Chica en Chicago...

We drove down to Chicago on Monday morning, July 4th. We spent the day with Jason & Kayla there and then they dropped us off at a family I know from Chicago from my mission and then we stayed Monday night with them and they dropped us off at the airport the next day.

The list of things on the docket for Monday were:

to go to Giordonos Pizza:

{sadly, this is the only picture I got as my children were MONSTERS in the restaurant and we wanted to get out of there asap! I didn't get a picture of the delicious thick crust pizza that Chicago & especially Giordonos is famous for!}

Next stop, Navy Pier:

{This is the place where Ben proposed 8 years ago, almost to the day from when we were there! I love Navy Pier, it will always be a special place for me! :)}

Navy Pier is the Pier in downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan it has a whole bunch of fun things to do, like mini golf, a Ferris wheel, a whole bunch of vendors and restaurants. So, we just had a great time walking around and playing.

Tucker & I rode the Ferris wheel, just like Ben & I did after he proposed! :)

Navy Pier, from above...

I love this city, the beautiful Chicago!

Me & Tucker...

That afternoon they dropped us off at the Hurtado Family's house. I love this family so much! They are members in Chicago and I spent a year in their ward in Chicago as a missionary! We became tight! :) Hna. Hurtado is a great friend of mine still!

This is Tucker and their youngest son, Iver. He was about a year when I was a missionary and I called him my novio (boyfriend) and I called him Gordito. He was so chubby and cute! Now he is this tall and skinny cute 11 year old and he was so cute with Tucker, playing with him and being so nice! What a cute cute boy! :)

And this is Taylor & Isis. Since we were there the night of the 4th, we got a great show just right outside in the back alley way! :) Fireworks were going off all night all around us!

And this is Taylor eating her first Arepa. It is a typical Venezuelan food that is so so so delicious! It is essentially a thick homemade tortilla/bread thing filled with delicious meat and cheese. I couldn't make it if I tried probably, but Hermana & Hermano Hurtado know how it's done and they were fantastic! :)

Hermana Hurtado runs an in home day care and so the next day the house was full of kids, which Tucker loved! :) He had so much fun with his new friends. I'm glad he isn't shy, he really enjoyed his time with all these kids. We went to a little inner city park just a few blocks away from their house.

After the park we headed back to their house so Taylor could take a nap before we headed to the airport. I went in after a while and found her like this:

Here we are before going to the airport, wit the whole family...

Ilan, Zaida, Isis, Taylor, Me, Iver, Ivan and Tucker...

And just to show you what gordito looked like when I was a missionary, here we are Christmas day 2000 with Hermana Bytheway, my companion.

I love this family!!!

Me, Taylor & hermana...

I was sad to have such little time with them, I wish I had had longer. But I was excited to get down to Alabama and have fun with our cousins! :) Next time our trip to Chicago needs to be longer and Ben definitely needs to be with us! :) I missed him in Chicago!

In the land of Beer & Cheese...

Since we only had a limited time in Milwaukee, we jammed every day with as much as possible! We sure had fun, though! Friday we went to the zoo! Milwaukee has a great zoo and Kayla had volunteered there, so she was like our own personal zoo expert! :)

Cute cousins before the zoo...

I was just happy to be able to spend time with this beauty...

She loves her daddy, he can always make her smile! Oh man, she's adorable! And such a dreamy baby, too! I don't think I heard her cry once on our whole trip!

Tucker getting close to the tigers...

Taylor's favorite were the monkeys. She started making noises just like them and loved it! :) Jason got a video on his i-pad, I'm going to have to get it from him! :)

The way I prefer to do the zoo, is from the train...

kissin' fools...

This little girl started eating solids while we were there. Not sure she liked it so much! :)

And my personal fav, the Milwaukee 3rd District indoor farmers market. I truly got to taste the best of Milwaukee. Here we are eating brawt, brew and cheese curds (My FAVORITE!). The brew is Sprekers Root beer, yummy! We have truly been to Milwaukee now! Count us in!

After the farmers market we headed to the Children's museum and had a great time.

We walked downtown a bit to see the city and the sights. Taylor fell asleep in her stroller, just like this...

funny lady!

That night Kayla & I left Jason home with the kids and hit the town! Milwaukee has this huge outdoor music festival every year. There were like 10 stages and all these big name bands and singers, I was really impressed. The group I wanted to see more than anything while I was there was Maroon 5. I am in love with Adam Levine. Don't worry, Ben knows about this love affair!

We got there at 7 and the concert didn't start until 10 so Kayla and I just hung out and listened to some other no name bands and chatted and had a good time. We actually got really good seats since we were there so early. By 9:30 a SEA of people had formed and we were lucky enough to get on the benches, but it went back forever!

Finally the show started. It was so great, one of the best concerts! Probably just because I love their music, but I was in heaven! :) I think all the ladies were, Adam is so smokin'! :)

And there he is, in all of his rock and roll glory...

It was so much fun to get out with my little sissy and be away from the kids for an evening of fun with her! :)

The next day was Sunday and I had to take a picture of Kenzie making this face while asleep on Jason's shoulder. So stinkin' cute!

We resumed our motherly roles and made homemade chocolate chip cookies, went on a walk around the cute little park across the street from them, ate delicious frozen custard and watched the best movie ever made, ponyo! :) If anyone has ever seen that movie, I am sorry. I wish I could take back those two hours of my life! :)

I wish we had more time in Milwaukee with them, but it was a little hard fitting 6 people into their little 700 square foot apartment, we were jammed in like a can of sardines! I am sure they were happy to have their home back after our invasion! They have the cutest little place though and I was happy to just be there with them and to see where they live and their little life in Milwaukee! If only it were a little closer...

Road Trippin'...

Well we made it. Looking back on it now, it's all just one big blur, but my sister and I made the trek half way across the country with our three children, and we're still alive to tell about it. We loaded up on Monday the 27th (three days after I got home from the trek) and headed out east. It was a tight squeeze and I felt bad for the three little ones jammed back in the back seat all together. Day 1 we drove about 7.5 hours and stopped in Livingston, MT where my brother in law's grandmother lives. It was so beautiful! She literally lives in Yellowstone. Her house had the most amazing views and she was so kind to have nice warm beds for us and a nice hot breakfast in the morning. It was a much needed break after all day in the car. (little did we know what lied ahead for us!) :)

Day 2 we got up early and headed out to Rapid City, SD. Another 7 hour drive or so. We wanted to stop there because that is where Mt. Rushmore is and we thought it would be a good resting place and you can't go much more than 7 hours with kids in the car in one day. We stayed at a hotel with a great pool! So, even though we got there like at 8pm and I should have put my kids to bed right away, they were dying to get in the pool. So we stayed up until 10 swimming that night! :) They had to kick us out of the pool when it closed.

And then after swimming we were starving so we ordered room service and got a pizza delivered to our room. We were in heaven. It was so nice being in such luxury after spending two days in a car!

This is what I woke up to the next morning. Both of my kids are wild sleepers! I was tucked in that upper corner there all curled up in a ball.

Day 3: The next morning we headed up to Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty cool. There isn't a whole lot more that you can do than just take a few pics. So we stopped and took a few pics, changed a few diapers and headed on our way.

Tucker found my camera and I found a few gems...

That third day was the hardest. We were driving for a total of 10 hours that day, not including stops. We drove through South Dakota, southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. There wasn't a whole lot to see than flat fields that went on forever and ever. The kids were rock stars though and were great! We did have to stop about every 1/2 hour to an hour for potty breaks, food breaks, leg stretching breaks. But it actually didn't seem all that bad.

We got to a place in Wisconsin that night around 11pm called the Wisconsin Dells. It is like a mini Las Vegas in Wisconsin. Well, without the gambling. But it is this tiny little town that has just blossomed out of nowhere and has all these huge themed hotels with water parks and theme parks. It is only about 3 hours from Milwaukee, but we needed to stop and I thought that Tucker would love to stay in a place like this. So, Jason drove out and met us there. He said that when we pulled in that night both my sister and I were bug eyed and laughing like maniacs. So maybe the trip did take it's toll on us, but we were just too much in our own little world to notice! :) We stayed at this really cool African themed hotel that night and woke up the next morning and stayed all day playing at their water parks.

The outdoor park:

This is cute little Kenzie at the indoor park in the baby water swings. One of her first times being in the water like this.

And here is Taylor in those same water swings...

My beautiful little lady...

After a while in the indoor park, we ventured outside. It was a nice and hot day, but the water outside was fa-reezing! We still enjoyed our time; and Taylor enjoyed these nachos :)

Later that afternoon, we headed into Milwaukee. Those three hours were nothing compared to what we had just driven over the past 3 days. I was so so so happy to finally be in Milwaukee and have one leg of this trip under my belt. I feel like after doing this, I can do anything!

Some highlights of the trip were listening to Justin Bieber over and over and over! He was our musical inspiration for this trip. Somehow we left without any CD's except Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars. So that was the only music we had the whole time! I have the entire Justin Bieber CD memorized now. Another memorable moment was the roast beef incident. Taylor was in the middle the whole trip; So that meant that Kezie's rear facing car seat was within arms length of her. We always found things in Kenzies car seat because Taylor loves to throw things. Well, one day we had eaten lunch at Arby's. After going through the drive through we were on our way. A few hours later when we stopped for a potty break we found Kenzie with a huge piece of Roast Beef covering half of her face. We were dying. It was the funniest thing in the world to us at the time. :) And cute little Kenzie didn't even ever complain about it, just went on her merry way with a piece of roast beef on her face, poor little girl. She definitely learned what it would have been like for her with older siblings. Taylor tormented her and Tucker just loved and loved on her! :)

We had 5 days to spend in Milwaukee and we were so happy to finally be there and get to spend this time with Jason, Kayla & Kenzie. Now the fun can really begin!