Well, this weekend was our REAL vacation (meaning time away from home, me not having to cook or clean and doing fun things).

In celebration of our 6th Anniversary (and that the boys were old enough to leave), James and I left the boys with my parents and went up to Chicago. Our main event was to see Wicked (a musical about the witches of Oz).  Other goals were to sleep in, eat out without children, and (my own goal) be able to go all day without having to change a shirt due to food or drool on it. I am pleased to say all goals were achieved! Friday we dropped the boys off about lunchtime and then enjoyed taking our time to get to Chicago. We got to Merriville and I needed to get some shoes, so we stopped and shopped there. Once that was done, we didn’t want to be stuck in rush hour traffic, so we chose to see a movie, eat dinner, and get James some running shoes there as well. We saw the movie “Knocked Up”.

(Mini-review here: The movie was funny & had some nice “family values”—it’s about a couple who have a one night stand and she gets pregnant. She’s a career minded woman, he’s a druggie “loveable looser” type. So we have a “yea” for the touching, family parts. We have a big “yea” for the funny parts. We have a “boo” for LOTS of swearing, “boo” for LOTS of drug usage, “boo” for other “adult” issues, and “boo” for a birth scene that showed me more then I wanted to see…and I’ve had 2 kids. Just so you can make an informed decision. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I recommend it? Only if you're aware of what you're getting into.)

We got to our hotel late Friday night and enjoyed being able to sleep in. We ended up deciding to drive to downtown (instead of taking the train) and that proved to be a good choice. First, once we realized we forgot the tickets, it made it easy to go back. Also, after the show, it was nice to be able to change and enjoy the downtown. We REALLY enjoyed the show. We also enjoyed our deep dish pizza afterwards. Then we walked around a bit, walked down to Navy Pier and hung out there a while, walked over to Millennium Park and eventually back to our car. They were going to have fireworks about 10 (11 our time), but we (ok, I) ended up being too tired to stick it out. Sunday was another nice day of sleeping in and brunch and then we headed back.

It was a nice time without the boys, but it was nice to see them again. They both came running to see us and Will told us “I REALLY missed you! You were gone a LONG time!”  They did have a good time at Grandpa & Grandma’s. Grandma wore them out with long walks and taking them to the petting zoo. She also spoiled them with pizza and favorite foods! They did very well.

And now, it is summer (or so I've been telling Will, who kept asking every time we had a warm day in March, April and May "Is it summer, Mommy?"). Now he wants to know "Where's summer? I can't see it!" So while we're seeing him starting to understand some concepts of time (like 'long' and 'short' times), others are still a bit over his head.  Anyway, this week we're going to start getting into our summer schedule. I'll have to let you know how it goes!