Chicago! (pt 3)

Final Chicago post - I promise!

Sunday
Day 5 - Aunt Paula and Uncle Bill let us spend the night at their house on Saturday night, I was so relieved to find a soft, comfy bed waiting for us upstairs! I slept so well! We were able to get up leisurely and go downstairs for some breakfast. It was nice to let Caleb run around and watch cartoons while I sat at the table slowly drinking my cup of coffee. I know that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but after so many days of constant rushing around, having a few hours to unwind was huge.

Around 10:30, Roger and his family came by with Grandma Hart (Mal's mom). As soon as she walked in the door, Caleb leaned for her and wanted her to hold him. It was the sweetest thing! Even though he had never met her, he knew she was someone special. He kept wanting her while we were gathering up things to head to Jonathan's cousin's house for brunch with the rest of the family.

Attached to Grandma Hart as soon as she walked in the door! 

From left - Aunt Paula, Grandma Hart, Caleb and Uncle Bill 

Once we were all packed up again, we all drove over to Mike and Lauren's house just a few minutes away. They have a gorgeous historic home in downtown Belvidere. I wish I had gotten a picture of the outside, but it was too cold to venture outside! (The whole time we were up north it didn't get above 40 degrees.)

Mike and Lauren have two little girls, Zoe and Maya. Zoe is the oldest of all of Grandma Hart's great grandkids and Maya is only a month older than Caleb. We had all of the great grandkids on that side together except for Lana. They all had so much fun. The two older girls played well together and the two little ones followed them around a lot. It was a great, relaxed afternoon and so nice to catch up with everyone.

Roger, Juliana and Zoe

Caleb brought Grandma Hart a book to read and then climbed up in her lap - precious! 

The kids table 

The big kids table - plus two little ones (again - Jonathan is the cameraman) 

Yay for toys to play with! 

The big girls worked on a craft while the little ones watched and played with materials. 

Grandma Hart's cake - YUM! 

Maya enjoyed her piece. 

Caleb napped and missed out on cake - silly boy covered himself up : )

Grandma Hart and 4 out of 5 of her great grandbabies. (From left - Zoe, Maya, Juliana and Caleb) 

Giving Grandma Hart a BIG hug before she left. 

Caleb and Maya found some fun drawer pulls. 

Caleb's favorite toy while we were there - we are now in search of a "manly" baby stroller
: )

We had a great time with Jonathan's Mom's side of the family. We left Mike and Lauren's around 4 to head to the airport. O'Hare definitely took more patience to get through than the Houston airport, but it is MUCH larger. We gave ourselves plenty of time to return the rental car and have dinner at the airport. We then had the opportunity to let Caleb play in a really cute play area in the airport.

The flight back home was more challenging than the first flight. Of course, this flight was also delayed, but only an hour as compared to 2 for our first flight. On the plane, Caleb fussed a little bit as he tried to get comfortable and slept for around half of the flight. He woke up abruptly after a while though and could not get back to sleep even though he was exhausted. There was some loud crying for the rest of the flight, but it could have been worse. I think he would have gone back to sleep if it hadn't been so hot in the plane. They had the heater on in Chicago (when it was needed), but never turned it to AC through the flight and it got rather warm. The poor baby was sweating like crazy. It was a stressful few hours, but I knew there would be an end point. Once we got off the plane he calmed down. He stayed awake while we got our luggage. Luckily, he fell back asleep on the way home and went easily into bed at 1:30 in the morning.

I think we were all ready to fall into bed at that point! I slept like a baby until around 8 this morning and Caleb slept til 10:45! I think he was so ready to be in his own crib and catch up on some sleep! It was nice for me to have the morning to get everything unpacked and laundry going in peace. Jonathan went in to work in time for his 10:00 meeting, but came home around 3:30. I'm sure he was tired too.

As I've typed out these posts, I realized how much we crammed into a pretty short visit! We had some great opportunities to visit family even though three of the days we only had evening family time. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to visit everyone again. It's been 2 years since Jonathan and I took a vacation up to that area and we really needed to get up to see everyone. It was a challenge with Jonathan being busy most of the days and me chasing a toddler while 6 months pregnant, but I'm glad we were able to do it.

Like I said on the first post, it was a whirlwind of a trip, but we made some great memories!