That Night I Played Mommy

So the other night my niece, Charlotte, came to spend the night with us. OVERNIGHT! Talk about excitement! Matt and Megan had to be out of town for a few days and my mother-in-law was working, so naturally she came to stay with Aunt KK and Uncle Landon.

I went to Senatobia and watched her at her house for the morning, while we waited on something to be delivered from UPS. Then we headed to Tunica.

Sweet girl slept all the way there, so obviously, she did not sleep when we got to the house. But she was so good. She just laid in her play pen and talked to herself for at least an hour! After "nap time" we scrounged around the house and tried to find some toys. Our house is not kid friendly yet.. So the toys we found? A crazy hat, tupperware, and a wooden spoon.

Obviously from the pictures, she enjoyed the toys.

That night we went to Lifegroups for church, where C was the CENTER of attention. This girl does not meet a stranger. She loved one of our members, Laura, the most :)

We left pretty much right after Lifegroups ended. I figured since sista didn't have a nap, she was pretty tired.

Once home, we did night-time routine. (I've been at Matt and Megan's enough times to know how it goes:) )

Bath. Jammies. Milk. Book. Prayers

The girl went down like a champ. No cries. No whining. Nothing. Man, I hope my kids are that good.

She slept for 12 hours straight. When we woke up, we had to get some snuggles in.

I felt like true mommy, because we planned a play date with one of the little girls from our church.

Pretty much how the play date went. Sweet claire was so tired!

After lunch, we headed to MiMi's!

Having Charlotte over was so fun! People say thats the best birth control there is, but I think it had the opposite effect on me! It doesn't help that she was pretty much the perfect baby! Thanks Matt and Megan for letting us keep her!

**Please excuse the long post, but this was the first night one of our nieces/nephews has stayed the night with us :) :) :) **

Chicago: Day 2

Tuesday, we headed out to the city early to get in as much as time as we could! We got a GOChicago card, which allows you to pay a certain price and you can go to any as many of their 25 attractions in Chicago as you can fit in before 5:00. So needless to say we had a PACKED day!

We started out at the Sears' Tower Skydeck.

We even stood over the edge! GASP!

Next we had lunch. Kenna and Andrew went to a little French Market and Landon and I ate a cafe near Millennium Park.

Then on to The Art Institute of Chicago. No, I am not engaging in criminal activity here. Much to my surprise they do let you take pictures in the museum, just no flash!

Then to Shedd Aquarium.

Then to dinner at one of Kenna's finds- Gino's East. We did have deep dish pizza.

After dinner, we took the River Architecture Cruise. It was one of our favorite things we did the entire week! I am so glad we took it at night. You can't beat this view.

Needless to say, we were SPENT by the end of the day!

Chicago: Day 4 and 5

After the storm of the century (at least thats what Yahoo! thought it was going to be) came through the night before, Thursday was CHILLY people. No wonder they call it the Windy City!

We planned on going swimming in Lake Michigan, but just pictures in front of it was enough for us!

After our little photo session, we just took our time and walked around the city. I went shopping at H&M. I could have bought the whole store, but I walked out only spending $25.00. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. We went and ate another pizza place. It was fun just to take our time eating, have no plan, and just talk about life.

We went to Navy Pier Thursday. Honestly, it was kind of a disappointment. More for kids if you ask me. We did ride the ferris wheel though!

After Navy Pier, we went back to the Condo and chilled out a little. Then we went back into the city for our last night! We went to a restaurant called The Hub. It was so good! The owner or manager (not sure which) even came to meet us and gave a a huge piece of carrot cake which was gone in 2.5 seconds. On the way to the restaurant, we had the most hilarious bus driver. All the bus drivers we had through out the week seemed like they hated their job, but she was just having a good ole time! 

After dinner we went to a Jazz Club. A live band was playing 40's Jazz music. Landon and I were going to get out there and dance, but the people who were dancing seemed like professionals, so we just watched from a distance!

Day 5 was just driving home, so nothing really worth nothing!

We had so much fun with Andrew and Kenna! I even dreamed the other night we were going back for a "weekend" trip! Yes, please!

Chicago: Day 3

We started out Wednesday kinda slowly. First of all its vacation, and second of all we add an EXTREMELY busy day the day before.

We went out to breakfast at Ann Sather's. How do I put into words how good this place is? I would drive up to Chicago right now to eat here again, but then again I'm pretty partial to breakfast foods.

Look at these Cinnamon Rolls. They are SLAP YO MOMMA good people. And get this, they were ONE of my two sides to the entree. 

After the breakfast Landon and I ran to target to try to find him a rain jacket because rain was in he forecast for the baseball game we were going to that day. NO where in Chicago sells rain jackets. What do people in Chicago do when it rains?! Anyway, no luck there but I did get a compliment from a guy that I had pretty feet. I think he was trying to hit on me, but EW!WEIRD.

After our target escapade, we headed to Wrigley Field for the Cubs game. If my husband could have his way and we had lots of money, we would visit every baseball field in America. So heres to starting.. only 28 more to go! 

They lost, but we still had fun! And honestly I think the true Cardinal inside Landon was okay with that!

Notice Landon is wearing his Cardinals hat to the CHICAGO game.

After the game we went back to the condo for some R&R. That night each couple went their separate ways for date night.

 There was a horrible storm brewing outside so we didn't go far. Andrew and Kenna were much braver than we were and ventured into the city. We ate at a little fancy restuarant a few doors down from our condo. Cool atmosphere and my food was good. Landon's on the other hand.. not so much. Lets just say we aren't fancy people.