Fun with family & friends/Chicago Part V

Our Chicago trip was coming to a close. Christmas was over, the hoopla was (almost) over, and things were finally starting to settle down. Well, not exactly. Sunday, we decided to add a little more excitement into our lives. We drove back down to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe's to spend the day. Miranda, Jay, and the girls decided to take a trip in since it was the only time we were able to see them this trip. Plus, none of my family had met the twins yet, so it was the perfect opportunity! The Bears game was set for noon, so we made it a football shindig like we are famous for!

Sassy had so much fun playing dress-up with Miranda's two oldest girls. I'm going have to come up with some nicknames for them- TBA. I think the twins will be, in dearest terms, Thing 1 and Thing 2 (I do ♥ me some Dr. Seuss). Anyway, Sassy & the elders had a swinging good time. We even got all 6 girls together for some pictures. Here's the closest I could find to any feeling of semblance:

Sunday night, we attempted to watch Mama Mia and crashed pretty early. Well, ok, I crashed about 22 minutes into the movie. Unfortunately, Little A did NOT sleep well while her daddy was gone- I think she could tell. So, needless to say, I was exhausted. Monday, Kait, the girls, & I met Kelli for lunch at another Chicago fav- Flat Top Grill. It's similar to BD's Mongolian BBQ or HuHot with the addition of something spectacular- roti bread. It is honestly a blessing that I could never come close to making it at home because I would definitely weigh an additional 100 pounds. Yum! Something about those grill places really appeals to me.

Anyway, after lunch, Kait and I took Sassy and Little A to see The Tale of Despereaux. I found it to be really cute. Sassy liked it a lot. All she could tell anybody afterwards was that she "saw mouses" and "ate popcown, too"! We had some Christmas leftovers for dinner, and I was off to pick up Ty at O'Hare. His flight got in on time, and we had no travel problems... what a concept!

Tuesday morning, we played a few rousing rounds of Wii Fit and headed to Evanston so that my dad could show the girls off to his co-workers. Sassy kept asking when we were going to go see Graycop at work, so she was super excited to finally go. Everyone at Lemoi thought they were the best things since sliced bread, so I was glad, for my dad's sake, that we made the trip. Bonus- Gigio's Pizza. Nothing like looking forward to supposed "New York Style" pizza in the Chicago metro, but hey... something about those big, cheesy slices (God, am I a foodie, or what?? Only when I'm home, I swear!)...

Our trip wrapped up with my inescapable trip to see Nikki at NUTS for a haircut and highlights, some of Uncle rick's world-famous chili, a decent night's sleep, and a smooth flight home Wednesday (Happy New Years Eve)!

Snow, Ice, & Rain/Chicago Part IV

Tyler had a flight out of O'Hare at 6 a.m. the day after Christmas. When we went to bed Christmas night, the weather was perfectly normal. Being the nice guy that he is, Uncle Joe offered to get up early and take Ty to the airport so that I didn't have to mess with the girls that early. Well, it's a good thing that was the plan because I don't think I could have gotten either one of us there alive. The ice started coming, and by the time I woke up Friday morning, it was all over the news that Chicago was experiencing the worst driving conditions in 10+ years. There was black ice everywhere, cars in ditches, cars slipping and sliding around like it was a video game.

Uncle Joe had delivered Tyler to the airport and thankfully arrived home safely. They were telling people not to use the roads unless it was an absolute emergency. Many roads just shut down completely. Needless to say, O'Hare was not functioning on schedule. Tyler called at 7:30 and they were still on the runway. They didn't end up taking off until after 9:30, and he missed his connection in Charlotte. For a while there, it looked like there was NO WAY he was going to make his cruise. He ran to the next flight, and they basically shut the door in his face and told him he was too late. He was on standby for the following flight, which wasn't scheduled to arrive in Miami until 15 minutes after the ship stopped boarding. Man, he was cranky. Well, luck must have been on his side (or divine intervention) because he made it on his ship.

I was supposed to drive up to my mom's and had a hair appointment scheduled, but I had to cancel because there was no way I was dealing with those driving conditions with the kiddos. So, Kait and I played Wii fit and watched a Say Yes to the Dress marathon. Fun times.

Saturday, it reached 62 degrees. I loaded up the kids and drove up to my parents house. So, here's the situation- you've got 3+ feet of snow melting like mad, plus some crazy rain to top it off. Can we say flash flooding? What a mess. The Des Plaines river was at road level and Riverside was evacuating. Eck. It was so funny because as soon as we pulled up into my parent's driveway, Sassy asked where her snowman was. I told her that it was too warm so he and the dog went up to the North Pole to live with Santa. She promptly informed me that he "left his hat and gwoves". I decided not to tell her that if she looked closely, he left his arms, too...

Anyway, I took my mom and Little A to the mall while Sassy got some one-on-one time with Graycop. We took advantage of some after-Christmas sales and braved the crazy crowds. Once we returned home, we enjoyed one of my Chicago favs- Lou Malnati's. To me, LM's is other-worldly. Divine. Mmmmm.....

Chicago Trip Part III/Christmas Part XIII

Oh Christmas Day, Oh Christmas Day... it finally arrived! Sassy was so excited to spring out of bead and run down the stairs to see if Santa and the reindeer enjoyed their midnight snacks (which, of course, they did). Nana, Graycop, and Uncle Rick helped Sassy and Little A open gifts, and we enjoyed two of our favorite Chicago breakfast treats- Swedish Flop and Irish Soda Bread from Jewel (my mouth waters at the thought of these lovely morsels)...

Sassy was very excited about her new princess barbies and her dress-up shoes. She was also quite fond of Little A's new rattles and board books. We hurried to get ready for Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe's house. Once we arrived there, we got some very exciting news... my cousin Kelli has a fiance now! Kelli and Randy are very, very happy and I am personally so excited for them and grateful that she found such a great guy who is truly a perfect fit for our family!

We did our homemade gift exchange among the adults- I thought it turned out really well. My cousin, Mike, wrote the most beautiful story about family and framed it in various artistic ways for each couple. He housed his story next to three open picture slots in a frame for us, which is just perfect! We got painted wine glasses from Kaitlin, a personal letter to each of us from my aunt, pine cone Christmas ornaments from my mom, yummy Scotch shortbread form Uncle Rick, and a photo Christmas ornament from Kelli & Randy. Sassy and Little A raked in the gifts, of course. It took an expandable duffel bag to fly them all home. Sassy received a beautiful Cinderella dress, shoes, and tiara, so she spent most of the rest of the trip home as her alter ego.

We had a great dinner and a champagne toast later in the afternoon. Years ago, Uncle Joe started grilling beef tenderloin along with our traditional ham, and it has become a new tradition that I always look forward to. Also, we always have pierogies with Christmas dinner, and they are just fantastic. SO much better than the frozen ones you can buy at the grocery store.

Oh, yeah, I fibbed in my last post. Now why would I leave you all out of the girls returning home to tear into their Santa gifts. Christmas Part XIV will exist after all. But, first, you will have to hear about the rest of our Chicago trip. More to come...

Chicago Trip Part II/Christmas Part XII

After a nice, long rest Tuesday night, we awoke to the reality that it was Christmas Eve... already! Ty took Sassy outside straightaway to take advantage of the snow. They built a snowman in no time, and then, at Sassy's request, a snowdog took shape as well. They even went on the property behind my parents house to find some genuine snowman arms. Their creation turned out very cute.

Later, Ty and I took a trip up to Gurnee to buy the thing so we could make our homemade Christmas gifts for everyone- bags of puppy chow with angel ornament tie-ons. We also made a hellacious stab at Gurnee Mills on Christmas Eve in search of mammoth Crocs for my mom, from my dad and uncle. Way to wait 'til the last minute, boys. That place was a nightmare, but we managed to get what we needed and head home.

My family goes out to eat every year on Christmas Eve. We usually go to a fancy, dressy steak house, but in the spirit of scaling back, we were dead set on some Mexican food. I kept asking my mom if she had called to check their hours, and she kept reassuring me it would be fine. I bet you can see where this story is heading... Needless to say, our restaurant of choice closed at 2 pm, so we ended up meeting my dad at Lonestar, instead. It was tasty, Sassy and Little A were behaved, all was well.

We returned home to get the girls in their new Christmas jammies, make puppy chow and angel ornaments, and bake cookies for Santa. Sassy was very excited about this- she made sure she left plenty for Santa, and we had to leave carrots for the reindeer, too. She was pretty anxious to go to bed so that Santa could visit, and we turned in for the night soon after.

At last, only one more Christmas entry to come!

Chicago Trip, Part I

Have you ever started a travel adventure so excited, you can't hardly wait... only to wish you were curled up in your own bed with a warm blanket, a good book, and a big glass of wine? Well, that explains exactly how I felt on the day we were scheduled to fly into Chicago.

Things went without a hitch for the first part of the day. Sassy went off to preschool, and Tyler and I scrambled to pack our last minute items and get the house in order before we left (yeah... right). We knew the weather in Chicago was questionable. There had been delays at O'Hare all morning and we kept checking our flight status. When it came time to head to the airport, we picked up Lynzee (our ride) and picked up the girls from preschool. We planned a very quick lunch, but sure enough, I received a text message that our flight had been delayed 70 minutes, so we made a pit stop at Red Robin for some juicy burgers.

When we arrived at the airport, the AA line was insane!!! I ran in to check the status of our flight before we unloaded the contents of our life... I mean suitcases... onto the curb. The information booth guy told me that I would have to wait in line to speak to an AA agent to get updated flight information. Thanks, info booth guy...

By the time we got inside, checked our luggage, and made it through security with 2 kids, 2 car seats, a stroller, 3 carry-ons, and a purse, I was ready for a nap. Why hasn't someone thought of a security "vat" that you can just enter, as a whole family unit, and never have to disrobe, de-shoe, disassemble baby gear, etc. I mean, really... the process is a nightmare in itself. We trekked down to our gate (which, coincidentally, always seems to be the very last gate in the terminal, regardless of flight or airport, day or time) and got settled in.

Mind you, I purposely planned our flight during nap time in hopes the the kiddos would sleep like little angels in-flight. Well, my little angels were growing little stumps for horns due to our 70 minute delay. And, our 70 minute delay turned into a 5+ hour delay. The girls did both end up falling asleep in their respective car seats (YEAH). However, the airport's best offering for food was a stale "Great" American Bagel (BOO).

Oh, and did I mention that Little A had one of her famous blow-out diaper fiascoes? After a quick bath in the airport sink and a disposal of one more cute outfit into the trash (far better than the alternative), we had really had it!

After a very long wait, numerous ground holds in Chicago, and being told it was time to board several times only to be told otherwise **just** after we had managed to pack up every little thing strewn about the gate entrance in a panicked frenzy and pack our gear under each arm in feeble attempts to move in a forward direction like blithering idiots, we arrived at O'Hare at 10 pm. Fun times, I tell you.

Of course, we had to arrive prior to 6 o'clock to obtain our rental car, so we missed that boat by several hours. We ended up hailing a limo, which was better in the long run, because we were exhausted and the roads were a tumultuous mess of ice and snow. Thanks, limo-driver-man, for getting us home in one piece. We appreciate it. And, that concluded day one of our awesome trip home!

Little A and Daddy "all-smiles" during our airport delay!

Sassy fast asleep in her car-seat, among our junk that was everywhere!

Tyler showing off the bitter Chicago cold by "seeing his breath"

To Nana's House We Go...

---SANITY--- This is why you do not tell a 2-year-old any plans of what is to come ahead of time. At all. Honestly. For the sake of sanity... for days now, I have been hearing about "Nana" and "Graycop" (grandpa) and "Caw-go" (Chicago). Sassy has been talking about what clothes to pack. What doll to bring. She wants her butterfly doll. 15 minutes later, and, oh wait- now she wants her lamb doll. And don't forget her green shoes. Oh, and we'll have to bring the pictures we had taken for Nana. And the skeleton picture she made weeks ago that has been hanging on our fridge and it probably crusted over in food-prints because Sassy wants to take it down and hold it every time we eat. We'll need to bring that, too. Sassy needs her "ice cweam bag", as well, to hold her "colowing books and cwayons", because what would our trip be without those?? I am exhausted, and I am not even close to being packed and ready to go. I need a nap!

But, just to brighten your day, here is a really cute picture of the girls...