31st Birthday Chicajo Style!

No my title is not a typo.  I celebrated my 31st birthday in my home state and we went to "Chicajo" for the weekend.  Caleb had a hard time pronouncing CHICAGO so the closests we got to it was Chicajo... it was pretty cute!  Anyway, the fam and I packed up our suitcases and headed to Chicago for the weekend.  It was such a beautiful perfect weekend!  We flew out of Dallas, Thursday night after work and arrived at our hotel pretty late Thursday evening.  I was hoping in honor of my birthday Caleb would allow all of us to sleep in a little bit but seriously, who are we kidding.  So bright and early Friday morning my sweet little boy came jumping up on the bed shouting, "Wake up!  The sun is out!"  Since we did not have a car and we were waiting on my parents to get there we decided to order room service before heading to watch my boys in blue play!!

A few hours later we were ready to make the drive to Wrigley Field for a Cubbies game.  I was really worried Caleb wouldn't make it through the whole game, but he was SO GREAT!!  He was able to take a good nap on Grandpa's shoulder before the game started so that probably helped! Of course there were lots of treats like hotdogs, ice cream, m&ms, pretzels, and other things, but he really did well.  The best part of the game was the 7th inning when we were finally able to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game.  Once we were done singing Caleb was ready to go home, but he lasted a few more innings before the Cubs decided to almost blow the game and send it into extra innings!  YIKES!!  Anyway, we could start to feel the breeze off the lake and the sun was going down so we decided it was time to go.  Even though we didn't stay for the whole game, my boys did end up winning GO CUBBIES!

It wouldn't have been a trip to Wrigley Field if we didn't go stop by to see the infamous Harry Carry!

After a day at the ballpark, Saturday my parents took us downtown before heading back home.  We got up and went across the street for breakfast where they had this pretty little corner display of fountains and a trail.  So after we ate we went to take a few pictures before leaving.

So off we were to downtown Chicago and headed to Shedd Aquaruim which by far is probably the best aquarium I have ever been too.  We had a little bit of a wait to get into it, but the day was beautiful and the aquarium is located right on Lake Michigan, GORGEOUS!  We pretty much spent the whole day there and Caleb loved every second of it.  We saw everything from fish and dolphins to Dora/Diego 4D and Anacondas... yes I said Anacondas.  I was not a fan of that section of the aquarium.  I took a picture of that thing and you will be able to see WHY I was ready to leave!

It was such a long and fun day that poor Caleb passed out on the way back to the hotel.  We figured that since we had been out all day and we weren't exactly familiar with downtown Chicago, that we would pick up some sandwiches on the way back to the room and just have a low key night which was exactly what we all needed.  We took showers, ate, read books, watched football and just had a relaxing end of the night!



Our last day in Chicago, wasn't quite as nice.  It was cold (well what we consider cold in Texas anyway) and rainy and that was the day we had decided to go to Navy Pier and the Children's Museum.  The good thing about it was that the museum was actually apart of Navy Pier so we didn't have to be outside very long.  Caleb was in exploration heaven in this place and I so wish Dallas had something like it for kids because it was fantastic!!  There were different rooms for every type of exploration! 

The Move Room

So this room was all about play.  Run, jump, bounce, hop, skip, climb, crawl.  One little area had tires stacked up and you could climb to the top and ring the bell. Caleb almost made it all the way up and then decided he didn't want to go any further!

Chicago Fire Department

Caleb's favorite section!  And when I say favorite I mean we had to carry him out kicking, screaming, and crying!  It was definitely cool though.  The area had a room that was filled with gray nets draped from the ceiling to teach the kids how to stay low to the ground during a fire and crawl through smoke.  Another part of the room had phones set up to show how to dial 911 and dress up clothes for the kids to dress like firemen... ADORABLE!   They also had a fire truck that the kids could climb on and a place where they could shoot water at the fire in the windows, SO COOL!

Water Room

Ok so how cool is it that this museum had a room where kids could just go play on a huge water table in raincoats?!?!?  OH MY WORD... they had raincoats of all sizes and colors, it was so fun and cute!

Dinosaurs!

How fun is it that you could dig for dinosaur bones?!?! I have a little palentologist on my hands for sure!

Seriously this was probably the best birthday ever!  Even though we did have a huge plane delay on the way home, I wouldn't have done anything differently, it was great!