{Bitter}Sweet Home Chicago

We had to go to Chicago last weekend to put my Grandma to rest. To say it was a bittersweet weekend would be an understatement.

We did not tell the kids about the trip until the morning we flew out.

 

Yeah, they were a touch excited. I'm pretty sure they talked the entire way to the airport and I would know because I was stuck between them.

I'm really lucky to have such good travelers. They are champs at the airport and on the plane. The only disagreement my Jilly and I had was over this woman's boots:

Jill thought they were prettiful and I was wondering how she got through security with them. In the end we agreed to disagree on the footwear.

Like I said, the kids are great on the plane. Aaron flies like me, meaning he does not do well during take-off and landing. Jill flies like her father and isn't phased by any of it.

My Dad picked us up and we immediately had to bundle. I believe it was 30 degrees when we landed. It was almost 80 in Florida. Nothing like a shock to the system, right?

I think one of my favorite moments from the weekend had to be when the kids helped my Mom make her famous Texas sheet cake. Watching the three of them reminded me so much of baking with my Grandma. I hope they cherish this memory as much as I do.

 I was able to head over by my niece, Lorren, to get a facial (finally!). She's an esthetician at a local spa and does fabulous work! After my facial we met the rest of the family at this great place called Gabe's for fish.

The best part of the whole weekend was being around all of my family. All six of us kids have not been together in years, so it was nice to all be in the same room, and to be perfectly honest, be in the same room and not want to strangle one another.

The kids loved being with their aunts, uncles and cousins the whole weekend.

The whole reason we made the trip, like I mentioned, was to lay my Grandma to rest.  The services both at the cemetery and in the church were beautiful. I want to give a shout out to my office for sending these beautiful flowers to the church. 

My cousin Becky sang Ave Maria during the ceremony, which was absolutely incredible. Not only did she give us that gift, she also sent all of these yummy goodies home with us.

Those things that look like golf balls? Yeah, those are truffles.

My Godmother also sent over her famous cinnamon rolls that we were able to have for breakfast. 

Sunday night we hung out with my sister, niece and her boyfriend. All of the kiddos had a good time, as you can see:

We also found out on Sunday that a storm hit our town and destroyed our fence (and the majority of the neighborhood). 

I'm so glad we were not home and that the damage was not that bad in the grand scheme of things. 

Monday morning we woke up to snow, which the kids have only seen once when they were 6 months. To say they were excited would be an understatement.

We had big plans to go to the Museum of Science and Industry with my sister. The kids went the last time we were in Chicago and loved it. 

We were able to see the U-boat this time (something we missed the last trip).

We also saw the space stuff:

Check out astronaut Jill and astronaut Aaron:

We also visited some of the exhibits we saw on our last trip:

Even our favorite donkey, Zeph, was there!

The kids had a total blast at the museum again. 

After the museum we went with my Mom to the Bier Stub for dinner. This place was so delicious and will probably never allow us to eat there again. 

We may or may not have had huge beers during dinner.

The whole trip was fantastic and bittersweet. I wish we all would have been together for a different reason, but I'm glad we were all together. Grandma would have been so proud to see us all there.

Sweet Home Chicago

We made if back yesterday from our vacation in Chicago, hence the lack of posts. Since a lot went on I'm going to have to break it all up into different posts, so let's start with last Wednesday.

I ended up flying up alone with the kids since Scott was scheduled mandatory overtime. To be honest I pretty much sat and cried when I found this out. There was not one ounce of me looking forward to the 2 hour and 15 minute flight by myself with the kids. The last time we flew with them they were 6 months, so it's pretty hard to gauge what they are going to act like. Scott was able to get an escort pass though and it was a huge help at the airport, especially trying to get through security.

We had an early flight (6:30, sounded awesome at the time) so I was pretty sure the kids would sleep the flight up, or at least one would. They were really excited when we told them we were going on an airplane, and were even more excited when they saw their "pack packs" by the door. Security and everything was a breeze thanks to Scott, seriously I don't know how I would have gotten all of our crap through security without an extra set of hands.



The kids really got excited when they saw the airplane, they could not wait to get on, and honestly didn't even notice Scott left, at first. Once we started to pull away from the gate Aaron asked where Daddy was.

After take off I was able to pull out my secret weapons, the portable DVD players. I found headphones for them on Amazon that are kid sized, and they were perfect! Aaron wanted nothing to do with them, but Jill loved them. Aaron also fell asleep within the first half hour, so it didn't matter if he liked the headphones or not. I was honestly impressed with how smooth everything went on the flight, they were amazing!


My parents also got escort passes and met me at the gate to help out, it was awesome. After the airport we headed to a great local restaurant for breakfast and met up with my niece Lorren, or as Aaron called her, The Ren. It was soooooo good and I honestly cannot tell you the last time I had that big of a breakfast.

More to come on our adventure later.....