Sometimes the adults in the house just have to get away from it all. In this case, it had been 10 months since we had really spent any time away from the kids. Gram and Pa came to stay with the kids and we snagged a flight to Chicago for a long weekend. This was our first overnight away from Peter and he did just great. After we checked into the hotel, we walked to have lunch at Portillo's.....always a favorite!
We spent the day being tourists at Navy Pier. It was super windy and drizzled on and off so we had very soggy and wind blown hair. Here's shot from the top of the new Navy Pier ferris wheel.
Great views of downtown.
We snagged some spots at the bar for some mid-day beers....such a treat to drink the afternoon away with some yummy nachos and good music.
We took an architectural boat tour - more wind but the sun started to come out which was nice.
Beautiful views of so many downtown buildings....and blue skies...for a while anyway.
It rained hard for the last 10 minutes of our tour but we stuck it out. We walked back to the hotel to relax and clean-up. And then it was off to Lou's for some deep dish pizza. A Chicago classic.
Friday brought a fun trip to cheer on the Cubs....and hang with Jen. We met up at a local bar for lunch before the game. They had a beautiful outdoor seating space and we loved our yummy lunch.
Look who we ran into on the walk to the game....can't pass up an opportunity to take a selfie with Pikachu.
Wrigley!!!
The crew!
We headed north for an insane amount of traditional Korean food. Amazing.
On Saturday we walked to Millennium Park to see the Bean. It was my first time.
Love the fountain!
We headed back home on Sunday. It was a nice trip and definitely good to get away. The kids were excited to have us home and we were thankful for grandparents that wrangled the kids for several days on their own.....here's the selfie we got while we were gone. Looks just about right.
Evidently Paul decided that the first day of school wouldn't be exciting enough without taking a ride in an ambulance. I got a call in the early afternoon that he had fallen off the monkey bars and had injured his arm. The fire department was called and he was loaded into the ambulance along with his principal to head to the pediatric emergency department. I flew out of the office and actually beat the ambulance to the ED! Paul was in good spirits when they wheeled him in and I was so thankful that Dr. Dodge stayed with him that whole time. It was a bad break. I won't share a picture here but needless to say his arm was very clearly broken. Based on the time he ate lunch and the large amount of other ortho trauma cases that came in that afternoon, we knew we would be waiting a while until it was his turn for surgery to repair his arm. They transferred him to an inpatient room since we would be staying the night. We spent the afternoon trying to distract him with movies and games on the ipad. Thank goodness for the child life staff! Finally at 8:30pm they came to take him to surgery. He was ready. I was ready. The procedure went very well. They were able to reset the bones and place two pins to help the bones heal. They put a blue cast on him and it was done. We got back up to the room around 10pm and he was very sleepy so we let him sleep. He looks so peaceful here.
We were up on the hour all night long....not a fun way to try to sleep. He finally gave up trying to get back to sleep around 3am and I let him play on the ipad while I snoozed in the chair. I got several messages from parents of his friends as well as his teacher and other school personnel. We decided to send this picture to let them know he was doing fine the morning after.
Surprise balloons from Mimi!
We got him home and settled in for some healing and rest. We were so thrilled to have a HUGE meal delivered courtesy of my boss. It was a serious feast.
The kids LOVED their pasta meal and we loved that we didn't have to cook!
There was even dessert.....who needs a fork?!
And of course MOM was the first one to sign the cast.
This will be a first day of school that we will never forget.
And just like that, summer came to a close and we sent TWO kids back to school! I love that they were both excited.....Lillie didn't even seem nervous. Here they are outside the house before we left for school. They both look so grown up to me. Paul 3rd grade and Lillie in kindergarten.
She loved her new outfit for back to school.
Mom, check out my backpack.....
My goofy boy.....if only we knew how his first day of school would end up when we were taking these photos.....more on that later.
Meeting up with Mrs. B in the gym before school. Lillie got to see the normal morning routine.
We waited in the hall and caught a peek of Lillie leaving the gym in the line with her class.
We followed her back to her classroom.....
Following instructions to find her spot and write her name. She had a great first day!
Paul was all smiles outside of his classroom too.
Paul with his awesome teacher Mrs. Clay!
We love our school and the fun way they greet the kids on the first day of school......
We woke up ready to spend the day with our friends....but first Lillie felt the need to make her bed in the hotel room. Only Lillie.
We drove to meet the crew at a Korean restaurant in downtown Madison. Peter had a meltdown so he and Jason drove around for a while and didn't get to enjoy lunch - bummer. The rest of us enjoyed yummy ramen.....
Our friend Michelle invited us all to her house so the kids could play. Michelle is one of our adoption friends who we have never met in real life - it was great to finally hear her voice in person! They have three boys and the perfect house for the kids to have a great time. Paul was enamoured with the guinea pig.
There was a lot of outside play time....including time in the pool although I didn't really take many pictures on this day since I was having so much fun visiting with friends. Our friends the Hoopers drove a little distance to hang with us too.....along with their three kids. We had lots of kid fun on this day!
Here's the whole crew....love that we got to spend time together.
We went to a yummy brewery for dinner....the kids enjoyed their CHEERS with lemonade.
One more night in Madison and then we headed home. It was a nice long vacation away and we were glad to pick up Maya and head for the house!
Sunday morning brought the parents scurrying to finish packing, loading cars and cleaning up the rental. The kids got to hang out watching television primarily to stay out of the way!
Once we got loaded up, we hit the road. It was sad to leave our friends but we had a little more fun in store for this trip. We decided to take the Upper Peninsula route on our way to Madison. I googled and found a yummy fish place in Mackinaw City where we stopped for lunch. Unfortunately Lillie had a weird little whoopsie moment as we were walking up to the counter to order our food.....nothing a few towels couldn't clean up but not very appetizing for those people sitting near the scene of the crime. It reminded me of her momentary puke moment at Eastern last year. She recovered quickly and we were all smiles for our super yummy lunch.
We jumped back on the road and here was our view of the Mackinaw Island bridge....beautiful!
We stopped for dinner at a brew pub somewhere in Green Bay. Food wasn't great but it was nice to stop for a bit. Lillie practiced writing her last name.
Peter copied although wasn't quite as successful.
We spent the night in downtown Madison and had a fun day planned on Monday with friends!
