Indiana. Day 6

Today we woke up to storms. Lots of thunder and lightning. Seems like we brought Portland rain with us. The only difference is that storms roll in and out quickly here. We didn't have any plans today which sort of made me cranky. Without plans my kids want to watch TV and play the iPad. That's it. So we walked to the lake and splashed around. After pouting, we decided to go to the zoo It was walking distance, small and easy to get into to. The zoo was super cute. So much more quaint than the Portland one which seems so formal to me. The peacocks were waking around and the alligators were probably close enough for us to reach out and touch. The sidewalks were cracked and dangerous and I just thought it was great. The big kids got to feed the birds from these feed sticks. It was cute. These little yellow birds would fly right on to their hands and nibble the bird seed off a Popsicle stick.

That night we headed to an awesome place to eat called tree house. It's a giant fenced play area for kids with tables all over the place. The kids just run their hearts out while the adults drank delicious sangria. It was perfect.

Afterwards we drove to a city where they had a drive in movie theatre. What a hoot! I remember that we had one in Beaverton when I was a kid and loved seeing movies there. We caught monsters university. It was the first movie I've seen with the big kids in over a year. Ms kenedi is not a fan of quiet places so movie theaters and her don't really go together! we sat in the back of uncle Mike's truck and ate popcorn and too much candy. Will did the beep, beep song in the car before the start of the movie. Seems like such a Midwest thing to so. As the movie ended we watched fireflies in the night sky. By the time we got home it was 11:45 and everyone was asleep!

Chicago: day 5 - headed to Indiana.

On day five we headed to Indiana. This was mostly a track day. Lots of car time. Because the kids love the movie Home Alone so much we decided to drive up past Chicago to see it. The house just sold for 1.5 million last fall and is just plucked down in a Midwest neighborhood outside of Chicago. The neighborhood has lots of big houses and old trees. It's different than northwest neighborhoods though. No sidewalks and they just feel different. Anyhow, there is a big sign out front that says 'private property' so we just snuck a picture from the curb. It was obvious that a family with boys loves there - lots of Legos in the recycling bin.

We then made the trek down to Indiana. Man. Is the Midwest flat. No mountains as far as the eye can see. We arrived at our house and spent the evening with aunt cari and her family at Buffalo Wild Wings. We then went over to grandma and grandpas house to visit in the porch and watch the storms.

Chicago: Day 4

We slept in this morning... Way in. So much so that we missed breakfast in the hotel lobby. The kids swam in the morning with their cousins and we ventured in to the city around noon. I really wanted to take one of the neighborhood tours through china town, little Italy and Chicago's Greek village. The tour was on a trolley bus and our tour guide knew a ton of history. I'm always amazed by those people. We never got off the bus but learned a lot. One thing of importance: the Chicago fire was started in the old lady's barn but it wasn't her fault. They talk about the Chicago fire a lot around here. How it burned the city which was made of wood, including sidewalks, and how the city recovered and preserved. Well the fire was blamed on an Irish woman (the people of Chicago hated Irish folks). The legend has it that her cow kicked over a candle which started the barn on fire. The winds carried the fire quickly into Chicago but left the old woman's home untouched. She was a wanted woman. Turns out, the fire was likely just a wild fire probably started by lightning and in the late 1990's the mayor went public with such story. Putting the famed old woman and her cow not guru. What a story!

We promised the kids a trip to the American Girl and Lego store so we headed downtown next. Those places are crazy. The American girl store is out of control and Addi for a moment turned into a crazed doll lover. We talked her out of it ... But I'm afraid it may not last.

As we were leaving WaterTower Place, the baby had finally fallen asleep in the stroller and the plan was to walk to dinner. When we came out of the mall there was a storm brewing. It moved in so fast! We turned left, passed some cops that were hauling to their cars, and decided to get inside quickly. By the time we had gone 50 ft the rain was pouring down, the wind was crazy and the storm was full force. We made it down the stairs with skirts above our waists and the baby still asleep. Tables, chairs, signs, everything was blowing over. It was the craziest thing I had ever seen. The kids were a little freaked out and rob thought it was a tornado! To make matters worse, we thought for just a moment that the parking garage closed at 7pm so we were sort of panicking about getting back to the car. The Doubledecker bus saved our butts. They made a stop after rob ran after them and let us get on.

As soon as it came in, the storm was gone, we were in our car and headed to Ed debevik's a famous Chicago diner. After dinner we got back to the hotel just in time to watch the final quarter of the Blackhawks game. A win for the Stanley cup!

Chicago Day Two

Day 2 we spent in Chicago. Rob was given free tickets for the Chicago Doubledecker Tour Bus so we decided to check it out. The main bus tour stops at 13 of downtown Chicago's most popular spots. We wanted to avoided a ton of waking, wanted to see lots of the city and thought that the top deck of a bus sounded pretty cool to a 9 and 6 year old. It was the best decision! We boarded at Millenial Park which puts portland's waterfront park to shame. It is amazing! Full of art, fountains, food, and fun for the kids. It was packed with people on Sunday and was just a great place to start our Chicago tour. We boarded the bus and found them to be really kid friendly. Their is a bus driver and a tour guide that sits with you up on top. Our tour guide Rosetta, was hilarious. She pointed out lots of art, architecture, bridges and statues. One things is for sure...Chicago loves their bridges, architects and monuments. The city is really beautiful with so much to see. It reminded me of Portland, but so much bigger. The people are friendly, good food, lots of bikes. Our Doubledecker tour took us to museum row, navy pier, and other great stops. We got off at Navy Pier which is a giant boardwalk with a Ferris wheel. We had Chicago hot dogs and walked the pier. It was really a nice place. We wanted to do the children's museum but ran out of time. We did the SeaDog boat ride instead which went out in Lake Michigan. It was fast, short, and just enough excitement for the kids.

We hopped back in the bus and finished up the 13 stops, not getting off, and ended up back at Millenial Park. The Blackhawks were playing game 6 that night which was a big deal and so we met aunt cari and uncle mike at Dave & Barry's which is a chain similar to big Al's without the bowling. Tons of arcade games, bars (a few of them) and a family friendly restaurant. The kids were in heaven. We stayed late, drank too much beer and played too many games. We went back to the hotel happy as full! With new trinkets in our pockets. Aunt cari and her family squeezed into our adjoining rooms and we slept the night away with just a few snores. Kenedi finally got more than 2 hours of sleep which was good for a of of us.

Chicago day three

We woke up LATE today. At 9:00. Which is late for everyone but Will. Today's agend was for the Cubs game and because they were handing out Ryan Sandberg Rynos to the first 2000 kids, we had to be early to get in line. They were also letting the first 1000 kids run the bases after the game. So basically that meant we had to be first in line. We left the hotel at 10:00 and got to the field by 11:00. Wrigley is such a fun place to see a baseball game at. It's also packed. And in this particular day it was hot and humid. Awesome. Or kids of course began to melt instantly and only wanted ice cold water which was seemingly unavailable. Instead we settled for shade and warm water from a dippy cup that I had found in the diaper bag. We were the fourth family in line and when the doors open, the only line where he ticket taking machine quit working. Really?! I though Rob was going to get after someone. But alas, it started working and we were like every other crazed parent trying to get freebies for our kids (or us?). Rob squished his way into the most unorganized bracelet handing out booth j had ever seen. Imagine 1000 parents dying to have their kids run the bases, 1 table in the middle of the concourse with access from all around, no line and blue bracelets. It was chaos. Addi and will were sucked into the crowd by some nice man that saw them. They ended up with blue bracelets that let them in the special place to run the bases.

I'll be honest. The rest of the game was hot. Our seats were great, right along third Base line where you can touch the warm up catcher and they throw you foul balls. But I didn't sit there. I made my way to the 200 levels where there was room to move, shade, and a breeze. I really should let rob write this part because while I saw the game, I will remember most the many games of chase, the Popsicles, and lots of walking up and down ramps to keep kenedi occupied. When she finally fell asleep in the ergo I had to stay in constant motion to keep her asleep. Take me out the ball game!

But the kids had a blast, didn't get heat stroke, and ran the bases.

For dinner we went to Chicago for pizza at
Gino's east. The pizza is at least two inches thick and carries a pound of cheese. Awesome.

Chicago Trip. Day One

Day one started this morning at 3:15 am. Here I thought that the three iPhone alarms that I set would wake us up by no... It was kenedi. She's got this mouth thing that has left horrible, raw sores everyone. She can't eat or drink much and the worst part is she can't suck on her binkie which is like the save all to night time wake ups. Since she can't eat she's miserable because she's so chubby and used to eating a ton. In fact to night she got so jealous of Will's chocolate cake that she dug in with her fists and shoved a bite in. It BURNED! But she pushed through and ended up rolling on the floor screaming. It was terrible and hilarious all at the same time.

So 3;15 we're up and ready to roll. I was surprisingly organized and totally packed and ready to go. Once the big kids got u and Will showered (it wakes him up) we headed out. This is how kenedi looked and pretty much sums up her day:

Here we are at the airport taking up the entire moving sidewalk. You would think those things wouldn't be busy at 5am on a Friday. But remarkably they are. And people don't have patience for cute kids.

So we wait in line at security for a bit. Kenedi goes back and forth between walking and being carried-the strolled is just an overpriced luggage carrier- and somehow we slip thru security without any major searches.

The plane ride was interesting. In short we probably fell into the category of THAT family with that baby. But then our flight got delayed into Chicago due to thunderstorms and we were re routed to Minnesota. By that point every child on the flight was D.O.N.E. so everyone was crying. No big deal. Plus everyone else was mad because they were missing connecting flights - about 80% of our flight was going on from Chicago. So it all ended up fine. By the end of the final flight back to o hare kenedi fell asleep sitting up and when the flight attendant told me I need to move her I have her a death glare and she walked away. We pretended that it never happened. Obviously she didn't understand fully the #1 rule of child rearing: never move a sleeping baby!

The day ended with swimming at the hotel and an early bed time. Which is really all the kids wanted.