Chi-town

In the middle of July, we ventured to the midwest for my cousin Kevin's wedding. I was a little nervous about the flight because it was longer than any flight we've taken, and 17 months is fairly unpredictable when it comes to behavior :) I got even more nervous when the man sitting on the aisle seat sat down, immediately put on his headphones and apparently fell asleep. Things went pretty smoothly until Colter decided to chuck is crayon right onto the crotch of the sleeping man. I tried to encourage Ben to remove it, but he didn't seem to think that was a good idea. So the man slept on, apparently not phased by the missile that was launched at him. Colter then threw a crayon that somehow managed to go through the crack in the seat in front of us. He had already proceeded to grab the ladies hair on several occasions, so we weren't on the best of terms. She too did not notice the flying object. So there we sat, with two of our crayons perched on our fellow passengers. Apparently the man on the aisle was really dead to the world because at the end of the flight, he took off his headphones and looked over at us and said "wow, what a fantastic traveler! I didn't hear him the entire time!" I just smiled and tried to soak in the comment, and also wondered .. did you not hear him opening and shutting the window shouting "bye bye" a million times? Did you not hear him scream "UPPA" when he wanted to turn off and on the light 6,000 times? You must not have seen him chuck a book full of stickers over the seat behind him. Why yes, he is a great traveler, now I'm going to pass out from exhaustion.

Anyway, on the first day, my mom blessed us by watching Colter most of the day so Ben and I could take on the city kid-less style. We only had Ben's camera phone, so the pics aren't the best quality, but we had a blast. We made a stop for deep dish pizza.. how wonderful to not panic that it takes 30 min. to cook a pizza! After lunch we ventured to the Field museum. We could have spent a lot longer there. What a cool place!

To get to downtown from Arlington Heights, we got to take a train ride. We were all excited to experience this with Colter!





The wedding was located in a fantastic hotel! I'm talking the type of hotel that has free zumba classes, free wine/appetizers EVERY evening, thick towels, cool decorations, etc. Colter's favorite part was that two L tracks were really close to our hotel and could be seen outside our window. This is pretty much what we did every time we were in the hotel room. He would see a train and then frantically make the more sign and say choo choo choo choo in the cutest voice imaginable.

                

               

During the days we were downtown, we ventured to the bean and fountains, and took a dip in Lake Michiagn, one of my favorite moments of the trip.

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I also had a blast taking pics of my favorite newly married couple, my bro and his wifey Kelsey. We walked around the city, and I acted like a super professional photographer :) I still can't get enough of her dress!

Ben was an amazing hubby and daddy and took care of Colter so I could go to the wedding and enjoy myself. We were going to try to take him to the ceremony, but after a slight melt down in the elevator down to the wedding, they opted to take a train ride around the city.. What a good poppa. The wedding was amazing. So many beautiful details from the gorgeous flowers, to the live band, to the harpist during the ceremony. One hilarious moment was when I brought a plate of food upstairs to Ben and I tricked the people in the elevator that I was a professional wedding crasher.

All in all, a FANTASTIC trip to the windy city!!