Chicago 2012/13

Ryan has been begging to go to the Lego store in Chicago, and when my sister Amy mentioned maybe going over New Year's, we jumped on the idea.  Thanks to Gram and Papa and Uncle Patrick and Aunt Crystal, we left little Emmie home and hit the big city without baby!  We usually cab it around Chicago, but this time we bought bus passes, and the kids thought it was pretty cool to ride the city buses.  It always amazes me what they are impressed by!

Fortunately, Aunt Amy is WAY more familiar with Chicago public transit than we are, since she spent considerable time in the city working on her CPA continuing education classes.  Glad she's here, because I am for SURE not smarter than my smartphone, and never did figure out the app that shows which bus takes you where our entire trip!

Julia thinks making her own pizza at a little brewery across the street from our hotel is pretty awesome.
Next we head to American Girl for Juls!
Note to self: put her to work for dinnertime at home more often! =)

We spent New Year's Eve wandering around the 
Museum of Science and Industry...possibly my favorite museum EVER!
Of course, we couldn't come to Chicago and NOT have Giordanos Pizza, so we
headed here after the museum closed.

It was SO COLD, so we didn't actually ring in the new year at Millenium Park,
but we did  have a little pre-midnight fun here!

As with any trip, one of the kids highlights is always the hotel pool.  This Hilton's murky water was a little nasty, but they didn't seem to mind one bit. (Ewww!).  They loved playing with their friends who made the treck with us: Andrew and Jake McKey, and Cooper and Jackson Scharff!

HAPPY 2013!