Out of Town

If you have read past blogs, you would know that we planned a trip to Chicago this weekend for Jaron's Birthday.  We set out on Wednesday to go to district assembly (our church denomination annual meeting) at Manville Church Camp.  Glen went up Tuesday for Missions and then we all headed up Wednesday for Youth and Thursday for general assembly.  

I had high expectations for the three days we would be away from home just before school starts next week.  I had imagined getting away from it all and enjoying my family time.  We had a nice time, but my expectations got shot out of the water and the first indication of this was when my children were horse playing around in the hotel room and Lydia hit her mouth on a chair and busted the inside and outside of her lip.  At first we thought that maybe her tooth had gone all the way through her lip, but just couldn't tell.  She acted like nothing happened within a couple of minutes and enjoyed looking at her big fat lip in the mirror more than letting Glen and I tend to her or cuddle her.

Then on Thursday on our way to the hotel to stay near Chicago we got a flat tire on a new tire and ended up having to replace it.  Bummer.  The delay put a kink in my evening alone shopping plans.  

We ended up having a nice time visiting Chicago on Friday even though we had a bumpy start.

  

We went to the Chicago Cultural Center and did a treasure hunt around the beautiful building.  We also took in a couple of photography exhibits.  We found the photography exhibit of Ellis Island (with tag lines and stories) very interesting.  Then we took a water taxi to Navy Pier where we went to the Children's Museum.  Glen, Evan and Jaron went to the Chicago Shakespearean Theater in the evening to see the stage production of Willy Wonka and had a great time.  My camera battery went dead at the beginning of the day so I didn't get any pictures.  On the way home I turned it on and snapped the last picture and then the camera died again.  This is us on the METRA train at 10pm.  The kids were sound a sleep.  We eventually got home at 2:30 am.  What a trip!

I had a hard time shifting gears out of my expectations into just having fun.  But all in all in was a nice visit.  The kids and Glen had a great time and that makes me happy.