My Trip To Chicago, Part 1

OK, so this is three months after the fact, but I still really want to share with you my trip to see my adorable little nephew!

My husband graciously took a week off of work to care for our children so that I could go to Chicago. I have the best husband ever! On March 11th, my boys took me to the airport bus station so that I could take a bus to LAX instead of making my family drive a very long ways to and from the airport.

my little sweeties saying good-bye to me

I was nervous about leaving them behind for so long but I was excited to see my parents and sisters again. I boarded the bus and it pulled away. Here I go!

the mountains from my window on the bus

I arrived at LAX and boarded my plane. I was thankful for the nonstop flight to Chicago. I do not enjoy flying. Amazingly, we made such good time during our flight that I arrived in Chicago a full twenty or thirty minutes early. As soon as I stepped off of the plane and into the jet bridge that would take me into the airport, the bitter cold of the night hit me like a wall of bricks. I could instantly see my breath. "Oh crap, it's COLD!" I muttered, pulling my coat a little tighter around me, and getting a few chuckles from a couple of the people who overheard. Wow, I'm a wimp now when it comes to cold weather. I've been in California too long.

My mom and sister Danielle picked me up, we grabbed some dinner close the the airport, and then headed home. It was so good to see them again! My dad was at home with a friend who was staying the night. My dad would have to take this guy to the airport very early the next morning. Since the men would be rising before dawn, we all called it a night pretty early so they could get some sleep.

The next day we got ready to head to my sister April's house to see her and baby Blake. As we were heading out the door, I noticed some Canadian geese walking around the neighbor's yard. I took some zoomed in pics to show my boys. Not something we see at home!

blurry picture, sorry

We arrived at April's house and I finally got to meet this little one month old sweetie!

my dad with BlakeThe next day we had a girls' shopping trip at one of the top 10 largest malls in America. That was fabulous since my local mall is pretty terrible! We shopped and shopped. We hit up H&M (why does my mall not have this store!?), Old Navy, the Disney Store, where I bought pajamas for my little boys at home, and a few other stores. We all found some great deals and everyone bought clothes.

Blake was such a good baby, he slept in his stroller pretty much the entire time!

After all of that shopping, we were ravenous, so we stopped at Red Robin for lunch. Their garlic Parmesan fries are really good!

waiting for our table

The next day was Saturday and we took lots of pictures of little Blake.

Auntie Danielle

mommy April and her cutie

I tried to get as much time as I could holding him but I didn't want to be a complete baby hog. I was also a very nice Aunt and changed several diapers while I was there, dirty ones too! :)We also did some grocery shopping and planning for Sunday's event-Blake's baptism and the following celebration lunch at April's house. We bought a bunch of food and made yummy dishes to bring.

Sunday was the big day! Here's our family.

We had a fabulous lunch and a great time with everyone. My brother-in-law's family was there with us as well. Apparently I do not have any pictures of them, but you can see some on my sister's blog here. His parents live nearby and attend the same church that they do, and then his brother and family drove from Ohio to be there for the baptism. Blake has two girl cousins on that side of the family and the girls just loved him. It was so cute to see them with him. James' aunt, uncle, and two cousins were also there.

proud parents

Auntie lovin'