Weekend Away

About a month ago Nick informed me that he would likely be needing to go to a conference in Chicago for work in June. He half-jokingly suggested that I come along so we could check out RPM Italian, you know because me and G are tight. I really didn’t think it would be possible, so I didn’t do anything immediately, then we started talking more about it, and mom and dad offered to babysit, so we decided to go for it.

I’ll admit it took some convincing, but we were seriously overdue for a little time away. We left Saturday afternoon, which was kinda great, because I still had my Friday and we got to spend most of Saturday with the kids before we had to leave.

Saturday morning Z had his first group swim lesson. He has gotten back his fear of the water this year, so I am going to try and do as many lessons as we can. There were some kids there that were doing so well, it was encouraging to think we could get there.

We loved the teachers at the Y, they were so encouraging and sweet to Z. Can’t wait for more!

After swim lessons, Nick took him fishing with his new Star Wars fishing pole, and he caught a fish!

Can you tell we were trying to soak it up before we left? (especially Nick because we was going to be gone till Wednesday, I was coming back Monday).

We put the kids down for their naps, and headed to the airport. The plane ride was SO easy. I forgot how easy it is without 1 or 2 children squirming around threatening to freak out every second of the ride! It was 2 hours, but it might as well have been 30 minutes! We arrived, changed, and went straight down to Michigan Avenue (our hotel was right off of it). Nick ran into one of his friends from college, who told him another of his friends was in the city that night, so that was really cool. After we talked with them for a bit, we went to our late reservation at Capital Grill, where we had a massive steak dinner. It was too much a lot of food, but we enjoyed it.

On the way back, we stopped on the bridge where they were shooting fireworks. It was beautiful!

Sunday, we got up and had a nice breakfast buffet, which held us over for a day of shopping. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a lot because I only had a carry-on bag, but it was fine. I just bought small stuff #winkwink.

We walked down the Navy Pier and took in the sights. The weather was great!

Sunday night was our 9 o’clock reservation at RPM. That was the earliest we could get and we booked a month in advance! Crazy! I was bummed because (according to her twitter) G was in Chi-town on Saturday, but I think she left on Sunday, so no sightings for us, but the restaurant was super cool! Great vibe, really good food, and just all around fab. We spent most of the dinner coming up with a clever tweet that we thought she might retweet (I’m not even kidding), but she didn’t.

We did have their famous Brussel sprout salad (delish!) and Mama DePandi’s pasta and meatballs, among other things and this wonderful hazelnut ice cream wrapped in a ganoche shell for dessert. It was tre fab, and not that pricey, suprisingly.

Monday we walked and shopped a little more, just to get some fresh air, before I had to be in airports and airplanes the rest of the afternoon. And listen, I know there’s a lot more to Chicago than eating and shopping, but hey, that’s how I chose to spend my two short days, so don’t judge, kidding, but Nick did discover a lot more coolness in Chicago after I left, but since my main day was Sunday there just wasn’t much going on. We’ll have a lot more to see the next time we go (maybe with the kids!).

We got lots of updates about the kids, most were really great, some were at 9 or 10 and mentioned nothing about beds, but Z had the BEST time with his cousins. I could tell he was so happy, and Miss Lu was getting the royal treatment from my mom, so she was very happy!

So, even though they didn’t follow any of the detailed instructions I gave, or the schedule I wrote out, the kids had fun and that’s what matters.  That’s what I’ll tell myself anyway!

They actually did really great, and Z was fine until bedtime or when he would get in trouble for anything, then he would cry for me/us. Mom said it was pretty pitiful, but he got over it. He was so exhausted from the no nap and late bedtime that he had no choice but to fall asleep eventually.

We had a great time, but we were both so happy to get home and pretty sure we won’t be leaving them again anytime soon.