Anyhoo...: Chicago...warning: a few too many pictures

Here is a rundown of Chicago + Kids...something new for us. All of the kids want to go to Chicago with us. For years, we have promised "when you're older" (translation...when we don't need car seats, strollers, or sippy cups, when you learn not to whine, complain or gripe and can walk for blocks and blocks and blocks impervious to the cold).

Six and a half years later, Forrest and Hannah reached the point where they fit most of the criteria..if we held out for all of the criteria, I doubt any of five would ever make the cut.

It was snowing heavily when we landed, which excited the kids to no end. Unfortunately, it hadn't been cold enough, long enough and it melted as soon as it hit the ground.

After checking in, we decided to go see this: http://www.beemovie.com/

The theatre is HUGE and along the halls are really cool murals. Here's the fam...saying cheese...

We ended up canceling our reservations at Fulton's when Mark found out that their had been a cancellation at one of our favorite Chicago restaraunts. Still, this is as close as we came to a turkey:

We had pasta instead...magnifico pasta. We'll have turkey at Christmas.

Friday morning, we started off by checking out the Lego store. The dinosaur, buildings and camera are made completely out of Legos.

And then, we headed here:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/eurptg/index.php

I couldn't believe that photography was allowed inside the museum. You could also walk right up to the paintings...they were not enclosed in glass. Yes, we had to stop Forrest from touching this Monet and Hannah tried to touch a 500 year old bronze statue...hey, nobody's perfect, right?

I have this print hanging in my breakfast room. The original is breathtaking and makes my "reproduction" look, well, like a flea-market knock off. I tried to talk Mark into aquiring the original for my Christmas present. Unfortunately Cezanne originals... are a bit pricey.

After the Art Institute, we walked to Marshall Fields on State (it's actually Macy's now, but it had been Fields since 1907 and there was a public backlash when Macy's bought the store and promptly changed the name. The granite cornerstones of the building are still engraved with their original name, so haha to Macy's...not that I have anything against Macy's. Anyhoo, the windows are decorated with a different them each year. This year the theme is The Nutcraker. Afterwards, we had lunch here:

Hannah refused to order this because she didn't want to say the name. Forrest wanted to order just so he could say the name.

After Lunch, Mark had to head to the convention center to oversee the booth set up. The kids and I headed back to the hotel for a nap. Hannah and I had reservations for dinner here:

http://www.americangirl.com/stores/experience_bistro.php

and tickets to see this:

http://www.americangirl.com/stores/experience_theater.php#holiday

We had planned on dropping her doll off here:

http://www.americangirl.com/stores/experience_salon.php

while we had dinner. Hannah had also been saving up to buy "Jamie" (that's her doll) a new outfit.

Due to a slight unforeseen wardrobe malfunction, Hannah needed a new outfit too. We ended up buying her this:

http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/MultiProductPage.jsf/itemId/572/itemType/DISPLAYGROUP/webTemplateId/4/uniqueId/217/saleGroupId/269

And Jamie got the matching outfit. Man, do I hate wardrobe malfunctions (that was for my husband who is suspicious that new girl/doll matching outfits were being plotted months ago...seriously, would I plot...no, don't answer that).

Unfortunately, due to the very real outfit crisis we experienced just before walking out of the hotel room, I forgot my camera. Oh. My. Good. Lord. I cannot believe I did that. Fortunately the very nice people at the store gave me a disposable camera to capture the big night. Love those people. Hopefully, they will turn out, I can save them to a disk and then upload...hopefully.

While we were having our girls night, Mark and Forrest went out for seafood...Forrest's favorite.

Saturday morning, we headed to Lou Mitchell's for breakfast. Here's what Fodor's has to say about Lou's... http://www.fodors.com/world/north%20america/usa/illinois/chicago/entity_134252.html

And then, we went to Union Station. This is where the part of The Untouhables was filmed. Remember the scene where Elliot Ness is at the bottom of the stairs and Al Capone is at the top and the baby carriage goes bouncing down the steps?

Next up was the Field Museum. Oh, how I love the Field Museum. First, we did the audio tour of MAPS. Sorry, no pics inside the exhibit which was very interesting. Instead, here's one from the entrance to the exhibit, and a link to the info on it... http://www.fieldmuseum.org/maps/

In order to go through the next exhibit...http://www.fieldmuseum.org/undergroundadventure/flash/VirtualTour.swf

...we had to go through a shrinking process. Here we are...being shrunk (Hannah and I didn't take very long):

This is one of the things we found Underground:

The kids loved the Egyptian exhibit...

And what would a trip to the Field be without visiting Sue? This is Sue's head:

The rest of sue is on display in the lobby. She is the most complete Tyrannasaurus Rex fossil. You can read more about her and find out why her head is not with the rest of her body, by looking here:

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/sue/index.html

After saying farewell to Sue, we walked to the Adler Planetarium. This is the one museum that Mark and I have never visited.

After the Planetarium, we had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory. Hannah wanted to bring this tag home with her:

Yes, we are still on Saturday...and we have one more stop before bed.

We went up to the SkyDeck on the Hancock Building. It was the tallest building in Chicago until the Sears tower was built. Here's a pic of the night sky...the tallest building in the pic is the Sears tower.