Hello.
Would you like to read about our family's trip to the Chicago area? Yes?
Read on.
First, some disclaimers:
1. While you might be about to read a whole itinerary of disasters or disappointments, please know that there are a handful of graces and goodness along the way as well. I plan to write those at the end as well as sprinkled in between.
1a. I also am adding in drama and sarcasm in effort to be able to laugh off said disasters and disappointments.
2. I love my husband and feel so thankful that in the midst of all of the debacles, we remained a tight team.
Ok, here we go:
Friday:
8:15am - leave relatively on time
8:20am - Older two kids start saying "I'm hungry!" and mind you, they'd already eaten breakfast.
9am - Z starts fussing and not consoling or wanting snacks. For those of you who know him, for him to refuse a puff or mum mum is highly confusing and concerning. We just figure his appetite is off since he has had a cold the last few days.
11:15am - arrive at air bnb. Lovely place, lovely yard for the kids to play in, but constant cold and rain. No worries, we will just enjoy inside and take a nap.
12:pm - Z wakes up from a poop dropping 20 min into his nap and will not go back to sleep. Also, he won't eat anything solid except food pouches. *what in the world!?*
All afternoon: Older two having the time of their life watching cartoons and kids shows!
Late afternoon: Z finally sleeps again. But then he wakes up a few min later with another bomb drop in his diaper.
Supper time: We decided to try a restaurant called the Burger Social. It was a super cool atmosphere and the food was amazing. We had gotten seated when we realized Z was just going to fuss and not eat or console (also not normal for him at all). At this point, we wondered about hand foot and mouth. We got our food to go, went back to the house and checked his mouth and feet. Poor guy. we found sores! :( So sad.
All night long: Z won't sleep much
Saturday:
-SUPER early wake up.
-frantically worked hard to make the Metra on time to go downtown just to find out we are actually 30 min early. No worries. We can still enjoy the wait.
.....
.........but Z is fussing. A lot. I think it is safe to say that you can just know that with most of the things I list from here on out, Z is fussing or screaming or crying.
8:54am -Temperature is in the 40's and abnormally windy. Train arrives. Much excitement from the older kids!
9:51am - arrive in Chicago
After deliberation and having to hold our hats on our heads from not blowing off in the vicious wind (and complaining kids) we decided to take a bus to Millennium park.
Sometime am: Finally found the bus stop we wanted. Bus pulls but requires exact change, which, you guessed it! We don't have. So,take the bus? JUST KIDDING.
-We walk a mile. The city is overstimulating our son. We console the kids with the possibility of a coffee shop and treat.
Sometime later am: Arrive at a "hip and urban" coffee shop to find zero seating and a bunch of judge-y looking people staring at us (I THINK for being a family in a very singles friendly environment?).
Post coffee shop: The bean. Kids are at this point done with the city's charms (though the weather actually took a cloud break and peeked some sun out on us!) and have little interest in looking at the bean.
11-something am: Walk to another bus stop to catch the train back to the suburbs and just all rest/recover.
-we wait about 12 min.
-it starts to rain.
-bus comes and for a few min, there is much joy in the kids' faces as they experience their first bus ride.
12:-something. We are unable to pull the stop request on the bus in time to get off at our stop so we have to get off at the next stop to re-orient and figure out where the train station is.
12:39pm: we realize we are still across the street from the train station and our train leaves in 1 min.
12:42pm: We arrive after running, at the tracks where there is no mo trains going out to the burbs. For two more hours. TWO more hours. Had we not missed our bus stop we would have made it.
12:42pm-2:40pm: I walk circles around Ogilvie Station pushing Z in the stroller and trying to keep him from crying while the kids explored a bookstore with dad, and played card games from a playing deck purchased at said bookstore (the deck cost $2039430.95 because it was, well, from said bookstore). Gosh darn Illinois train station crooks! "C" is for crooks as well. Is it possible that the terms "highway robbery" originated from the crookery that is the Illinois Tollways!? And bookstores?And CTA systems? And the taxes? And the fuel prices? and?!
.....*cough cough* I digress.
2:40pm: Thank you, God, we are on the train! Z cries most of the way but it's ok because we are ON THE WAY.
3:something pm - our stop! We all grab our stuff and make our way down to the first floor of the train just to have the doors lock on us as we approach them. Apparently we only have 0.5 seconds to get ourselves and our children and luggage down stairs and off the train. Either that or it is a secret Metra ploy to discourage parents from bringing their crying babies on board. hmmm.
3: far too freaking late in the day pm - we get off the train and prepare to walk in biting winds over a mile back to the previous train station to get our van.
GOD'S GRACE!!!! A kind man took note of our situation and drove Joshua back to the van so he could then come pick the rest of us up. It was a cold wait, but it would have been worse to walk it!
4:00pm- rest time. Sweet, glorious...short lived...rest time. :)
Around 6:30 at night we realize there is no way we could bring Z out to any restaurant so we go to the nearest grocery store and pick something up to eat at the house.
Late:pm - Bed time after much ado about everything via the older two. Does that even make sense!? Oh well. Moving on.
Sunday
5:45 am: Awake for the morning.
10:30am- Church ( I held Z in lobby most of the time but I heard a few things).
12:00pm- We decided to eat at Blackberry Market in Glen Ellyn because it sounded tasty but mostly because we wanted to be able to grab food and hit the road. That way, poor Z could take his nap for the majority of the ride home. Sounds like a reasonable plan, aye?
WRONG.
12:15ish pm - The freight train that Israel is so excited to watch go by as we wait in a long string of cars to get to the other side of the track (where our restaurant is) suddenly comes to a halt and just....remains.
.....and remains.
..........and remains.
Halted.
We park the van and walk around hoping it will soon pass. Something had happened because there were police on the other side of the tracks. Eventually we realized this puppy was here for the long haul. We get back in the van and drive to the second alternate crossing (since the first one was closed for construction!) in order to make it to Blackberry Market.
1:30 or 2pm, not even sure- we went in restaurant long enough to order "to go." I had to take Z back to the car because in the short time we were ordering he leaked through his diaper. I changed him to find it wasn't just a pee leak. He had a full on poopsplosion. Wonderful. I'll leave it at that.
230980398 min later and food snarfed down, we hit the road for Indiana.
6:45pm - Our little home never looked so sweet!
Conclusion:
The drama didn't stop after we arrived home, but I will leave the rest unspoken of. I am thankful for time with my family, we definitely had sweet moments. My favorite part, I think, of the whole trip, was how close together Joshua and I remained as a team, encouraging each other and loving each other through it. I think a lot of times it's tempting to turn on each other in frustration and that didn't happen. I am thankful. I also loved seeing Israel find coins on the ground in a few different places but asking to go back and put those same coins into a homeless man's cup. He was very concerned for him. I love his soft heart for the hurting. We also got to play cards in the evenings in the cozy and wonderful air bnb place we stayed in. That was nice. :)
Finally, here are some photos from our trip:
Would you like to read about our family's trip to the Chicago area? Yes?
Read on.
First, some disclaimers:
1. While you might be about to read a whole itinerary of disasters or disappointments, please know that there are a handful of graces and goodness along the way as well. I plan to write those at the end as well as sprinkled in between.
1a. I also am adding in drama and sarcasm in effort to be able to laugh off said disasters and disappointments.
2. I love my husband and feel so thankful that in the midst of all of the debacles, we remained a tight team.
Ok, here we go:
Friday:
8:15am - leave relatively on time
8:20am - Older two kids start saying "I'm hungry!" and mind you, they'd already eaten breakfast.
9am - Z starts fussing and not consoling or wanting snacks. For those of you who know him, for him to refuse a puff or mum mum is highly confusing and concerning. We just figure his appetite is off since he has had a cold the last few days.
11:15am - arrive at air bnb. Lovely place, lovely yard for the kids to play in, but constant cold and rain. No worries, we will just enjoy inside and take a nap.
12:pm - Z wakes up from a poop dropping 20 min into his nap and will not go back to sleep. Also, he won't eat anything solid except food pouches. *what in the world!?*
All afternoon: Older two having the time of their life watching cartoons and kids shows!
Late afternoon: Z finally sleeps again. But then he wakes up a few min later with another bomb drop in his diaper.
Supper time: We decided to try a restaurant called the Burger Social. It was a super cool atmosphere and the food was amazing. We had gotten seated when we realized Z was just going to fuss and not eat or console (also not normal for him at all). At this point, we wondered about hand foot and mouth. We got our food to go, went back to the house and checked his mouth and feet. Poor guy. we found sores! :( So sad.
All night long: Z won't sleep much
Saturday:
-SUPER early wake up.
-frantically worked hard to make the Metra on time to go downtown just to find out we are actually 30 min early. No worries. We can still enjoy the wait.
.....
.........but Z is fussing. A lot. I think it is safe to say that you can just know that with most of the things I list from here on out, Z is fussing or screaming or crying.
8:54am -Temperature is in the 40's and abnormally windy. Train arrives. Much excitement from the older kids!
9:51am - arrive in Chicago
After deliberation and having to hold our hats on our heads from not blowing off in the vicious wind (and complaining kids) we decided to take a bus to Millennium park.
Sometime am: Finally found the bus stop we wanted. Bus pulls but requires exact change, which, you guessed it! We don't have. So,take the bus? JUST KIDDING.
-We walk a mile. The city is overstimulating our son. We console the kids with the possibility of a coffee shop and treat.
Sometime later am: Arrive at a "hip and urban" coffee shop to find zero seating and a bunch of judge-y looking people staring at us (I THINK for being a family in a very singles friendly environment?).
Post coffee shop: The bean. Kids are at this point done with the city's charms (though the weather actually took a cloud break and peeked some sun out on us!) and have little interest in looking at the bean.
11-something am: Walk to another bus stop to catch the train back to the suburbs and just all rest/recover.
-we wait about 12 min.
-it starts to rain.
-bus comes and for a few min, there is much joy in the kids' faces as they experience their first bus ride.
12:-something. We are unable to pull the stop request on the bus in time to get off at our stop so we have to get off at the next stop to re-orient and figure out where the train station is.
12:39pm: we realize we are still across the street from the train station and our train leaves in 1 min.
12:42pm: We arrive after running, at the tracks where there is no mo trains going out to the burbs. For two more hours. TWO more hours. Had we not missed our bus stop we would have made it.
12:42pm-2:40pm: I walk circles around Ogilvie Station pushing Z in the stroller and trying to keep him from crying while the kids explored a bookstore with dad, and played card games from a playing deck purchased at said bookstore (the deck cost $2039430.95 because it was, well, from said bookstore). Gosh darn Illinois train station crooks! "C" is for crooks as well. Is it possible that the terms "highway robbery" originated from the crookery that is the Illinois Tollways!? And bookstores?And CTA systems? And the taxes? And the fuel prices? and?!
.....*cough cough* I digress.
2:40pm: Thank you, God, we are on the train! Z cries most of the way but it's ok because we are ON THE WAY.
3:something pm - our stop! We all grab our stuff and make our way down to the first floor of the train just to have the doors lock on us as we approach them. Apparently we only have 0.5 seconds to get ourselves and our children and luggage down stairs and off the train. Either that or it is a secret Metra ploy to discourage parents from bringing their crying babies on board. hmmm.
3: far too freaking late in the day pm - we get off the train and prepare to walk in biting winds over a mile back to the previous train station to get our van.
GOD'S GRACE!!!! A kind man took note of our situation and drove Joshua back to the van so he could then come pick the rest of us up. It was a cold wait, but it would have been worse to walk it!
4:00pm- rest time. Sweet, glorious...short lived...rest time. :)
Around 6:30 at night we realize there is no way we could bring Z out to any restaurant so we go to the nearest grocery store and pick something up to eat at the house.
Late:pm - Bed time after much ado about everything via the older two. Does that even make sense!? Oh well. Moving on.
Sunday
5:45 am: Awake for the morning.
10:30am- Church ( I held Z in lobby most of the time but I heard a few things).
12:00pm- We decided to eat at Blackberry Market in Glen Ellyn because it sounded tasty but mostly because we wanted to be able to grab food and hit the road. That way, poor Z could take his nap for the majority of the ride home. Sounds like a reasonable plan, aye?
WRONG.
12:15ish pm - The freight train that Israel is so excited to watch go by as we wait in a long string of cars to get to the other side of the track (where our restaurant is) suddenly comes to a halt and just....remains.
.....and remains.
..........and remains.
Halted.
We park the van and walk around hoping it will soon pass. Something had happened because there were police on the other side of the tracks. Eventually we realized this puppy was here for the long haul. We get back in the van and drive to the second alternate crossing (since the first one was closed for construction!) in order to make it to Blackberry Market.
1:30 or 2pm, not even sure- we went in restaurant long enough to order "to go." I had to take Z back to the car because in the short time we were ordering he leaked through his diaper. I changed him to find it wasn't just a pee leak. He had a full on poopsplosion. Wonderful. I'll leave it at that.
230980398 min later and food snarfed down, we hit the road for Indiana.
6:45pm - Our little home never looked so sweet!
Conclusion:
The drama didn't stop after we arrived home, but I will leave the rest unspoken of. I am thankful for time with my family, we definitely had sweet moments. My favorite part, I think, of the whole trip, was how close together Joshua and I remained as a team, encouraging each other and loving each other through it. I think a lot of times it's tempting to turn on each other in frustration and that didn't happen. I am thankful. I also loved seeing Israel find coins on the ground in a few different places but asking to go back and put those same coins into a homeless man's cup. He was very concerned for him. I love his soft heart for the hurting. We also got to play cards in the evenings in the cozy and wonderful air bnb place we stayed in. That was nice. :)
Finally, here are some photos from our trip:
For those of you who know Israel, he is obsessed with coins, and the backsplash at our Airbnb had a penny backsplash! Super fun for him.
Waiting for the train:
Trying sweetly to comfort the poor guy:
Bus!
The haggard crew on the bus:
She done:
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