The Chicago trip

Chicago, here we come! Fortunately the stomach bug that "bit me" went away the night prior to our adventure. We woke up early Monday morning to make it to South Bend to catch the South Shore train heading into Chicago with my brother and his family. Our train ride was pretty uneventful, though I was very grateful by the time that we made it to Gary, IN that we had gotten on the train when we did so that we were actually able to sit down. Leah even made a friend on the train who was on her way back home to Texas. Hopefully the girls will be great pen pals.

Our plans for the day were to make it to the Field Museum and then to the Willis Tower, followed up by dinner then back to the train. We dodged the raindrops and made it to the Field Museum first. It was AMAZING!!!!!! I can't think of a better museum for my Jake. We saw: Sue(the most complete T-Rex and was named after it's discoverer), the Mammoths, the anamatronic Dinos(the highlight of Jake's day), and watched a 3-D movie about Sue. We left the museum and headed toward the Willis Tower(formerly Sears Tower, and will always be so for me). We got there and they told us that there would be zero visibility at viewing level but we figured that the clouds were starting to lift and we'd hopefully be able to see something soon. We weren't disappointed. The kids loved walking around up there and being in the clouds. We were still able to look down and see some of the city and traffic. The highlight were the Skydecks, which are glass boxes that protrude from the tower for people to stand in.

We left the Willis Tower and headed over to Giordano's Chicago-style Pizzeria for dinner. The service was good and the pizza was excellent, though I do not advise getting the famous Chicago-style pizza when you have 6 antsy children in tow since it has a 45-minute cook-time. After dinner it was time to head for the train. Unfortunately we didn't have room to sit on the train when we boarded. There were a couple of people that were nice enough to squeeze together so that our kids could sit down if they wanted to. The crowd thinned after we got into Indiana and we were all able to relax a bit. At last, we made it back to South Bend with our exhaustion being a true indicator of our fun-filled day. That day is one that will not soon be forgotten and we're so happy to have been able to share it with family. We're thankful for them and all that they did to make our day awesome.

The trip

I haven't made any updates on here in a little while. We've been busy, busy, busy! The kids and I were fortunate enough to be able to make a trip to Indiana to visit with my family(pics to follow later). It's been an adventure, to say the least. I was very apprehensive to travel solo with our three kids, and came to find that my anxiety was justified. Our oldest two did really pretty well during the 3-1/2 hour flight, but Noah is much more mobile and super-stubborn, to top it off. The majority of our luggage were all carry-ons and I had a stroller. In my mind it was an ideal plan: take stroller, use stroller to transport 1-year-old, and utilize the back part of the stroller to transport the carry-on bags. That was a great plan, though it failed miserably. The reality: took stroller, carried 1-year-old when he decided that he absolutely was not going to ride in the stroller, had to push the stroller while carrying said 1-year-old, pushed carry-on bags in stroller until we got to security or to the plane(where I had to break down the stroller, take off shoes[at security], hold baby, carry bags, load carry-ons to conveyor belt or onto plane). That was not a great way to start a long trip; pre-exhausted. We got to Indiana after what seemed like an eternity of travel. We were so very happy to see the excited and smiling faces of family members waiting for us in the terminal. We made it to church the next day and were able to visit with many of our old friends from the South Bend Ward. It seemed as though it was just in the knick of time before most of them leave Notre Dame to pursue new ventures.

Wednesday was my birthday and we celebrated with my Dad, brother, and his family for lunch and then followed up with a trip to the park with everyone where the kids all played for quite a while. Then I finished up the day with a nice dinner back at my Mom's. Thursday was Leah's birthday and that was such a fun-filled day! We started out the day with some amazing friends and Leah was treated with a beautiful birthday cake. We are so grateful for our loving friendship with them! We then rushed over to meet my Dad at a home of one of his friends. Their home was INCREDIBLE! They had a small lake, a swimming pool, hot tub, and numerous farm animals for the kids to play with and ride on. It was sooo much fun! We then finished up the day eating dinner with my mom and made it to McDonald's for McFlurries. Nearly every day has been fun-filled and I can't wait to update when our trip is all said and done. I haven't felt well over the past few days but I'll hopefully be bounced back to enjoy the rest of our time here.