely made it on time. The tour was really interesting, and it was fun to be there. Chris' favorite part was the press box, mine was the dugouts. After the game, we went around the corner to Gino's East. I wanted Chris to compare Gino's to Lou's and decide which one he liked better. Trouble was, Olive was pretty delirious with exhaustion by that point, so she was kind of tough to manage. Then she took a really bad fall and got a huge knot on her forehead. After that, she was totally inconsolable. We had to call it quits at Gino's, say bye to Sadie and Gabe there, and make our way back to Lisa's. I was bummed that Chris didn't get to try Gino's, but Olive really needed to rest. We ended up grabbing Portillo's for dinner (Chris and I both got Italian beefs - so good), and laying low at Lisa's for the rest of the night.

I decided we should really just lay low on Sunday, too. We had planned on going out to Arlington Heights for church to see who we could see there. But the girls had been carted all over creation, and I thought it best for everyone's health and sanity that we just take it easy. It was a nice day. Morgan took Olive out on her little electric moped, and Olive absolutely loved it. It was pretty funny to watch. We took a long walk with Lisa. We grilled burgers and brats, and ate out on the deck. Olive wanted to help Lisa clean up after dinner, but she walked right into the iron patio table and gave herself a black eye. So now she's got a big bruised forehead, and a black eye! I think she looks cute; pitiful, but cute. We talked, and laughed, snacked, watched football, and I made cookies. It was a nice quiet day.

On Monday morning, I got us all packed and ready to go. We stopped by Lisa's office and Morgan's school, and said bye to them. I hated saying bye. From there we drove to a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Crystal Lake and looked around. Then we got on Northwest Highway and took it almost all the way to the city. When we passed through Palatine, I showed Chris some more nostalgic spots. We were going to go to the original McDonald's in Des Plaines, but missed the turn and decided to just keep going. We went to Navy Pier, walked up and down the pier, took pictures, had Garrett's, and rode the ferris wheel. From there we drove up Michigan Avenue so Chris could see the famous Magnificent Mile, got to see Millenium Park and Buckingham Fountain again, and then hit the road for the airport. We grabbed sandwiches at Potbelly's, and they were tasty tasty. We returned the awful car, got through the airport madness, and girded up our loins for another daunting flight. It wasn't as bad as the first flight, but it wasn't fun either. Olive finally crashed in my arms as soon as the plane started its initial descent into Vegas. Needless to say, she wasn't too thrilled when she was woken up by us trying to make our way off the plane. We were tired and hungry and grubby and ready to sleep for days. It was stressful and crazy, but delightful and memorable and lovely. We miss Lisa's family, and we love Chicago. Wanna go back!