Chicago (aka The Pukey City)

This past weekend Ella and I went for a visit to Chicago with Beth, Sarah, Jill, Abbi and Alli.  We had a GREAT time up until 6pm on our last night there. Lucy was a little unsure of us at first.  She didn't know who all the people were that had invaded her home. She warmed up pretty quickly though and we got to see lots of smiles from her.

Andrea and Lucy

Miss Lucy escaping from her tent

 

On Saturday we went to a Wonder Works - a place for the kids to play.  It was supposed to be some kind of kids' museum but as they pointed out later - "it wasn't much of a museum" - but they did have fun running around, dressing up for the stage and making pictures in the art room (and possibly picking up the stomach virus that hit on Sunday night...) 

 

On Sunday we took the train into downtown for a little shopping.  Ella was all excited.  I thought she was excited about going shopping but when I asked her, she said, "No, I'm excited to ride the train!"  She wouldn't sit down on the ride in.

 

We hit the Hersey Store first - it was yummy!

Next was the American Girl Store. I know that this is a very exciting store for little girls.  I didn't want to deny my one and only daughter the chance to enjoy the store.  But $14.00 for baby doll socks?  $14 for a baby doll bibs? I told her I'd buy her an outfit for her Bitty Baby (Emma) but if she wanted the socks she'd have to use her tooth fairy money. She decided that Bitty Baby could have cold feet.

I did really like the historical displays 

that they had set up though. That was pretty neat.

Abbi, Alli and Ella

We grabbed a bite to eat at the mall, shopped a little more and then headed back to Andrea's.  
Unfortunately, a couple hours later is when the puke hit the fan...Abbi came down at dinner time saying her belly hurt.  Jill and I really just thought it was from being tired - the girls had stayed up pretty late Friday and Saturday nights and had been getting up very early to play with Lucy.  Right as dinner hit the table though, Abbi was upstairs and got sick.  About an hour later, Ella came down to tell me that HER stomach hurt.  I really didn't get concerned. I just thought that she was trying to get some attention or "play sick" too.  About 2 hours later, she threw up as well.  Still trying to be an optimist, I thought that maybe it was just the grilled cheese sandwich that Ella and Abbi ate.  

So, our last evening in Chicago was a bust as Beth went to bed early in case she had to drive home, Jill and I took care of sick kids and Andrea, Tom and Lucy did their best to stay the hell out of our germ radius.  We were up and out by 9am - the ride home was NO fun.  Andrea packed us crackers, sprite, plastics bags, towels - and unfortunately we had to use them all. And Ella missed the bag the 2nd time around. And Jill's van probably still doesn't smell too good...

Overall, it was still a great visit and we hope that we aren't banned from visiting again.  I bet next time the "decontamination station" will be more than a joke!