Chicago Trip

The kids and I just returned from a quick trip to Chicago. Kind of a last hurrah before school starts. They each brought a friend which worked out great. We started with a visit to the waterpark in Merrillville and although it rained off and on throughout the day we still had a blast! I enjoyed tubing on the lazy river while the kids braved the wild rides. Once Blake's friend Taylor started turning blue from being cold we decided it was time to head to Chicago.

With Ashley navigating we arrived safely at our hotel. After checking in we proceeded to walk to Navy Pier which was a little farther than we thought, but we made it. The sights and sounds were fun, we especially enjoyed the view of the Chicago Skyline.

From here we took a taxi to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

Then we took another taxi to see the Blue Man group. Scott and I saw them when we went to Las Vegas this last spring and knew we had to take the kids. It was an awesome show! The kids loved it. If you haven't seen the show, it's hard to describe what it's like. It's wild, crazy, loud, and interactive with the audience. I was lucky enough to get this picture of Blake with one of the Blue Men.

We went back to the hotel and crashed, we were exhausted! Unfortunately Mother Nature didn't want us to sleep and unleashed an incredible lightning storm. The sound of thunder echoing off all the skyscrapers was weird. Luckily we didn't know until the next day that funnel clouds were spotted in downtown Chicago.

Bright and early we checked out and drove to the Shedd Aquarium. The beluga whales were amazing and the dolphin show was a lot of fun.

We then walked over to the Field Museum. So much to see. I loved the Egyptian exhibit. It's too bad my nephew AJ wasn't there, he would have loved the Dinosaur exhibit--he could probably be a tour guide with everything he knows about dinosaurs.

And finally we took a trolley to the Sears Tower, it was the last thing the kids wanted to definitely do before we headed home. I was a little apprehensive about being up so high, but once we got there it was great, no fear at all. It was an amazing view of Chicago, we were even above some of the clouds we were so high. I would definitely do it again.

It was a whirlwind of a trip, but so much fun.