Chicago

Chicago!

About a month ago Cody and I went on a vacation to Chicago.  It was our third time to leave Owen overnight. We left him once for weekend in April when we went to Port A with some friends and we left him for another weekend in May to go to a wedding in Dallas and we stayed and extra night for our anniversary. For Chicago we were gone four nights and about five days. Needless to say I was extremely anxious about leaving him and had gotten really emotional and worked up about it.  Thankfully the trip went great!  I was able to let go and enjoy myself and have fun on our trip, and Owen seemed to do just fine without us.  My silly emotional self sort of expected Owen to be over-the-moon excited to see us when we returned home. However, he is a baby and easily entertained and distracted.  We came home (I was over-the-moon excited to see him!) and yes Owen seemed really happy and laughed and smiled and ran to us, and then was immediately distracted by something like a ball laying on the floor.

Day 1

Hello Chicago!

At the Bean!

While this was not at all a relaxing vacation, it was a really fun trip.  We were constantly on the go and walked a ridiculous amount.  We did a lot of typical touristy things: Millennium Park, Navy Pier, explored the Field Museum, went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, had some drinks and dessert in the Signature Lounge at the top of the Hancock Center, did a kayaking tour downtown as well as a Riverboat tour, and we also did a flying trapeze class. 

The Field Museum which we explored on Day 3.

Day 2

Navy Pier

View from the top of the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.

Another view from the Ferris Wheel.

When we were taking this I totally didn't realize that Cody actually wanted a nice picture with this statue.  I repeatedly made a face when he was trying to take the picture and when he got mad at me I realized he was serious about wanting the picture. Oops.  I still like this one best : )

In front of the Hancock Center. 

Looking down from the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock building. 

The food we ate was all delicious while on our trip! I don't think we ate anything that we didn't really enjoy. Of course we had to try a real deep dish pizza, Chicago style hot dogs, had some surprisingly good barbecue the first afternoon we were there, ate an amazing breakfast a place called Yolk, The Girl and the Goat, and our last night we ate dinner with Cody's cousin Trevor and his girlfriend Hannah at the Gage. 

Cubs game!

I cannot explain to you how excited Cody was for the Cubs game at Wrigley Field! He said it was a sports bucket list item for him. He was beyond thrilled and really enjoyed the game, and even though the Cubs lost he said that was sort of fitting for the experience.

Chicago style hot dogs before the baseball game.

We sat in the bleacher seats which was a pretty rowdy section. It kept the game very entertaining to say the least.

Day 3

Started the day with a massive and delicious breakfast at Yolk.

 Field Museum

We spent the morning exploring the Field Museum.

Being in a busy city is such a different way of living than what we know.  I love the public transportation and sort of had fun riding on the train and subway.  I'm sure the novelty would wear off pretty quickly if I actually lived somewhere like that, but for visiting and exploring it's different and neat.

Trapeze class!

I loved the flying trapeze class! It was something really different and fun. 

Sam's turn doing a practice run.

Cody's turn doing a practice run.

Sam's turn doing the catch.

Cody's turn doing the catch. 

Our fancy dinner night ended up being delicious and amazing food. (I was surprised because I thought it'd be 'too fancy' for me and expected to hardly eat and hate it.) We ate at the Girl and the Goat.

Overall the trip was awesome.  Even the weather was great which sort of surprised us.  The whole time leading up to the trip the forecast was rain and possible storms for almost every day.  Thankfully that wasn't the case at all.  It was gorgeous when we arrived and didn't rain at all until our last day on Friday and then it was only in the afternoon. 

Day 4

River kayaking tour

Riverboat tour

The rain finally decided to come on our trip halfway through the Riverboat city tour.

Pulled out the rain coats and umbrella but still happy - actually Cody was happy, I was FREEZING.

And it didn't just rain, it poured. We were soaked. Did I say I was already freezing?

Since we were already soaked from the riverboat tour we decided to go ahead and stop by Cloud Gate one more time even in the rain.

Had to stop by the Bean one more time even in the rain. Since we were already soaked it was kinda fun just walking in the rain.

We finished off our last night in Chicago with dinner at The Gage with Cody's cousin Trevor and his girlfriend Hannah. We enjoyed hanging out and some great food!

It's definitely good to take a small break and focus on each other without the distraction of our tiny person every now and then.  Hopefully next time Cody and I are ready to do a baby-free vacation I will be able to remember how well this went and not stress too much about leaving Owen for a few days.

Day 5

(really just a travel day)

Goodbye Chicago.  Sad to leave but also glad to return home.

I missed this face!

Our precious silly baby : )