A Chicago Adventure
The kids had a four day weekend and for the first time in a long time, I had a chance to take advantage of those extra days and take the kids on an adventure. I thought it would be a fun chance to visit my favorite city and have a chance for Jordan to meet up with our prosthetist to help tweak her helper arm. The darn kid keeps growing!
The extra twist to our adventure? I was leaving on an 8 day trip for work the day after we returned from the city… and a trip each week through March. My head has been spinning pretty non-stop and I haven’t had a chance to tell the tale of our adventures. But I think it’s still worth sharing because we packed in a very full weekend.
We started out driving straight to the Legoland Discovery Center in Shaumburg. Both kids love Legos and this seemed like a great way to kick things off. We planned to stay with friends in nearby Wheaton the first night we were in town, so this was a great spot to visit first. We also had Born Just Right friends meet us there. It’s SO awesome to get the chance to see friends everywhere we go.
Highlights of Legoland included a ton of awesome life-sized Lego displays, a massive play zone where you can build anything and everything, cheesy 4D movies, learn how Legos are made and and take an expert Lego building class. We ate a snack and played and had a lot of fun. After driving seven hours to get there, I’d say it was totally worth it. The kids also got Activity Packs where they could answer questions and learn extra facts about Legos. In the end, the kids each had money from Grandma Lee and spent it on cool Lego toys to take home. We had a chance to spend the evening with good friends after a goofy dinner at a nearby Rainforest Cafe.
The next morning, I packed the kids up and headed to the city. Another one of my friends happens to live downtown so we could adventure around the city and stay with her. She wouldn’t hear it when I mentioned snagging a hotel. She’s that good of a friend.
Before we went to the city, I made sure to pick up a City Pass. It gives you a ticket book of discounts at some of the kids’ favorite spots in the city. I figured it was worth the expense since Jordan and I will be back in the city in July so we’ll be able to use any of the coupons we didn’t use during our February trip. Our first stop was the Field Museum. A few years back, you might remember, we spent the night at the museum in the middle of a helper arm building experience. Our adventure that night was quite possibly one of our best experiences. Seriously. If you ever have a chance to attend Dozin’ with the Dinos, do it. So on our return, the City Pass gave us a chance to get entrance ahead of the big lines and we could watch two 3D movies. I had a chance to meet up with a couple of my former students at the same time so we could all adventure around the muesum and visit with Sue the T-Rex. After the Field, we had a plan to spend the second half of our day at the Museum of Science and Industry.
When we got there, all of the cool movies and experiences we pre-paid for with the City Pass were sold out for the day. So instead, I snagged tickets for Sunday and bundled the kids back up to visit the Sears Tower… Oh, whoops. It’s called the Willis Tower now. I keep forgetting.
Jordan and I have visited the Hancock Tower but none of us have visited the top of the Sears/Willis since they added the SkyDeck. It’s four little decks that are attached to the top of the building – fully glassed enclosures so you can feel like you’re floating over the city. 
It seemed crazy and scary for me but I was willing to give it a try. We had timed our visit out to have a chance to see the sun set from the top. That was my plan until I saw the huge line. There was no way we would have made it except for the fact our City Pass gave us a super fast access to the top. The pass basically allows you to skip just about everyone. That was awesome. I am certain my already exhausted kids would not have tolerated the experience without skipping the long line. The chance to see the view from daylight to night lights was awesome. The experience in the glass SkyDeck was awesome. We loved it so much, we went into it twice. In between sibling spats at the top of the tower, we had a blast.
We capped off the day by snagging a friend and taking us all to Ed Debevic’s. The waiter berated us just the way he was supposed to berate us. We ate well and had a lot of fun.
The next day, we packed up and headed to American Girl to enjoy a brunch. Yes, I couldn’t help myself. We have so much fun there. Cameron is a kind brother to put up with the silliness. Jordan just got Kit for Christmas and she was excited to bring her to the store. We also picked up the new Sage book where there is a short story in the back about Lizzy Traband who rides trick horses with one hand.
After our yummy brunch, we jumped into the car and rushed to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. We had scheduled some really fun movies and a chance to see the final day of the Charles Schulz exhibit. Both kids love Snoopy, Charlie Brown and their friends so the experience was super fun. But their favorite spot was the section that lets you learn all about weather. Both kids loved understanding more about tornados, tsunamis and more. We also had a chance to meet up with Jordan’s pen pal. We didn’t get to play for a super long time, but the girls had a blast.
After those two big adventures, we were ready to head back to our friend’s house in Wheaton to chill out a bit before our appointment with Mr. David to tweak Jordan’s helper arm the next day. There’s something incredibly exciting about time in the city and with all of our friends in and around Chicago. We’re thankful for such an amazing adventure and I can’t wait for Jordan and I to return in the summer. Not only are we going to build her next helper arm, I’m running in the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon and speaking during Healthminder and BlogHer. Jordan gets to join me (except for the race) the whole time. It’s going to be crazy and hopefully fun.