North for Spring Break

We ended up going the wrong direction for spring break this year, north instead of the traditional south bound trip.  Phil was invited to a conference for work, they paid for the room, mileage and he got a per diem so we took a family vacation to Madison, Wisconsin. It was surprisingly nice, though it was chilly and rained the majority of our time there.  We stopped at Ikea on the way through Chicago for lunch and so Pete could run off some energy.  I like the Cincinnati Ikea much better, plus they seem to be able to accommodate more kids in the smalland than Chicago's.  It was probably the best traffic I've ever been in through Chicago.  We listened to The Grapes of Wrath on the trip because Phil needed to read it for school, though only when Pete was watching a show. Phil had to endure meetings all day Thursday and Friday Morning.  Poor hubby taking a hit for the family.

Nora's Adventure Grovia Diaper came just before we left. She wore it on vacation and it made me think of my dad's vacation shirt he always wore on the first day of vacation.  We won this beauty on Grovia's weekly facebook chat.

Pete saw a Target while we were driving around the first night and was dying to stop there in the morning.  I wasn't about to complain about that so we puttered around there for a bit in the morning. We played at Barnes and Noble with the trains and then played at the mall and shopped for a bit.

Trying on shades while eating popcorn

Playing on the playground at the mall on a raining day.

Phil finished up and we decided we didn't want to deal with both kids at a decent restaurant but weren't wiling to eat at McDonalds either. So we called in carryout, both kids ended up falling asleep in the car and we had a great date night in the car with the rain.

2 Entrees, salad, breadsticks, and dessert for $20!

Friday we only had the morning to explore and play before Phil was done and we headed for home.  We stopped at Target...again...then played at Chick-fil-a and had a snack and finsihed up at Nicki's Diapers-my first trip to an actual cloth diaper store! I found a couple things and had a fun seeing all the different kinds of cloth diapers.

 

Nora watching Pete play on the playground.

Chicago traffic was awful it took us about 2 hours to get through town on Friday, which is really sad considering how fast it was on Wednesday.  I'm so glad I rarely have to deal with that kind of traffic!