Chicago!

This past weekend I took a road trip with my husband and the in-laws to Chicago. We went to celebrate Chris' cousin's baby's first birthday. I absolutely love visiting this town and it never gets boring or old every time we go. We left early Saturday morning and headed to Chicago. When we arrived we checked into the nice hotel and headed over to the cousin's to see the baby and family. We spent a little while there playing with the baby and catching up with family members. It was great to see everybody again and see how much the baby has grown. She is walking now and it is the cutest thing ever. After we left their place we headed out to get some dinner and then decided to go to a local casino to do a little bit of gambling. I've never experienced a casino before because they are not allowed in Ohio. We decided that we would all go and that each of us would play the nickel slots and only spend $5.00 each. Chris and I came out $0.50 ahead. It wasn't much but we didn't' loose anything. We then headed back to the hotel and went down to the lobby to play Skipbo with the in-laws. This is one of my favorite card games and fun to play.
The next morning we got up, had some breakfast, and then headed over to the cousin's again to celebrate the baby's 1st birthday. She was so cute with her shirt and birthday hat on. It was fun watching her open her presents and experiencing cake for the first time. I can't wait to have our first child and be able to celebrate their first birthday too. After the birthday celebration we ventured out to head downtown to the "Magnificent Mile". When we got outside we saw that the street had flooded because of the mass amounts of rain the city was getting. It was funny to watch Chris stretch and crawl into the drivers seat of the car to come pick us up on dryer ground. When we got downtown we parked in a very expensive parking garage and headed to the mile to do some shopping. It had stopped raining for a little bit and allowed us to experience some somewhat dry weather while shopping around. After some walking we headed to my favorite pizza place Giordano's Pizza. They have the best deep dish pizza and it's not Chicago unless you experience and eat their pizza. We enjoyed dinner and the fun atmosphere for a while and then headed to the Hershey's Store for some hot chocolate and a brownie. The evening concluded with a second trip back to the Casino to try our hand again at a round of slot machines. We only used $5.00 each again this time but Chris and I both lost our money. It was only $10.00 so I didn't feel to bad. We head a great time visiting family and walking around the city. It was a nice drive back home on Monday. The extended weekend was great and I can't wait to go back to Chicago again!

Marie's first birthday.

The sign outside the casino.

Chris stretching over the flooded street

The Magnificent Mile

Giordano's Pizza