we found THE bean.

a couple of weeks ago already, the kiddos and I tagged along with my younger sister, Pigg, on her work trip to Chicago:) We LOVE to travel...near or far...and I really want the kiddos to be well traveled as well! And this family is neverrrrrr, EVERRRRRRR, going to pass up a free hotel stay;)

thank jesus for the free breakfast...which only slightly made up for how shitty the hotel was in every.single.way. Arg. But again...FREE...so no more complaints;)

unfortunately, Pigg had to work the entire time we were there...so she missed out on our adventuring:( BUT the kids and I had THE greatest time. Only thing missing was Jacob...and my aunt Vicki, who I spent many an adventure with in Chicago as a child...she wasn't able to join us but NEXT TIME:) xoxo.

i went back and forth about going downtown with both kids - and a stroller and backpack and purse and 2 KIDS and their attitudessssssss and my sometimes missing patience - but I'm SO sooooooo happy we did it:) The kids did SO great taking the train - the rest of the train-goer's may disagree;) - it did take a bit of effort/entertaining on my part but we did good:) And we couldn't have done it without the help of a few very kind strangers. The experience definitely reminded me how great helping can be and that it isn't an entirely lost art and how much more I want to make a conscience effort to be aware of those around me and offer a helping hand:)

the weather couldn't have been better - about 72 and sunny:) And we were fortunate because the rest of the days of our trip were very chilly:/

my only goal was to make it to The Bean:) We've been to Chicago several times and I don't know that I've ever been to the bean - maybe as a child and I don't remember? - but Jacob and I and the kids have been down here and never had the opportunity to get to that area.

i wore Theo in the Ergo and pushed Homer in the little stroller. It worked perfectly. Theo passed out almost immediately and missed the whole experience...but that was probably best for everyone;)

i couldn't stop smiling:) Just making it, with both kids, to this place I'd built up in my mind...in a big City, by myself...felt like such a huge accomplishment:) 

And it was perfect:)

we happened upon a little craft area that had live music and an area for us to take a quick break and have a smoothie and dip our feet in the water:) As much as I loved The Bean, these random little stops are our favorites:)

i love making these little videos...but it was sort of an after thought, so this one isn't one of my best. In the future I'm hoping to remember to grab a bit more video.

i'm beyond grateful that we had our one wonderful day in downtown Chicago...cause the kids jacked up the rest of our stay being completeeeee DICKKKKKSSSS! OMG. I can't stress that enough. HUGE.ASSHOLES. Big Time. THE BIGGESTTTTTTT. Catching my drift?!?!?!?!;)

but luckily, we had such a great time on our one sunny day downtown that they weren't able to ruin our trip entirely - pizza and snacks and naps and a bit of shopping helped too;)

until our next adventure...xoxo, the Smith's:)