The weekend that was

We haven't been on vacation with friends since Grace was 4 1/2 months old.

She's 13 1/2 now.

I know...

I don't know why we haven't done it since then, it was a BLAST.

So, back in April, we decided to do it again with our friends Ryan and Kristin Eby and their daughters.

We get together as often as we can now with our busy schedules, so we decided why not have a long weekend together in Chicago, right?

So, we did.

This past weekend.

We drove in separately and met at our hotel and then took the train downtown for supper and a White Sox game (Evan's FAVORITE team.)

We ate GREAT pizza, then a security guard came over and told the kids to get away from the fountain.

WHATEVER.  We laughed and laughed.

Then we took another train down to the stadium.

While we waited for the game to start, the kids got in a little batting practice at the "fundamentals" part of the ballpark.

We even had a fireworks show when the game was done.

It was a late game, so we headed back to the hotel pretty late, and hit the hay.

After breakfast in the morning, we drove into town for a day of shopping, AND eating of course.

The kids were all REALLY great about shopping in stores for each other.  Lego and sports stores for Evan, clothing stores for the girls.

Cheesecake factory...YUM!

We talked CONSTANTLY, and laughed ALL THE TIME.

Their girls, Courtney and Kaitlyn are just about the same ages as our kids, so they have a great time together too.

Our last stop downtown was Navy Pier.

We did a lot of people watching, and the kids rode the Ferris wheel.

We said our goodbyes to the Ebys once we left Navy Pier.  They headed back home to Indiana, and we took the train back to our hotel for one more night in Chicago.

It was a POWER weekend, but we had SO MUCH FUN.  

We all decided this should be something we do again.  If only for another weekend somewhere.

Too bad it's over, but it sure is good to sleep in your own bed again!