Chicago

We have friends that live to Chicago. I like them. I like that they talk about sex. And butt cracks. And everything else. And I like that Colleen said, "Glen, we better get going, K and K are already FIVE babies ahead of us!" Who still remembers (or at least verbally acknowledges) that this kicking-my-ribs-as-I-type baby will be Baby #5? Thanks, Colleen. And I like that they came to visit us in our hotel at 11 o' clock at night, even though they'd both had long days. I like that Colleen made us get Garrett's Popcorn (cheese and caramel corn mixed). I like that Glen always calls Colleen "Beautiful" (I don't want you to do that for me, though, Keith), and that they carried our kids (on their backs, shoulders, legs, arms) for most of the time that we were in Chicago. I'm glad they did, because we wouldn't!

We stayed in a really nice ($189/room) hotel for $50. Although it was a beautiful hotel, I don't think that they should be able to take advantage of you, just because you (supposedly) have the money to afford a room like that. We couldn't do anything there that didn't cost A TON. The bar offered candy bars for $3.50 each. We had to pay for Internet access and PARKING! Um, I kind of expect that parking is going to be included in the price of the room! $20, even. Maybe I am cheap, but those costs sicked me out.

You would think our kids were from the back woods! (Oh, right...they are.) Everything was glass in the hotel, and our kids were amazed and perplexed:
"Hey! Wait! Come get me!", yelled S from the bottom of the entryway stairs. She refused to walk up the glass steps (you could see under to the next floor down) for fear of falling to her death.
"Wow, mama! Look at this!" Our boys spent many minutes staring at themselves in a mirrored glass table at the checkout waiting area.
"Wack! Thud!" Z actually ran so hard into a too-clean glass door that he flew back several feet, crying, his forehead already developing a big, blue bruise.

We spent the first day at the zoo. We stayed for three hours. When asked later what their favorite part of the zoo was, Z quickly answered, "The monkeys!"

Huh. That's weird, Z, because we left before we even GOT to the monkeys!

His answer, I supposed, was less surprising than S's, who told me that her "most best part was the men." I still have no idea what she is talking about. Is she a teenager already?!

The next day, we spent the day with Glen and Colleen, downtown. We played in the city water fountain, we played at a children's festival (crafts, activities, books), and we walked (alot). The thing is, it didn't matter what we did. We were just happy to hang out with our old friends again, and our kids enjoyed being carried and hugged and teased and spoiled by their new friends, "Glen and the Queen".

We ended our day at the aquarium, and while that was the main reason for our going to Chicago, we ended up getting lost on the way there, and having only an hour to rush through and see all there was to be seen. It was fine, and I think our kids had more fun with "Glen and the Queen" than they would have had seeing more fish.

We left (getting home at 1ish am), happy and content to sleep (and puke, as Z did, "from eating too much caramel corn") all the way to our little holler in the woods.