Trip to Chicago
3/26/2012
Last Friday I took my two children to Chicago, to fulfill the promise I made to my daughter last September that she could earn a trip to the American Girl store in Chicago when she read through all of the historical American Girl books.
The train ride and Chicago visit were more "firsts" that happened last week. My husband wasn't able to go with us, so I can say it was a first for me too - first trip to the big city with two young children. Besides being very tired at the end of the day, it went very well.
My kids were so very excited for the train ride. It was 2 and 1/2 hours one way, so it was a LOT of time to be on the train. Thankfully they both spent most of the time looking out the window at the scenery. However, when we left it was still dark, so that was a rather boring hour!
It was a foggy day in Chicago. It rained later in the day but not when we were walking from the train station to the mall. Here are the kids on the bridge over the Chicago River.
While we were walking, we stumbled upon this 26 foot statue of Marilyn Monroe. That definitely wasn't there 10 years ago when I lived in Chicago!
My daughter in front of the display case with the historical girls. Cecile is her favorite historical girl (the one in blue, seen above my daughter's head in this picture). 
My daughter posing with "McKenna" - the 2012 Girl of the Year. My daughter isn't very familiar with the modern "Girls of the Year" - as our focus has been on the historical girls rather than the modern-day books.
My daughter had a budget of $35 to spend at the American Girl store. She already owned (second-hand) a doll, who accompanied us. My daughter settled on buying a shirt for herself and a matching shirt for her doll. That's as far as $35 will go at the American Girl store (which we knew ahead of time so we anticipated not getting much there).
My 4-year-old son went with us. He was most excited about the train ride and visiting the Lego store (which is right-next-door to the American Girl store at the mall in Chicago). So here are a few pictures from our visit to the Lego store.
The kids posing with Woody, made out of Legos. My rambunctious boy nearly knocked him over. Yah, that's my son.
We loved the fact that the Lego store has Legos out for kids to play with. This was a great outlet for the kids, after spending hours on the train and visiting the American Girl store where you can't really play with anything.
One of the "must do" items the kids had come up with was a taxi ride. So after our time at the mall, we took a taxi back to the train station. No picture of that, but my daughter says it was a crazy adventure that involved lots of honking. [Having lived in Chicago for a few years, I thought it was tame. Perspective changes everything.]
First train ride.
First walk in downtown Chicago.
First time at the American Girl store.
First time at the Lego store.
First taxi ride.
A promise fulfilled.
A good day!
The kids posing with Woody, made out of Legos. My rambunctious boy nearly knocked him over. Yah, that's my son.
We loved the fact that the Lego store has Legos out for kids to play with. This was a great outlet for the kids, after spending hours on the train and visiting the American Girl store where you can't really play with anything.One of the "must do" items the kids had come up with was a taxi ride. So after our time at the mall, we took a taxi back to the train station. No picture of that, but my daughter says it was a crazy adventure that involved lots of honking. [Having lived in Chicago for a few years, I thought it was tame. Perspective changes everything.]
First train ride.
First walk in downtown Chicago.
First time at the American Girl store.
First time at the Lego store.
First taxi ride.
A promise fulfilled.
A good day!
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