Chi- town Weekend

I am here reliving a great weekend.

Nate and I were able to sneak away for a night sans kids in the wonderful city of Chicago!

It was so wonderfully romantic.

My expectations are low because anything is more romantic than our usual date night which consists of a quick bite and possibly a movie in which we rush home so the babysitter doesn't have to deal with trying to fight our oldest into going to bed. 

Don't get me wrong I live for those night outs.

But it makes this weekend uber special.

It all started with my baby sister asking us to meet them one weekend this fall in Chicago to getaway.  They were celebrating their anniversary and we were celebrating, well nothing except a day to sleep in.  I told her we would love to right away but the whole plan hinged on us finding a babysitter.  It's not like we have family near by to watch the kids while we go run off for the weekend.

So we started with the usual babysitters minus any of them that are in high school because they are not mature enough to watch four kids overnight.  The list was actually very short.

Then reality hit that we just aren't at a place were we can just pick up and leave for a weekend yet.

Then lo and behold through the wonderful connection of facebook, I sent a random email to a babysitter back in Ottumwa who is a freshman in college now AND she said yes! 

Woohoo. 

We lucked out and we started planning our getaway as fast as we could. 

 

We really didn't have any expectations of the trip other than eat, sleep and wake up after 6:00 am on Sunday morning.  Sounded like heaven.

I found out after we met up with Beth and Scott on Saturday afternoon that this trip was Scott's first to the Windy City.  I was shocked. 

I have been there at least a dozen times.  It is one of my favorite quick trip destinations and there is always something to do.  Beth introduced him to many of the stores on Michigan Ave right away. 

We checked into the Omni Hotel, thanks to my sister who made the reservations, and were well pleased with the room accommodations and the view!  A couple hotels I have stayed at in Chicago had views of brick walls, A/C units on the roof, and alleys.  So this was a beautiful sight. 

We could have spent the whole day/night in our hotel ordering room service and being lazy. 

But we didn't.

Our first stop was of course food!

We met up with Beth and Scott at the Gran Lux Cafe. 

The margaritas were delicious and we laughed the entire meal,

when we weren't all checking email, taking pictures, and checking sports scores on our iphones. 

It was actally quite comical.

 

{Beth and Scott -- so cute}

{Us -- even cuter!!!  lol}

 I didn't let Nate get dessert at lunch (he really wanted creme brulee) so we did some shopping and ended up in the Hershey Factory Store.  The smells as soon as you walk in the store are just enough to get you to buy every form of chocolate you see.  Beth couldn't resist the giant Hershey Syrup bottle.  Yum! 

There was some more shopping, an awesome deal in some super cute boots I bought, and a sprint back to the hotel during a downpour.  Beth and I walked into the hotel looking like drowned rats.  Her leather flats were a little water logged and my jeans wicked up so much water that I was wet from my toes to my knees. 

The boys (who had given up on the shopping and walked to Navy Pier) had taken a cab so were completely dry.

Beth and I cleaned up and put on dry clothes and we all headed to find yet another restaurant for dinner.  It was the theme of the weekend.  Yummy Food!

 

Beth had picked the Garn Lux for lunch so Nate was the lucky one to pick Dinner. 

Ditka's Steakhouse was the winner.

We had a few drinks at the bar and convinced the waiter to change 1 of

 the 20 tvs to the Buckeye game.

 {sisters}

The Buckeye game unfortunately wasn't done by the time we sat down for dinner so Nate set it up on his phone to watch it at the table.  Apparently there is an app for that! 

Our meal was to DIE for. 

We had wonderful filet mignon which Beth and I shared and lobster macaroni & cheese. 

I am still dreaming about that mac and cheese. 

It was a heavenly meal and to top it off Nate was finally allowed to order dessert.  Which he reluctantly let us each have one bite.  I might have snuck a few more in when he wasn't looking!  

 {Still in Love} 

 Sunday morning did I tell you I got to sleep in?

I still woke up around 8 am but at least it wasn't a wake up call at 6:30 in the morning.

I was really missing the little guys though.  They seemed to be having a wonderful time with the babysitter everytime I talked with them or got a picture.  The guilt started setting in that we were away from them so we decided to get breakfast and head home. 

The concierge suggested we try a place called Eggsperience.

It was good.  I ordered a farmers market frittata and it was delicious.

This blog post is starting to make my mouth water again.  No I didn't get a new job as a food critic I just really like to eat! 

{my frittata -- I could only eat a portion of it}

 We checked out of our beautiful accommodations at the Omni where housekeeping magically has fresh towels ready for you and ice in your ice bucket and the sheets get cleaned more than once every two weeks, and headed towards home where I am the housekeeping. 

But these four guys were waiting for us. 

There is nothing like the words "mommy" and their tiny arms wrapped around your legs and neck so tight they don't want to let go.   It is truly precious.

They got to tell us all the stories about how they played checkers, made homemade pizzas in the shapes of hearts, butterflies, and ducks, and got pancakes this morning. 

For some reason I don't think they missed us too much. 

 

Back to reality now, time to get lunches packed, clothes in the wash and set the alarm.

It's good to be home!