We love living so close to a big city. Actually, two big cities, but we tend to favor Chicago. On Saturday we surprised the kids with a trip down to Chicago. We took the train out of Waukegan. It was the first train ride to Chicago for all three of our kids. They seemed to enjoy it on the way there, but on the way back we were all exhausted and just ready to be at home.
Chicago was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect. The city was packed! But everyone was in great holiday spirits. Ethan wasn't so sure of the big crowds at first. He became pretty upset and made it very well known that he wanted to go home. Thankfully, some delicious food from Rock Bottom Brewery seemed to calm him down and prepare him to head back out on to the congested streets.
We did some touring around, took lots of pictures, and watched the parade. Radio Disney was at the parade so we heard some live performances and got to see a couple Disney celebrities. The kids thought that was pretty cool!
After the parade there was an amazing display of fireworks. They were LOUD. The noise bounced from building to building. Ethan and Carter watched with pure amazement. Ethan didn't even care that his hat was falling off of his head...
On the way back to the train station, Mariah and I ran in to one of the many Starbucks and grabbed some warm drinks and a couple snacks for Cory and the boys. I love Starbucks.... What a great way to end a perfect family day.
Ethan slept on the train ride home. We were hoping that Carter would do the same, but he decided to sing loudly in a horrible crying type of way... I bounced him, rocked him, and did everything I could to keep him quiet so the other passengers wouldn't get upset. I even resorted to feeding him cookies at 10:30 at night... I was going for anything that would work.
We got home a little before midnight and put the kids to bed. We thought for sure they would sleep in, but by 7am the next morning they were all wide awake. So much for catching up on sleep, but it was worth it!
I love family adventures!
How fun! Those kinds of trips are exhausting but so fun too. Your kids will remember those memories.
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