Vacations and such

I'm back!  All rejuvenated slightly worn out from our fun family vacation to Chicago.  We decided to road trip it there as it is only about 11 hours from where we live.  I've done long road trips before, but traveling with a toddler and an 8 month old is a totally different beast.  I was slightly terrified of how this trip would turn out, especially since we haven't been brave enough to even take baby Beanut overnight anywhere yet, let alone 11 hours away for multiple nights.  Because there is much to recap, but little motivation to write a novel, I will offer a small synopsis below:

Saturday
-Loaded the mini-van and hit the road by 730am.  Traveling with children means bringing ridiculous amounts of stuff.  The van was FULL.
-Got to the Twin Cities late in the morning and spent the afternoon visiting my friends Rachel and Amy &Ben, and their kiddos.  It was awesome :)
-Went to Mall of America in the evening.  Max got to see Spongebob and I got to eat delicious gelato.

-Stayed at Mariott.  It has a sweet fitness room.  So sweet, in fact, that I actually used the fitness room for once (I always think I'm going to workout on vacation, but never follow through).  Ran 2 miles that night (ended up being the only workout of the trip).

Sunday
-AMAZING breakfast buffet at the Mariott.  AND they brew Starbucks.  YUM.
-drove ALL DAY to Chicago.  Road trip included a few Starbucks/Caribou pitstops and a stop at the "Mousehouse Cheesehouse" somewhere in the middle of Wisconsin.  I have a deep, special love for cheese.  If I could marry cheese, I would.
-Kids were angels during the long drive.  whew.
-Driving in Chicago is intense.  I got all confused and nervous at the toll booths and managed to drive through one.  I'm not doing this story justice, but just trust me that it was a stressful experience for me. 
-Checked into our hotel in a suburb of Chicago.  A nice two room suite that allowed the kiddos to have their own sleeping space.  The room had a fridge and microwave.  We brought our own Keurig.  I don't mess around with crappy hotel room coffee. gag.
-Pizza delivered and relaxed in the hotel for the night.

Monday
-HOT HOT HOTNESS.  So humid.  So hot. 
-When it's that hot out, it's a really great idea to make your first Chicago activity walking around Lincoln Park Zoo.  It was an awesome zoo, but the heat was pretty terrible.

-Lunch was at "The Wieners Circle."  It's featured on  one of those food network or travel channel shows.  We actually went there not remembering that until another customer came in and started talking about it.  My first Chicago Style Hot dog.  It was good...but tomatoes on a hot dog is a little weird.

-Next up was the Shedd Aquarium.  SO awesome!  We just got the cheap general admission tickets, knowing that one of the kids was bound to meltdown if we spent the big money on the VIP tix.  Definitely a place I would go to again.

-left downtown before rush hour...except it seems that it's ALWAYS rush hour there. 
-Hotel for a bit, then to a big mall in suburbia for dinner at Red Robin and a little shopping.

Tuesday
-more driving intenseness
-Sears Tower (I can never remember what the new name is).  Holy Freaking Scary.  And awesome.  Scary awesome.  We did the stand on the ledge thingy...and even though I KNOW it's not going to fall off the side of the building, it's still terrifying.  Quick photo op (while I had tears in my eyes and Jay was nearly passing out) and then we quickly headed to "safety."  :)

-Next up was our quest to see the giant reflective bean thingy.  I think it's called Cloud Gate.  It's located at Millenium park... a good mile and a half walk from Sears tower.  another HOT day, so I started getting a little cranky, but it was worth seeing the bean.  It was pretty cool.

-Dinner was in the 'burbs at a pizza place (can't remember the name...but it was apparently ranked the #5 restaurant in all of Shaumburg, IL...lol).  My first experience with Chicago Style pizza.  It was good, but what's up with the sauce on top and the cheese on the bottom?  Plus I'm not much of a deep dish pizza kinda gal, so it wasn't my favorite food ever... but glad I got to experience it.
-Went to Target after dinner.  In a city that felt unfamiliar, Target always has a way of making you feel at home.  Target is the same no matter where you are.

Wednesday
-Packed up and checked out of the hotel.
-back to the city to go to Navy Pier.

-STILL HOT.  I melted.  Went on the giant scary ferris wheel.  Max loved it... Jay and I were scared.
-After Navy Pier we headed to the beach.  It was an awesome beach!  Lake Michigan is beautiful and it felt great to cool off.  Bea is a little fish and she loves the water.  We had a blast.

-back to the car by 3pm, hoping to beat traffic..... TWO hours later... 15 miles traveled and we were finally out of the city. 
-Drove to Mpls.. pulled in around 1:30am.  Luckily the kiddos were great again during the long drive!

Thursday
-went to IKEA.  Ate Swedish meatballs as is customary whenever we stop there.  Max pooped his pants while he was in the ball pit at the children's play area.  Potty training on vacation lends itself to a situation such as that.
-Albertville Outlet Mall.  The usual fun. 
-Hit the road.  Home around 7pm.

All in all, it was a great vacation!  I envisioned chaos and crabbiness trying to navigate a huge, busy city in the heat with 2 kids, but the moments of crabbiness were rare.  Lots of fun spending time with my hubby and the dynamic duo :)

I think one of my favorite things about the vacation if I have to be honest was the road trip aspect.  This girl LOVES road trips.  I would take driving over any other form of transportation if given a choice.  I love the freedom to stop wherever you want, listen to music, sing loudly, look at scenery, have lots of laughs, and eat lots of snacks.  And I love when everybody in the car (besides myself of course, because I'm driving) falls asleep and it's just me, music, and my crazy brain.  While we were driving back from Chicago late at night, I was thinking about my love for road trips and came up with this list:

Universal Rules of the Road Trip
1.  I will always pack Diet Coke in the cooler as a cost saving measure
2.  I will rarely drink that Diet Coke, instead spending $$ on energy drinks or coffee at Starbucks
3. I always drive.  If, for some reason, Jay relegates me to the passenger seat, I will complain about carsickness until I am given back the driving privilege.
4.  Combos and Cheese Doritos are a road trip delicacy.  I rarely purchase these items normally, but they just seem necessary on a road trip.
5.  I know I'm not the only one who drives through certain cities and turns the name of the city into a song lyric or something dirty. 
6.  I have favorite rest stops.  I also have favorite truck stops (I'm talkin to you, Nelson Bros in Clearwater, MN).
7.  I become the best singer in the world while on a road trip.  You'd seriously mistake me for...someone who is a really good singer.
8.  Sometimes your iPod dies and you are forced to listen to regular radio.  Immediately upon finding a station that is playing a halfway decent song, the signal will fade, forcing you to hit the seek button a few hundred more times.
9.  Inevitably during any road trip you will find a station airing Delilah or the John Tesh Radio Show.  You will try to play it cool and pretend you're not excited....but you totally are. 
10.  I am annoyed by a semi truck at least once every 10 minutes.


This blog took me 2 days to write because I kept getting distracted!  Going to start training for my next half marathon next week- so excited!  More on that in my next post :)