Trip Update #4

the hospital where Erik interviewed

Sorry to leave everyone hanging! Our trip to Chicago, and my day alone in the city with the kids, turned out great! I ended up finding a really good deal on a room at the Hyatt (only $1.00 more expensive than the crappy Best Western we stayed at the first night!!!). After dropping Erik off at his interview at 7:00 in the morning, the kids and I went back to the Best Western, ate continental breakfast, and then packed up our stuff. We took our time and ventured over to the Hyatt at 11:00. The kids actually fell asleep in the car on the way and took a great nap. I woke them up shortly before noon and we checked into our new room. It was way more awesome that I ever expected it to be and the staff there made me feel like royalty! Everyone was so nice and helpful. Maida kept saying, "Whoa! This is SOOOOOOOOOO fancy!"

our new room

After eating some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in our room, we put our suits on and swam all day! The kids had a really great time and I enjoyed relaxing in the hot tub. Swimming with three kids wasn't as hard as I had originally thought. I made sure that Maida and Skogen knew the rules and knew that if one was broken (like running in the pool area), we would leave immediately. They were SO good and minded SO well. I was surprised and grateful.

All done swimming with Mommy

We picked Erik up from his interview at 4:00. I enjoyed driving around the neighborhood surrounding the hospital while we waited the few minutes that it took for Erik to finish up. I loved the neighborhood and thought it was such a cute suburb of Chicago. After picking up Erik, we rushed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

Maida and Kaitlin

Erik getting ready to eat crab

We went to dinner with Erik's Aunt Ranee, Uncle Hugh, Cousin Hilary, and Hilary's daughter Kaitlin (would Kaitlin be Erik's second cousin or first cousin once removed??). We ate a Joe's Crab Shack, which the kids loved! It was fun to watch the servers dance and there were at least three people celebrating birthdays in the restaurant, which was fun, too. It was nice to see Erik's family, especially since we don't see them very much, and great to catch up. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and went swimming again! Erik was so impressed with the hotel and was thankful I made him stay another night (the original plan was to drive home right after the interview).

"tenni-flops," are what you wear to the pool when you forget flip-flops

Daddy was much more fun to swim with!

Thanksgiving morning we slept in, ate continental breakfast, and then packed up and headed home. The ride home was, thankfully, uneventful and fairly easy going. It's good to be home, at least for a few days, anyway. We're headed to St.Louis on Sunday for another interview.