Chicagoween 2009

We diverted from the normal this year and took the kids to Chicago for Halloween weekend. (The "normal" being staying home and trick-or-treating in the neighborhood). My mom is living in the suburbs of Chicago for a while due to work, so we figured if we had a free place to stay and park, we had better take this opportunity while we had it.

It all worked out wonderfully, except that I was extremely sick and the weather was crappy. Allyson got to go with us and Brad scheduled his work so he could go too! (Isn't it nice being the one that makes the schedule?)
We left Thursday evening after everyone got done with work and school. (Yep-I allowed Halle to miss a day of school on Friday, but we did a lot of educational things that day anways, I promise) We packed up the Denali (thanks to Mom D. for allowing us to use her car, otherwise, we would have never had enough room), and took off. About 20 minutes into the ride, I realized we forgot two very important items. # 1-The STROLLER!! How we expected a 2 year old to walk around a huge city for 2 days is beyond me! So, we stopped at Target and Brad schmoozed the girl at the counter to give him the umbrella stroller for the sale price, even though the one he got technically wasn't on sale. We also forgot #2: The CAMERA!! This is what happens when the most organized person of all of us (me) is extremely sick and isn't thinking clearly before we leave the house. So, we debated over buying a new camera (which we will do at some point in time soon), but opted to just use Brad's camera on his phone and my mom's camera.

After all that drama, we were on the road. Driving into the city late at night is the way to go, as we hit absolutely no traffic. We got to my mom's about 9:30p.m. Chicago time (we gained an hour by going). We somehow crammed 6 of us into a tiny, one bedroom apartment. Surprisingly, we all had our own space and it worked out well.

Friday, we woke up, ate breakfast, and took the train into the city. We took the kids to the Field Museum (see, I told you we did something educational) for the majority of the day. Sidenote: Teachers-You get in free to the museum if you have something indicating you're a teacher! I got in free!! (a $23 value)They have Diamonds on exhibit there right now. That was really cool!!! There were a bunch of security guards and vaults that the diamonds were in. Wow!! They were all so beautiful!! This one was on display there. The picture doesn't do it justice. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the diamonds.

After we were done at the museum, we took a taxi down to the shopping area. Halle wanted to go to The American Girl store (of course), so we did that for a while. We went to eat at our favorite pizza place in Chicago, Giordanio's, got some Garrett's popcorn, and then took the train back home. I was completely exhausted and was getting a fever by this time. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it another day. Thankfully, I have a father-in-law who is a doctor and he called me in a prescription.

Saturday- We went back into the city for the day. The kids wore their Halloween costumes and we went to Franken Plaza for the Halloween festivities going on there. They had the Midnight Circus performing, so we watched the show (twice).Halle made a craft and got a balloon animal. Parker was asleep the entire time!! He missed out, but we were glad he was getting a little nap. We actually ran into some people we knew!!! Who would have thought we would sit down next to our friends from high school in Chicago over Halloween weekend? So, that was a nice surprise!!

The entire time we were there, Halle kept begging us to take her for Chicago-style hotdogs, so after the show, we headed to Portillo's for lunch. The are the BEST!!

We then spent the rest of the day shopping!!! Parker went to the Disney Store and got a Woody and a Buzz Lightyear doll and Mimi ("Grandma" in Parker's language) bought him a Woody and Buzz shirt. Can you tell what movie Parker's into right now? Halle went to American Girl and got her doll's ears pierced and Grammy bought her a new outfit for her doll. I went to Macy's and Mom bought me a pair of Coach tennis shoes!! My mom was spoiling us all!! Thanks again, Mom!! She also bought Allyson a pair of boots, so we all got something except for Brad (sorry Honey).

We were all pretty tired by the time we got back to my mom's place, so we just went and ate at Panera Bread for dinner. It tasted good and warm, which was nice considering it was FREEZING all day!!

Sunday morning consisted of us all packing up and leaving. We had to get back for Brad to be at work by 4. So, it was a quick goodbye and we headed home.

Not much happened on the way home, but we did stop at a gas station and guess who was there in her big bus??? Jennifer Hudson!!! Brad actually talked to her agent and saw Jennifer's sister inside the gas station. I guess all the workers were going nuts!! We saw her dogs being walked in the little grass area too!! We didn't get a glimpse of Jennifer herself, but it was still cool to know that she was in her bus just a few feet away from us!

We had an awesome time this weekend. It went by way too fast!! Halle keeps talking about how much fun she had, even though she didn't get to go trick-or-treating. She said "It's just candy...Chicago is awesome!"