the windy city.

a couple weeks ago, joe and i headed to chicago for the weekend with joe's younger brother jake and his wife allison. it was the first time we've left bennett for that long, so we struggled a bit (though bennett didn't at all!).

we set out around 6:30am friday morning. the drive was pretty uneventful and we made it to geneva (a suburb outside of chicago) by around 12:30. we walked around geneva for a couple hours and then took the train into the city. then we got checked into our hotel, casually got upgraded to a suite for no reason, and relaxed for a while before heading to giordano's for deep dish chicago pizza. AMAZING. sooo worth the hour and a half wait.

we were pretty tired from traveling all day so we headed back to the hotel. obviously a little while later our sweet tooths (teeth?) came a'calling and we sent the boys out for takeout dessert from the fancy steakhouse near our hotel. classy dessert party on our hotel room floor.

we got up the next morning and hit up the donut shop attached to our hotel, glazed and infused. (are you sensing the theme of the weekend?) my personal favorite had to have been the crunchy pb&j.

all weighed down for the day, we set off to explore michigan ave. and do some shopping. joe and i went on a little lunch date by ourselves. we went to a restaurant called howell's and hood just off michigan. they had great pub food and a cool atmosphere. joe and i walked around a while and got joe some new shoes at puma. he felt very hip after that.

we met back up with jake and allison and headed to millennium park to walk around and see the bean.

we then headed back to the hotel, exhausted from lots of walking! we rested for a bit and then got ready to go to dinner. we'd made reservations at tavern on rush, where joe and i had been for our anniversary a couple years ago. it was just as delicious as we remembered! the lobster bisque was amazing and we all left stuffed to the brim!

we got to meet up with my friend julie who moved to chicago several months ago to be near family. she's an OB/GYN resident and works crazy hours, so it was nice to be able to see her even just for an hour! we grabbed cheesecake at the cheesecake factory and caught up.

sunday morning we took a short walk to meli cafe and juice bar for a delicious breakfast. yes, we probably each gained 10 lbs this weekend. don't judge. it was worth it.

we headed back to the hotel and got packed up. unfortunately we didn't realize the train back to geneva was only running every two hours and we missed the morning one, so we had to wait until 12:40 to head out. traffic on the drive home was terrible thanks to construction and some accidents, so we didn't make it home til late and our little buddy was already sleeping!

bennett had a great weekend with grammy and papa. he even got to see uncle ryan and auntie jeanie!

snuggles and milk with papa in the morning

fun with papa at the park!

playing with a new clifford puppet...

...and a pool noodle he found in the neighbor's garage

we sure missed bennett but we had a fun weekend away and loved having the one-on-one time with jake and allison. we are so thankful for our great relationship with them!