The Windy City...

Jackson, Taffy, Alli, Teagan, Piper and Chloe at the train station.

Adam and Emily from England with Taffy on the bus.

Chloe and Pipey on the bus.

Piper, Chloe, Teagan (hidden) and Taffy on an Ambulance at the Children's Museum. 

We took the girls to Chicago for the weekend.  It was kind of a mini-vacation before school started and a birthday trip for me.  (I will ALWAYS celebrate my birthday and EXPECT to be treated like a queen!!   ;-) )  

Shane and I both have mixed emotions about the trip.  I think it was good that our girls see how people who don't have cars must rely on public transportation.  I think it was good that they saw some less fortunate areas that people live in (and we weren't even in a bad part).  I always think its good to get out of your routine and explore different places (even though I have a hard time deviating from Orlando--I love it there so much!!)  I think it was good for the girls to see that Shane and I can make mistakes and it's not the end of the world. (I'll get to that in a minute)

OK.  So we head to Chicago on Thursday and we bust a move to get there and despite our kids begging to go swimming, we decide to tackle the train/bus to get down to Navy Pier and I am so glad we did.  We met the NICEST man who worked for the CTA--Jackson.  He told us which pass to buy, which train station to get off on, which bus to take that would get us to the Navy Pier.  He was very friendly!!  So we get off at "Chicago" like we are suppose to and we see the bus stop for 66 and we run across the road and get on-like we are suppose to.  Unfortunately, it was going the WRONG WAY  (oops--our bad).  But the NICEST people on the bus told us we were going the wrong way after they heard Shane say, "Aren't these all the same places we passed on the train?"  Chloe was sooo mad at us!!  The bus stop sign we were suppose to see was hidden behind the CTA Train sign and even when we knew what was going on, we still couldn't see the sign unless we LOOKED hard for it.  OK, so finally we get down to the Navy Pier and we go to the Children's Museum because it happened to be Kraft Night which meant it was free to every one.  I'm glad we didn't have to pay, I wasn't that impressed!!  Then we rented a quadbike and take it for a little spin.  Teagan was mad because she couldn't reach the pedals and therefore couldn't help us pedal.  Half way through our ride, my pedal fell off and so Chloe and I had to trade spots so that I could help Shane pedal (it wasn't as easy as it looked!!).  Taffy wouldn't keep her helmet on(which was required).  Anyway, I didn't even get a picture it was such a fiasco!  We did take the right bus and make it home safely.  Taffy even made some new friends on the bus that were from England.  I was given inaccurate information before I booked our hotel so our trips to and from the city to our hotel took ATLEAST an hour and a half.  That sucked!!  Enough on this blog, I'll continue on the next one...-AS