Chicago

About two weeks ago I went on a trip to Chicago for work.  Craig and I had discussed him coming up, but never made final plans.  So I headed up to do my work trip and planned to head home on Thursday.  On Wednesday night before I came back, Craig decided he did want to come up to Chicago.  Being the outdoors man he is, there was a paintball game about an hour outside of Chicago that he wanted to play at.  I gave in and thought it might be fun for Lincoln and I too.

They arrived Thursday night late.  Craig said Lincoln did great on the plane, but could tell he was stressed from packing and getting ready for a last minute trip.  I will have to say, if you want to motivate Craig, paintball or golf must be involved, haha.  I don't know that I love anything enough to be brave enough to pack up a two year old last minute and get them on a plane, haha.  But he made it fine and I am very proud of him that he was able to handle all the packing and planning by himself.

Friday we headed to Sheeds Aquarium.  It is a famous one from what I hear.  Here is Craig with Lincoln in front of the lake and the Chicago skyline.

Here they are in front of the aquarium.

They had tons of fish, of course, but a lot where fresh water and that was cool.

Me and my baby or babies!

They had a fun kids explore area.

He loved the slide.  He spent like 20 minutes here.

There was a fun tent to play in.  He did, of course, knock it over.

After Sheed's, we headed up to Joliet, which is where Craig was going to play paintball on Saturday.  Just to state, since being in Chicago I had already eaten pizza twice.  But Craig wanted a real deep dish pizza, so we had it again for dinner, haha.  You can never get too much clogged arteries, right?

Saturday, Craig went off to play paintball.  For me the day started off rough.  Let me say, it is hard to entertain a 2 year old in a hotel.  I quickly had to find us something to do.  I found a zoo about 40 miles back towards Chicago and decided that would be our best bet.

We headed out there about 10:30 and it was already packed.  I think this zoo was bigger than ours, and also another famous spot.  Very expensive, but it was more like an amusement park than a zoo.

Since we did not have a stroller, I did all things possible to where I was not having to carry him.  We rode the carousel.

And the tram

All day long. 

Linc wanted me to hold him the whole time, so those were my best options.  Unfortunately that meant that I did not see a lot of the animals, but that is ok.  We did see these camels.

And this bison.  Also some monkeys and otters.

Lincoln loved the children's area.  They had so many ducks, and he just loves ducks.  He also got to pet a goat, fun.

By the end of the day I was ready for Craig to come home!  It was a long day in the hot sun, but I am glad we got to see these things.

Our last day, Sunday, we decided to head back into Chicago and hit the Hersey's store and a famous hot dog stand, Superdawg.  It was way great.  And Lincoln did great on the flight back home.  So it was a successful flight and trip with two children, haha.  I guess it does not count if one is in the belly and has no say what you do.