This post is coming a bit late, but I've been crazy busy...i really did intended to share about our Chicago trip as soon as we got home, but one thing led to another...you know how that goes. Anyway, last Sunday Teresa took us girls to Chicago for a few days. Haley, her girls, and Grandma Cameron also went. We took the train from Flint to Chicago. We had to get up really, really early (2 am) because our train was scheduled to leave at 6 am. So needless to say, we didn't get much sleep the night before since we were so excited. Luckily the kids were able to catch up on some sleep during our 6 hour train ride. They really enjoyed riding on the train.
It was so much nicer than a plane becuase they were able to move around and play a bit. It was also a lot less stressful than driving!When we arrived in Chicago it was around lunch time. Nobody was to overly hungry, so we decided to just go for desert at the Cheesecake Factory which wasn't to far from our hotel. Boy, oh boy, was that delicious...makes my mouth water just thinking about it! After that we just walked around and checked out the city a bit. I couldn't believe how busy the streets were and how many people there were walking around. It sure made me appreciate our quite little town! After a bit of shopping we decided to have some of Chicago's famous pizza at Giordano's. The kids really liked it...either that or they were just really hungry! Later in the evening we took a horse and carriage ride around the city and by Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful ride and went by way to fast. After that we decided to just turn in for the night. It had been a really long day and we all were very tired.
The next day was our big day. After breakfast we headed over to the American Girl Place. The girls were so excited about getting their new dolls. The AGP has 3 levels. On the bottom level all the character dolls are set up with all their furniture and clothing. There were also some life size scenes from each of the original character dolls time periods. The girls just walked around and looked at everything in amazement. The top level is where the Bitty Baby and the Just Like Me dolls are located. Of course Ariana got a Bitty Baby. She had so much fun playing with all the baby dolls and the bitty stroller. Our girls decided to each get a Just Like Me doll. And it's really amazing at just how similar the dolls are to the girls. Once they got their dolls picked out it was time to pick out some outfits for them. They each ended up with 5 outfits, including the one that came with the doll, and a pair of pj's. They had so much fun picking them all out. They also both got an outfit for them to wear that matches one of their dolls outfits. They really got spoiled. After we checked out, we headed back downstairs to watch the AG play. It was so cute. There were little girls that played the character of the dolls and told their stories. I think the girls really enjoyed watching that. We had front row seats. Once that was over we decided we weren't quite done shopping so we went back up stairs. The girls each got a bag that holds their dolls and their clothes and Teresa got another outfit for Ariana's doll. It was quite a day and I'd have to say they all made out like bandits!
On our last day we intended to go to do a little more shopping around the city, but the wind was terrible. When they say 'windy city' they are not kidding. It literally took our breaths away! So we just ended up hanging out at the hotel for the afternoon until it was time to go to the train station. Haley and I did go back to the AGP because she decided she needed to get one more thing for Ariana. And since we were there I grabbed a jacket for each of the girls' dolls...i didn't want them getting to cold in the wind! They were both very excited about that.
Our train departed around 3 pm Tuesday afternoon. We ended up eating dinner in the dining car. That was fun trying to eat without spilling anything as you are swaying side to side! The ride seemed to go pretty fast until we had to stop for a short while to wait for another train. Then the time seemed to drag on. By the time we got home it was 1:30 am. Although we were completely exhausted it was an amazing trip and I'm so glad that I was able to experience that with my girls.
I am having some technical difficulties with blogger at the moment...it won't load any pics, so here is the link to the pictures from our trip...enjoy!

www.chicagotrip2008.shutterfly.com