so bryan had a hellish march at work, meaning i had a hellish month at home, so we decided since he had 9 days off in the middle of april, to take a little road trip. i was thinking big at first, itching to go to new york city... wow, am i glad we didn't do that! a few people suggested branson/lake of the ozarks, but i wanted to go a little bigger... so we landed on chicago. a short days' drive north, we would just go up for the weekend- it'd be fun! well, the chicago part was really fun... the drive, however, was NOT. AT. ALL. but as we've had to do several times since liam and finn were born, this was a lesson to be learned, and we all survived... it was touch and go there for awhile, though : )...
so because the weather was going to be nice on friday and saturday, but not sunday, we decided to go on thursday and come back sunday- this was after my first shift back at work after 4 months of maternity leave- i know, this was our first mistake. and bryan might say differently, but i think i did pretty well given the situation... : ) the situation being that the boys don't really like to be in the car past about 2 hours... and by the end of the day, it was about 20 minutes after we'd put them back in that they'd lose it. long story short, a normally 8 1/2 hour drive took 12 hours on the way there and 12 1/2 on the way back, despite leaving an hour and a half earlier. ????? we'd stop at gas stations, some a lot more questionable than others, hope for hot water to heat the bottles up, getting lucky at some, not so at others, which meant liam not eating his and finn taking an hour to get his down... unfortunately, they didn't sleep for too long in their carseats, either... and in our element, there's no seat between the two carseats, so i couldn't sit back there with them to entertain... this was when i was wishing i was one of those moms that was okay with drugging my kids just to get some peace and quiet.
once we finally made it to chicago, we were so grateful that we had spent a little extra money on a nice hotel- valet service?!?! that was so great, except i'd probably gotten about an hour and a half of broken-up sleep, so i looked like hell, the car looked like hell, and finn was screaming bloody murder in the backseat- SOOO embarrassing- but hey, the dude got a great tip! : ) looked like we were moving in, but just staying for the weekend- our bell-boy said he'd seen much more stuff- i think he said that just to make me feel better : )... well, the little guys were so exhausted that they were fed at 10 and didn't wake up until 4!!!!! that was absolutely wonderful. so we woke up rested (somewhat) and ready to have a fun day in chicago!! our plans for the weekend were to visit the shedd aquarium, the sears tower, the shops on michigan avenue, and the chicago museum of science and industry. well, i blame the line at the shedd aquarium, which was our first visit- 1 1/2 hours wait! couldn't do that with the babies, so our grand plan was kinda shot... we ended up buying tickets online for the next day, but the combination of that happening and having to go back to the hotel to feed the babies/pump made us realize that we weren't going to accomplish what we'd hoped. another lesson- plans made with babies rarely turn out as expected! this was okay, though, it was supposed to be somewhat relaxing, too! we did do the aquarium the next day (saturday), which was a lot of fun- the babies did great in their carriers- looking all around at all the bright colors... we ended up walking up and down the magnificent mile and enjoying some yummy giardano's pizza... we alternated the stroller and the carriers when we needed to take the subway- worked out well that we didn't ever need our car, for which i'm sure the babies were thankful.
the drive home is still a little raw for me to go into lots of detail, but again, it was never-ending, they shut down I-70!, so we had to take a detour, the babies hated being confined, it was raining at almost every stop we made, making it really hard to change the babies without getting soaked, etcera, etcera... we finally got home at around 9, fed the babies, and i was rocking liam to sleep after his whole bottle- which then ALL came right back up- ALL OVER ME. i felt the need to document it, so i'm sorry to have that be the last picture of the post, but i'm sure all of you moms will appreciate it...
all in all, we're glad we did it, because we needed to get out of the house for a bit- and like i said before, we just learned that we need a bigger car so one of us can be back there to entertain! here are a few pics from the journey- enjoy!!! : )
we're gonna need a bigger boat...
after working my first shift back after maternity leave... SO excited!!
and just a tad delirious
he thinks this is going to be fun...
he, however, knows it will not
i took their socks off because i thought they might be crying because they were too hot-
this worked for about 2 1/2 minutes...
our makeshift feeding stations...
finally, we arrive at our hotel!! the beverly hillbillies are here! : )
seriously, the nicest hotel we've ever stayed in
ready for a fun day in chicago
liam helping daddy figure out where to go
waiting for our train
exploring at the shedd aquarium
all i wanted to do was find the characters of finding nemo: crush
dory
and of course, marlin and nemo
the very model of a modern major general
we got these cheesy hats because liam had gotten a little sunburnt the previous day : (
they didn't quite fit
enjoying hot dogs and the view on the lawn in front of the aquarium
what a way to end the trip
and after all this, i discover that tiff and dan were in chicago AT THE SAME TIME!?!?!?!??! i still really don't want to talk about it... : )
