Chicago!

We went to Chicago!

Okay, so it wasn't just the two of us. We took the kiddos over Labor Day weekend to visit our friends the Casburns, and lots of our other friends (Stephen and Katherine, Sol and Carolyn, and Ian and Katherine) met us there for some good, quality hanging out time.

I booked our flights with airline miles and somehow we got first class on the way up there. Imagine us with two young kids, sitting with all these business men, and Huston says to his daddy, "Daddy, this is a big, fat airplane. Kind of like my big, fat poop the other day." Yes. Yes, he did say that.

Our flight left at 7:30 am, which was insanely early. We woke up at 4:30 (and Clarke hadn't gotten to bed until 2:30 because he was at the Baylor vs. TCU game the night before. Sic 'em Bears!). Our traveling went pretty smoothly until we had to wait for an hour for our rental car. The kids did really well, which is all I could really ask.

The kids immediately had a great time playing together. Arden is in love with Josh and Heidi's baby, Elise. Or "Baby 'Lise" as Arden calls her.

These two boys were best buds the entire time. When we were leaving, Logan said, "Thank you for coming to my house," and Huston said, "I like you." I started crying, it was so sweet. (Huston had an enormous bruise on his forehead during our trip, from falling out of his bed the night before we left. The night we got home from our trip, he fell out of his bed AGAIN, cut his forehead on his dresser and had blood all over his face. It was freaky, but he's fine. Anyway, I digress...)

Sol and Carolyn were so sweet to play with the kids. This is them playing Duck, Duck, Goose.

Clarke with Sol, Ian, and Josh. Stephen and Katherine came later that evening.

Here they are. Katherine, looking beautiful. And Stephen... well... Since he insisted on making this face, I'm insisting on putting it on my blog.

We barbecued in the evening and the kids chowed down. After we got them to bed, the adults talked and played two rounds of Fish Bowl. Could anything be more fun than that?

On Sunday, Clarke, Josh, Ian, and Katherine were gone all day at a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. No pictures of that because the paparazzi didn't follow them. Heidi and I were alone with the kids, so we relaxed most of the afternoon and took them to the park around 4.

Here's beautiful Heidi with beautiful Baby 'Lise.

Huston and Hailey helping Arden find the stairs on the playground.

In the evening, we had Gino's East pizza for dinner. Seriously sooooo good. If you ever go to Chicago, eat there. You won't regret it.

The next day we took the train into Chicago.

The kids had a blast on the train ride. We met Stephen and Katherine downtown, and altogether there were 10 adults and 7 kids traipsing about the city. We were like our own tour group.

After we met up with Stephen and Katherine, all 17 of us took a water taxi to Navy Pier, where we walked around, had lunch, and saw a very bad, very painful improv act.

The guys.

The girls.

After Navy Pier, we walked and walked and walked, saw Carolyn's gorgeous apartment, got coffee at Intelligentsia, and then walked over to Millennium Park.

This is the Bean.

So fun to take pictures in front of.

I seriously could have stayed there all day.

Then we walked over to Crown Fountain.

It projects cool pictures of people's faces, and occasionally, water comes out of their mouths, making it look like they're spitting. It was cold, so I didn't let the kids get in, but it would have been awesome to splash around in on a warm day.

Clarke and Huston watching the fountain.

After hanging out at the fountain for awhile, it was getting late, so we said our goodbyes, took the train back to Josh and Heidi's, packed up, and got up bright and early the next morning for our flight home.

And we all felt like this.

BUT, it was so worth it. We had an amazing time with everyone and feel so lucky to have such great friends!