Our Kind of Town

Earlier this summer, we had a chance to breeze through Chicagoland too quickly. It was a short visit with too much to do and see, but it won't be our last, and we're already looking forward to our next trip up. I've been way too long in getting these cataloged and put up, but at last here are some clips. You should know that when we got out of the car at our hotel (the Omni Hotel, as Oprah says, "in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile") Madeline literally looked up and all around and then waved. Just in general at the sky and everything around - she waved to say "Hello, Chicago!!" It was awesome.

Here's our little city girl out for a walk in the Gold Coast a block from the lake. She loved the wind in her hair almost as much as she loved undoing the velcro on her shoes. She also loved to wave at random passers-by. We'd find people waving at us when we were out walking a few times, then looked down to find it was because Madeline was waving at them.

They were filming the new Transformers movie while we were there, and we walked right by one of the sets. That's what's going on in the background here, though I didn't notice that random guy's head in the middle of my shot. It was one of those "quick, let's take a picture now" kind of moments, but we got it.

We met up with Aunt Laura and a whole gang of Chicago friends for lunch and a trip to Millennium Park. A cloudburst nearly ruined the outing, but thanks to some quick texting and a group of SMC Chicks who like to plan things, we met up from different directions at Macys' food court (which we had completely to ourselves) to eat our picnic lunches before going over to the park. Here's Madeline with her godmother and another irresistable treat - a water bottle. Madeline LOVES those things for some reason.

Here we are at a quick stop at Cloud Gate, or "The Bean" sculpture in Millennium Park. I love how Dave and Madeline have the same squinty face when you look from their noses up.

And this is pretty funny - a family self-portrait in The Bean... for some reason, we're all making almost the exact same face, which kind of makes me laugh. We might look a little dorky, but that's ok. We're happy too. :)