Girls Weekend Chicago Style

Since I won't be Chicago forever, I thought it would be a grand idea to have the girls in my family up for the weekend to hang out. Over the past few years, my mom, sister and I have taken trips together since we all lived in different parts of the country. Last year my cousins joined in on the fun and we made a trip out to NM to visit my great aunt and uncle. It was a lot of fun and I wanted to repeat it this year.

So for several months we planned our trip to the Windy City. I was very fortunate that I won a 2-night stay for our apartment's rental suite that we were able to use to help keep costs down. The apartment suite is really nice and comes with a ful kitchen and 1 1/2 baths. It provided just enough room for everyone. Half of the crew came up on the Mega bus and the other half drove up in my sister's car. Two kids under three would not have been a pleasant ride for the other bus passengers.

The crew arrived last Friday afternoon and after a short break we headed out to the "Mag Mile". We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory then headed over to the American Girl store. After hitting up a few more stores it was time to head back. We had plans of going up the John Hancock building but the little ones were ready to get out of the strollers.

Saturday was David's birthday, happy birthday sweetie, so we convinced everyone to join us for the mile walk to the Doughnut Vault. The special of the day was Orange Dreamsicle. Everyone thought the dounuts were good, but I don't think we convinced them that they were worth the walk or the hour we spent waiting in line. I'll tell you, these suburban folks aren't used to city life. After a delicious breakfast we walked to Old Navy for some shopping. Next we walked back home and got ready for the beach. My sister and Harper decided to skip the beach in lieu of meeting one of her friends. The rest of us enjoyed several hours of sun and sand. I will say that I was completely surprised by how much my almost 3 year niece loved the water and sand. I knew she enjoyed swimming but I thought she might be afraid of the waves. Nope.

After dragging the two girls form the beach we came back rested and showered before heading off to dinner to celebrate David's big day. The wait was longer than expected and the little girls did really well. Everyone enjoyed dinner especially our little "piggy" Mak. She ate two whole pieces of deep dish pizza. We then celebrated with ice cream cake for dessert.

Now what happend during the middle of the night I did not find out about until the next morning. Little Piggy got sick overnight and the everyone else spent hours cleaning up the aftermath. We were still cleaning up the apartment the next day. Needless to say when I came up around 8:00 ish everyone was still in bed. Several hours later when everyone was up we headed off to the Zoo. For those of you who frequent the STL Zoo this one pales in comparison, but we had a good time.

After a couple hours it was time to head back and regroup. We decided we needed a sugar fix and visit More Cupcakes. Then we headed to the Rain Forest cafe for some shopping. By this time we were all ready to head back and rest before dinner.

My sister and I were both super excited for our dinner plans at Flat Top Grill. David is not a fan, so I never go. We decided to walk because we didn't want to worry about parking two vehicles, but I don't think we anticipated how far it actually was. We made it however and enjoyed a delicious dinner.

We had a great weekend overall and I was sad to see them all leave Monday morning, but I'll be home next weekend for my baby shower and see everyone again.