Chicago

They are not lying when they say that Chicago is the "windy city". Unfortunately for us, it was also cold (in the 40's) & raining when we went. We made the best of it until the rain stopped though! On the first day we ended up at the nature museum with lots of little animals to look at. We loved this butterfly bench at the entrance.

The best part was the butterfly haven.

The subway was a good way (& pretty much the only way) to get this one to nap.

I love that these were taken one right after each other on the subway : )

We had researched two pizza places that were supposed to be awesome to try out when we were there. We tried Giordano's the first night. We first had to wait about 30 minutes under the awning to even get a table. Little one was a trouper in the cold rain!

Inside there was graffiti all over the place (Italian Inn style!)

Their famous deep dish takes almost an hour & so we had a lot of entertaining to do while we waited.

She loved the spinach artichoke dip appetizer!

It was worth the wait!

The crust reminded me of cornbread & was my vote on favorite pizza.

When the rain finally stopped we headed out to Navy Pier. Still super cold & windy though!

A beautiful view of the city!

On night two we ate delicious Indian food at India House. It had been a long day (with one short nap) & she just slept in the booth-such a good girl!

Hands-down best museum I've been to for kiddos was the Chicago Children's Museum. Think of anything children would think was cool & they had it: treehouse room, huge pirate-ship slide, dinosaur bone pit, water works room (where you wear raincoats), play house room with lots of sheets to make "houses" with, the list could go on & on. She appreciated some of it, but we will have to go back when she is older...seriously, maybe instead of Disney World : )

Of course she loved the grocery carts.

Although we missed the tulips at the Arboretum this year, they were at their peak in Chicago! Gorgeous & all over!

The Cubs game that we had tix for got cancelled because of the rain, but thankfully we got to see our Rangers play the Sox at Cellular Field. (From the second row I might add.)

Our great view.

Because it was so cold we were bundled up with our Rangers' gear barely visible, but still spotted by Fox Sports SouthWest. Check out the video below.
Shaw's live on FSW at Rangers Game

We still ate lots of good ballpark food! Yummy churro!

And watched a great game with a win for our team!

On the last day we went to the Chicago Zoo.

She loved watching this monkey swing up close!

Tulips in front of the zoo.

Then lunch at Lou Malnati's for what Bran decided was his favorite deep dish pizza.

And she learned what a "ring pop" is...one of the many tricks in my bag for the plane ride. We actually needed this for the long security line.

Minus the rain the first two days, it was overall a great trip!