The Windy City

This past week Brad, Ella, and I went to Chicago for a couple of days because Brad had to work at the Neocon trade show there at the Merchandise Mart downtown. We left Sunday morning so we could get some good ole family time in before Monday. We made it down there in record time but once we got there we had quite a time! We accidentally got lost because we veered from directions a bit and it took several pedestrians to explain how to find the Lincoln Park Zoo. Once we did finally find the zoo they had closed the parking lot and there was no parking in like a mile radius or so - yikes. We finally gave up and tooled around until we found out how to get to our hotel and boy was that a good move. When we got up to our room we realized that our poor little girl, because of being in the car so long traveling, had pooped through her diaper and it was all over her waist down to her feet - it was awful! Lets just say that we had to call housekeeping to get us several more towels and to get rid of the dirty ones:) It was a blessing that we didn't show up at the zoo and have to change her there! Later on that day we did end up going to the zoo which was a very nice place to walk even though there weren't many animals out...Ella did get a glimpse of a tiger and a monkey before she fell asleep:) We finished off the day by going to the Cheesecake Factory which was awesome - we had never been there and boy was the food and cheesecake good!
Monday Ella and I spend the day with my mother in law going around the city in trolleys checking out the city. My in-laws tend to visit there a lot and she thought it would be fun to do the trolley thing since she had never done it. It was kinda cool seeing the city from that viewpoint...Chicago is huge...I never realized how much there really is to do there! Here is a picture of Ella and I in front of Oprah's talk show studio:) Thankfully Ella enjoyed the rides for the most part and made friends with some Australian kids on the trolley which kept her preoccupied. It was a nice way to spend the day. FYI - if anyone ever plans to do trolley rides with lots of stops, I wouldn't recommend taking your jogging stroller...it gets annoying and heavy really fast going up and down the aisles:) Tuesday night we met up with Brad and my father in law at a steakhouse for dinner - it was a good ending to our busy day.Here are a couple of pics of Ella enjoying the hotel room...she has a little bit of a mischievous side to her, wanting to get into everything :) Brad, Ella and I before we went to dinner.

Tuesday Ella, Jodi and I went shopping a bit and then took a lovely stroll around town. Although it did rain, we actually had a really nice time walking to and along the beach...I was shocked to see what a cool beach they have downtown there...palm trees, beachside restaurant, and a walking/biking path. Anyways, we finished our little getaway with going to Ginos Pizza...a Koning tradition...we can't go to Chicago with them without going there:) Although going to Chicago was really busy having Ella along (and having some other mishaps...the poop incident, the issues with the stroller, oh and I forgot, Brad getting into a mild car accident in heavy traffic - he is fine:) it was really nice getting out of town for a couple of days and trying a new adventure with little miss Ella!