Just the Four of Us: the windy city

Ok, hang on to your hats. I'm not sure if you have enough time in your life to look at ALL these photos, but since there's nothing on tv these days what else do you really have to do?? ha!

Our trip to Chicago began with an all night ride on a tour bus full of teenagers! Here we are loading up...

Andrea and I tried our best to put on a brave smile...

This is our accompanist, Lorrie, who is UH-mazing and we love her!

The kids said goodbye to their families...

Jamie wonders what he got himself into.

And off we go!

We were worried about Audrie being on a bus all night, but she did AWESOME. She fell asleep shortly after we left that evening and she slept ALL night. And woke up the next morning just as we were arriving in Chicago at Navy Pier.

The singers were all grouped into "families" with their chaperones so Jamie, Audrie and I were able to explore Navy Pier on our own.

The group all met for a lunch cruise around Lake Michigan. (Baby's first boat ride!)

They had a dance floor with a DJ and the kids had a blast shaking their groove thangs. I got Audrie out for a little dancing, too!

We stayed at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. It was beautiful! The singers had rehearsals each day in the Empire Ballroom with kids from 10 other children's choirs around the country.

While they were in rehearsal Jamie, Audrie and I snuck away to do some sightseeing. Our first stop was the Art Institute of Chicago.

This is my all time favorite piece of art, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. I love it so much because there is a musical based on this painting, Sunday in the Park with George, that I love, too. And plus the painting is amazing.

Audrie had fun hanging out in the carrier with Jamie.

She really seemed to like all the colors and lights.

We also got to visit the Museum of Science and Industry with the kids.

We got a couple group photos on the steps.

We had 15 chaperones that we couldn't have survived without!

The museum is a very educational hands-on place. They even have a place where you can see chickens hatch.

And we saw a huge submarine from WWII.

Jamie explained to Audrie about mechanics and gears. She's a genius.

Andrea thought it was funny to see us checking out this exhibit and took our picture...

Audrie was a big flirt the whole trip and everyone on the bus fell in love with her.

We had time later in the week to check out Millennium Park. The Crown Fountains are always fun to see with their changing faces!

And I have never seen The Cloud Gate before. So cool! It was designed to reflect the skyline of Chicago.

It happened to be the week of The Taste of Chicago!

We bought our tickets and the first place I wanted to go was....

Then we just decided to try everything a little odd that we could. We really wanted to try the sauteed goat at this African vendor, but we thought that might be a little too scary and went for the jerk chicken and red beans.

Then we had mango cumin fries with chutney sauce and they were SO GOOD!

Audrie spent the whole time asleep in her sling!

We also had some thai chicken with peanut sauce and cucumber salad. So tasty!

We found a grassy place to relax for a bit. It really was so fun to try all the random food!

We couldn't have done this trip without the sling. Audrie loves sleeping in this thing!

Friday night each choir performed and so we got to hear all the individual groups. The BCC made a very impressive representation for Arkansas. I was SO proud of them!

Last time I came to Chicago (for a choir conference with Andrea) we found this little gelato shop that we went to every day. So we had to find it again this trip!

We did pack ALOT of stuff for Audrie on this trip, but we didn't bring her baby bath tub. So we gave her a bath in the sink in our hotel bathroom!

Erin Campbell had told us about a haut chocolate shop that we had to find called Vosges that specializes in strange flavors. They all sounded really gross but they were SO delicious.

We had different chocolate truffles with green tea. Dried Plums. Bacon. I ate a white chocolate one that had roses in it and it was my favorite! Jamie tried one with jack daniels and sugarcane- it was a little intense but he liked it. It was really fun to try them all!

And of course we found time to do some shopping! I got a fun new handbag and a great pair of heels that I can't wait to plan an outfit around.

We were walking down a side street off Michigan Ave and all of a sudden Jamie started freaking out a bit. Apparently this car is a big deal. It's a Bugatti car made in Italy that they only make a few of a year and it costs about $1.5 million.

It was pretty sweet. We realized then that we were standing in front of a Lamborghini dealership and they also had this Bentley that I thought Jamie should buy me. He didn't.

I think the diaper bag is a little out of place in this photo...

We found a great sushi restaurant that had a cute outside cafe.

Did I mention that Audrie was an amazing baby on this trip??

Meanwhile, the kids were still in rehearsals (they did have some free time, too!).

There were about 250 singers in the entire group all preparing for a huge performance on Saturday night.

The concert was at Orchestra Hall (which is kind of like the Carnegie Hall for Chicago). The kids were in awe. I was, too.

The concert was astounding! Brought tears to my eyes that these kids were able to experience this at such a young age.

After all, they are "just kids"!

In Orchestra Hall there was a beautiful ballroom that I found and snapped a few photos of.

Audrie and I danced around for awhile. It was a pretty sweet moment.

She was the princess of the ball.

Sunday, we all boarded the bus and headed back home. Audrie did great again, but it was nice that we could get her out of her car seat on the bus if we needed to.