Chicago Part I

Over spring break the kids and I decided to drive to Chicago. I even asked them if they would rather go to Disney World or Chicago and they chose seeing their cousins. Good thing they didn't choose Disney World since we wouldn't have gone there! Not sure what I was thinking when I brought up that conversation.  Before leaving we had the option of waiting for Adam and only going for 1 week, or leaving earlier but I'd have to drive out by myself. I really wanted to stay longer, but wasn't sure if I could do the entire 16 hours with the kids without any help. Luckily I have a saint for a mother-in-law and she drove out with me and then flew back.  The kids did AWESOME on the drive out and we made it all the way to Iowa City to stay with Kate and Jonathan (13 hours) before stopping for the night.

We started out our trip at the Field Museum.

 Samantha "smiling" - she insisted that she was smiling  and when I showed her the picture she kept saying that I must just be missing it. It wasn't just for this picture either, it was the whole day.

 Paul in front of "Sue" the T-Rex. He still talks about the huge dino bones.

Cute Grant

The rest of the week we let the kids play and then we went down to Kim's house. My kids had such a great time with so many friends to play with. I think their favorite activity both at Kim's and Kelle's was the trampoline. 

 Paul and Blythe

 I love the matching crystal light mustaches

The picture right above is one of my favorites from the whole trip. Kim was nice enough to babysit overnight while Adam surprised me with a date. This was one of the pictures she took while we were gone. I guess Paul had a hard time while we were out and Spencer stepped up and became Paul's buddy. You can tell from the picture how Paul felt about that. The kids are so lucky to have such great cousins. I only wish they all lived closer!!