Mini-Vacation: Day 1

Yeah! We made it to Chicago!!! It's been forever since we've gone on any type of vacation. We left this morning around 10:45 and drove up to the Bass Pro Shop in Bolingbrook. We fed the kids lunch in the car in the parking lot - Pbj, cheese stick, and a yogurt drink. They were thrilled and they actually ate their food. Then we all went to eat at the restaurant there at Bass Pro called Islamorada Fish Company and Mark & I had lunch and we ordered the kids some dessert but they were really too full from the "car picnic". We shopped for a while after we ate and then went to meet up with Daddy & Diana at her parents' house after they had picked up our nephew Nathan. We got to have a nice visit and had some yummy cheesecake (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!!) After our short visit we decided to find our hotel. It is GREAT here!!! We have a water park INSIDE our hotel! Do you think the kids think this is awesome or what? We checked in and immediately changed into our suits and headed to the pool. They have a toddler section that was just perfect for Emma and Grace. Grace went down the tiny water slides I bet a couple hundred times and she loved every second. Emma enjoyed the part with the water that poured down like a shower. She would stick her hands under it and just laugh. She eventually got brave enough that she'd stick her head under there too. We rode the lazy river a lot too. That was a lot of fun. The boys' (young & old) favorite part were the big water slides. One you could ride down on a tube and the other was a body slide. They were both "tunnel" type slides that seriously almost caused me to have a freak attack. But I survived and even let them talk me into going down the tube slide backwards - twice! If that wasn't enough fun for one day, after we were done swimming and poor Emma practically had hypothermia...and a very stinky swim diaper, we came up to the rooms and had a pizza party! The hotel package we got tonight came with a Pajama Party that included a large pizza, 2 liters of pop, 4 bags of popcorn and an in room movie! So since we have two rooms we got double the fun!! We all decided to watch "Night At The Museum 2". The kids have been wanting to see that one forever - it was an awesome night. I don't have any pictures to post right now - I forgot to put the card back in my camera - big oopsie. Diana has a bunch of cute ones on her camera of all the kids. I'll try and see if I can put some of those on tomorrow. Right now we need to get some rest because tomorrow is a big day. We are going to the Field Museum of Natural History! The boys are SO excited to get to see SUE the T-Rex!! It's been four years since we have been here so Benny doesn't even remember coming and Grace wasn't even born yet! Time for some rest. I'll try to update tomorrow night as well - if I'm not completely exhausted!!!