Hello Chicago!

We decided to spend our long weekend in Chicago quite some time ago. Last spring, Tim decided to register for the Chicago Marathon on 10-10-10. He was very excited with this being his first full marathon after completing two half marathons. The whole fam (my mom, Ken & Delaine, Kyle & Nikki) decided to make it a weekend in Chicago. Spring turned into summer and Tim's training wasn't going quite the way he planned (or really not at all). Tim finally decided that it would be best to not run this year because of the lack of training. Since everyone was already booked for the trip, we stuck with our original plans and all ventured to the city!

We all got in Friday night and were able to hang out some after Hannah went to bed. It was nice to catch up with each other for a few hours. Saturday morning we were up bright and early and ready to hit the city! My college roommate (and wonderful friend), Tif, met us at our hotel with her darling little one, Jacob, and her momma since they were going to join us for the morning. We left the 'burbs and made it to our first stop, Shedd Aquarium. It was a great morning! Here are some fun pictures of our time together.

My wonderful college roommate (all four years!) and our very sleepy children. What a great time we had catching up!
Our little family after spending a few hours at Shedd Aquarium.

After visiting Shedd, we said good-bye to Tif, Jacob & Sandi and went to the downtown Portillo's to feast on some fabulous Chicago food. We then made our way to the one and only Michigan Ave. for some shopping. Our shopping trip included Hannah getting her very first American Girl doll - a Bitty Baby. She absolutely loves it!

Here is Hannah inspecting her new baby. It's been so fun watching her take care of her baby! I know she will be such an awesome big sister one day!

When we were all tuckered out, Hannah went back to the 'burbs with the family and Tim and I checked into our downtown hotel for the night. This was our hotel all along when thinking about going to the marathon, so we decided we'd keep it and celebrate our anniversary a weekend early. We got ready and ate dinner at the Chicago Chophouse. The food was outstanding and we had a nice anniversary dinner. (I'll post pictures in the next post). What a fun night!

Since Sunday was the marathon, we made plans to go to the outlet mall in Aurora for some shopping. There were tons of good deals! We were able to get some Christmas shopping done as well as some stuff for us. We ate lunch and then made the trek home. I didn't have school on Monday, so it was nice to rest and recouperate after a busy time in the city. We had a fabulous weekend and loved spending the time with our family!