A Great Couple of Days in Chicago

Here's just a little to fill you in on what we did the last couple days.

Saturday (yesterday) we were going to go to the Museum of Science & Industry but we woke up & got going a little too late, so we decided to walk around the mall instead. First, though, we found a Post Office so we could get a couple flat-rate boxes. We ended up going to 2 & neither of them had any, so we just had to get regular boxes. (We were basically at our max weight on our way here, so with the clothes we got Cali AND all of this medical stuff for Brooklyn, we'll be over. So we're gonna mail stuff back.)

I had a 50% off coupon from The Children's Place so when we got to the mall we headed there first to get Cali a present. I told her that if she didn't have any time-out's with Oma (my mom) then daddy & I would bring her a big present. And boy does she like presents!! The biggest present that we're bringing home for her is a new carseat. Yeah, she's the type of kid that will just love it. We took Cali's seat & made it Brooklyn's...since she can now sit facing forward. So we changed them the day we left for Chicago & now that one is hers, so Cali needs a new seat. Cali also loves skirts, so The Children's Place was perfect.

After that we just walked around, ate lunch, & people-watched. From there I ran into Babies-R-Us cause Brooklyn's little snack carrier thing was dropped & broke. So I got her a new one. Then we ran by Target to get more diapers (cause we were down to just about 10), wipes, & milk. Then we grabbed a coffee & came back to the hotel.

For dinner on Friday night I ran to Portillo's. This was the place that I didn't get to go inside of when we were here in January. The food is amazing & I was told that inside was just a trip. So I said I'd go to Portillo's & bring us back food. And wow....was that place ever crazy inside!!! First off, it was a Friday so it was just packed. And second off...I'd never been inside before so I was like a lost little puppy. Let's just say it took me forever to figure out what to do. I started off in the To Go line, which I didn't know until I got to the front...there went 10 minutes. Then I found my way to the Barnelli's side of the restaurant, ordered my food, & waited about 15 mins for my food. Then I had to go to the Portillo's side to get Dustin's stuff, which I did much quicker. But by the time I got to the car my phone was ringing. It was Dustin asking what was taking me so long....LOL I'd been gone an hour! Oops. Needless to say, we got our food & it was delicious. So Saturday night we had leftovers!!

Today (Sunday) we purposefully got up earlier than usual so we could go to the Museum of Science & Industry. Supposedly it's the biggest science museum in the Western Hemisphere...that's pretty cool! Here is a bad picture of the front...I took it when I was stopped at a light!

We probably should have thought twice about going on a weekend, but how bad could it be, right? HA!! I should have taken a picture of all the people when we got there. It was a crazy mad house zoo. There were people everywhere. Everywhere you looked. It was just crazy. Not a place for Dustin...but he's getting better! If I'd have brought him here when he first got out of the USMC it'd have been a different story...but he handled it quite well...even though he kept stepping on my heels! ;o) Here's a pic of Dustin & Brooklyn in the only empty room in the whole place. It stayed empty for about 20 seconds, but Brooklyn got her run in!!

It was a pretty cool museum, I guess. I'm sure we'd have liked it better if there were fewer people. But I think we pretty much got the jist of it. Also, we did see the entire museum, so we went through it kind of fast. If we really wanted the full effect we should have taken our time in each area & really read the displays, played around with the stuff, & just enjoyed exploring. But we wanted to see the whole thing. Plus, we had Brooklyn, of course, so we couldn't stay in one place for too long. But I'd totally like to go back (on a weekday of course) to see more. My brother Mike would really like this place. Here's a good pic of the Chicago skyline on our way home from the museum:

After the museum we went to another famous pizza place in Chicago, but this one is a chain: Giordano's. They make the famous stuffed pizza. It has a thick crust, then the cheese & toppings, then another layer of crust, and THEN the sauce. We liked it, but Pizzaria Uno was definitely better. I don't think Giordano's made the pizza as good as they could have. It didn't look as good as I thought it would...& then it wasn't hot! But it still did taste good. I'd like to try another location to see if maybe we just went to a "bad" one. There's still one more pizza place/chain I'd like to try sometime: Lou Malnati's, but we'll have to do that in August when we're here. Here's the famous stuffed pizza (a SMALL one, I might add):

 Sweet little girl

Remember back to our trip here (check out our blog post called "Chicago...it's like we never left")..she has this thing for eating off the edge of the table with no hands!

Tomorrow we have a doctor's appointment to have these darn drains removed (YAY!), then we're going to the Shedd Aquarium since we have the annual passes, then we're packing up cause tomorrow is our last night here. It's gone by fast. But we're anxious to get home withour new-looking Brooklyn! We just can't wait to see Cali too! She's so excited to get her present from us...that's pretty much all she talks about when we're on the phone. She did have a time-out today with Oma, but we'll let it slide. :o)

As for now...I'm packing up a box or two so we can mail it home... then bed!