Summer Staycation: More Chicago, and The End

Thursday July 8th

Thursday we were on the road again, back to Chicago.

My mom wanted to take Alyssa to American Girl Cafe and store for her birthday, so we decided to just stay in Chicago overnight, since they would be flying out from there Friday afternoon.

We hit some construction coming back from Nauvoo and got there just in time to change clothes and hoof it from our hotel over to American Girl. Lunch was booked solid, so we opted for afternoon (herbal) tea. I went along because my mom does not take pictures and I wanted to document the occasion.

It was a fun little experience, albeit completely overpriced. We were given cinnamon rolls to start, about the size of a quarter. Then we got to sample 6 different sandwiches, and breads. Cute three tiered serving plate, but the food was no better than what I make for lunch everyday. And then for dessert we were given small servings of mousse in a flower pot, a cheesecake dipped in pink chocolate, and an orange peel filled with jello. Very cute, but again, mediocre. You are definitely paying for the experience and not the food.

We did have fun playing a little Q&A game they had on the table. It asked getting to know you type questions and we learned funny stuff about Alyssa, like that the hardest thing she has ever had to do was decide what to buy at the Dollar Tree. Charmed life, no? We also got a good laugh when the question was, "If you could choose new names for your family, what would you choose?". She spit out Duncan and Betty, for me and Seth without even hesitating. I asked her where on earth she heard the name Duncan, and she informed me that it is a character on Total Drama Island who looks like daddy.

Have a look...see if you agree.

She also chose the names Charlie and Sally (from Charlie Brown) for Alex and Chloe, but refused to rename herself. She looooovvves her name.

After tea, we shopped. In addition to the tea party, Alyssa's gift from my mom was an outfit for herself and one for Victoria. Alyssa picked matching jammies for her and Victoria. She wanted a puppy called Honey, because the jammies were called Honey Puppy PJ's, but Honey was sold out. For the best really, because the little 2 inch dogs are $20 a piece, Ridiculous! As luck would have it, she noticed that her jammie pants actually had ALL the AG puppies on them so she quickly grabbed Sugar, a little Yorkie, and ran him up to the register just as Glenn was paying. He loudly expressed his thoughts about the puppy to the worker, but let them ring it up anyway.

With American Girl out of our systems, until Chloe turns 8, we wandered around Chicago.

We headed back to Millennium Park and since it was evening, there was a concert going on in the huge outdoor amphitheater. The music was horrendous, but the lead singer was kicking up some super fabulous moves. Highly entertaining. This is what Chloe thought of her.

And then my battery died, so no Bean pictures or Chicago at night pictures. :(

We wandered back to our hotel, where Seth offered to put the kids to bed and let the rest of us go out to a club. We all looked at each other and burst into laughter. We love to wander the city, but a club? Nice to meet you Mr. Johnson, but that is so not our thing. We had Cheesecake Factory desserts waiting for us in the hotel room, and that is all the nightlife we were looking for. It was sweet of him to offer, and we vowed to all bring our mini skirts and stilettos next time, just in case.

Here are Alyssa and Victoria all ready for bed in Chicago.

Friday July 9th

This is it folks! We wandered around the city some more, and FINALLY found the free trolleys I have been looking for for 5 years. We rode them to and from Navy Pier. We went to Build a Bear Workshop so my mom could get Alex some jammies for his monkey, and while we were there me and Seth decided to make Chloe a bear. She has lots of bears and stuffies, but they are all hand me downs from her siblings. We thought she should have her own. I guided her repeatedly to a floppy eared brown puppy, but she just kept saying, "No, I want a pink one". So a pink one it was.

Could you say no to this child?

Stuffing her bear.

Naming a bear is tough work. What did she choose? Well...Pink, of course.

All stuffed and ready to love.

Grandma got jammies for Pink, and Chloe was checking out her new duds.

We wrapped up the trip by stopping for Chicago style deep dish pizza. We all agreed that we didn't like it. We already knew that, but we keep feeling obligated to take people to try it. When in Rome, I guess.

And then it was off to the airport, goodbye, and back to Wisconsin. I couldn't get too sad, because my mind was preoccupied with driving home. I hate driving in Chicago but Glenn had been driving one of our cars so we had to get both of them back home. I followed Seth closely until we got out of the city, and was very happy when we made it home. We unloaded the car and then me and Alyssa jumped right back in to get her to a birthday party on time.

When I returned from dropping Alyssa off, Alex and his monkey were both in sports jammies, and Alex's sports blankets. And right this second as I was typing this very sentence, Alyssa ran in with a birthday package from Valerie. She got a super cute sundress, and Val also sent a Cubs shirt for Alex. He is so excited, because that is what monkey wears during the day time, so now they can match around the clock. He has already made the wardrobe change. Oh, and don't feel bad for Chloe. Valerie sent her 100 Laffy Taffy's and she has already eaten about 32 of them. She even plucked the banana one that I tried to steal, right from my hand. Thanks Val, and the gang. That was fun!

Last Friday

And today

Even though the last few weeks were too hectic to really even say a proper thank you to any of our house guests, I hope they all know how much it meant that they were here. Would I usually have my mom and Glenn, and my dad and Linda, and Seth's family all here at the same time? Certainly not, but it is important to me to know that Alyssa's baptism was important to them. I have piles of memories from this trip that I will ever cherish.

Thank you, to all of you!

And with that, we now return you to the regular old Summer Scrapbook, already in session....and now a week behind. Ugh!