This past weekend we decided to make the trek into the Windy City with another family to attend a June & January event at The Land of Nod.

We loaded up the car and got outta dodge early Saturday morning and I will admit, it was an aggressive timeline with two young children. We arrived around one o’clock and hit the ground running with a trip to the city’s completely FREE zoo in Lincoln Park.

After letting the kids run around for a bit we ventured down to our hotel. After having spent seven years living in Chicago, I forgot how crazy downtown can be. We valeted the cars and unloaded our gear into shoebox size rooms – a little hotel bed jumping may have happened…After we unpacked ALL THE THINGS (traveling with children is no joke) we hit the streets. And again were reminded how traveling with young children in a busy city is very difficult. Especially when your child (I’m looking at you Ev) is a bit of a runner.We made a stop into Eataly just down the street from our hotel to browse. Again, amazing store but not exactly toddler/baby friendly. Marcus and I joke later on that night that we both could have stayed in that store all day just eating and drinking.
After quite a rough night (Everett fell out of the bed and kicked me in the back more times than I can remember), the boys sported their skeleton jammies down at the free breakfast. Nothing like scarfin’ down some free food before the rest of the world is up…After getting ready, we headed to the event and I have to say, even though Everett didn’t want to fully cooperate with me – mask issues, no hat or tie) I’d say he still looked pretty darn cute. If it wasn’t obvious (HA) he was supposed to be Hamburglar and Fitzie was the cutest little cheeseburger ever. Our friends’ daughters dressed up like Minnie Mouse.The photo above is of the aforementioned ‘runner’ comment. Doesn’t matter if he is indoors or outdoors…

Guys, how amazing is this little costume?! My mom is a magician and whipped this up for me. Ugh, she’s the absolute best!After the event we were thoroughly exhausted, so we hightailed it out of the city and decided to stop in Naperville for lunch. I did a quick Google search for local restaurants and happened to find Two Brothers Brewery. The adults had a much needed craft brew while the kids enjoyed using forks to pick up crayons. The food was top notch too!

After lunch, we hopped back into our cars to drive home and complete our crazy, less than 48 hours, round-trip. And obviously we couldn’t drive past the world’s largest truck stop without a leg-stretch session…

All in all, we are still tired (and it’s Wednesday) but had a good time. But there is good chance we won’t be heading back into the city for a few years with the boys in tow.