A Tale of Two Toddlers in the City...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...That was the running joke for the week. I told AM at the beginning of the Chicago trip that I could picture the start of the blog posting for the trip and that is what it would say. We agree while it was a tiring week for both of us, it was a fun adventure too and we came away with some forever memories and some great laughs during those best of times and even more during those worst of times.

Here's some back story...I was offered to go to this training last fall when it was in DC, it's only usually offered twice a year. It is the only training of its kind for middle managers in community mental health centers across the nation. I found out too close to DC to make it work but we found out it was offered again in the Chicago this spring. The dilemma was I wasn't ready to be away from Ava for almost a week. I know everyone is different and for us it just wasn't the right time yet. But I really wanted to go this training, it was an incredible opportunity that I just didn't want to pass up. The problem with this trip timing was it was also the end of Ryan's busy time at work and he couldn't go. So I was so glad it worked out that AM was up for this adventure and for helping me do this. The girls are still just under the age we didn't have to buy them plane seats, they could lap sit and with my work paying for my expenses it worked out pretty great. I love when I can find the middle ground when I feel pulled by both work and being a mom at the same time, not always possible but this was a great middle ground solution!

Okay so here's the rest of the story in pictures, mostly the best of times part, we didn't really take pictures of the worst of times but you can picture them with toddlers in tow: melt downs at times, sometimes they went down great for naps and sometimes not,  an early on plane debacle where a woman proclaimed to me and the rest of the plan she would not be sitting by a baby to Chicago- luckily someone else helped out and for she and my sake we didn't have to ride next to her. True story.

So anyway on to the good stuff...

I've been to Chicago before in April and this time it was much warmer and beautiful with all its spring time flowers!
Let me also say we meet so many nice Chicago natives, they opened doors, volunteered directions, one helped with our stroller getting off the bus, strangely we also were asked directions a lot, we laughed that we must of looked local would out of towners really bring tow toddlers to the city??

First night we got some Chicago Deep Dish which Ava loved!

We made a stop by the bean on the last night. Our hotel was on Michigan Avenue so it was easy to walk to great places like this.

AM had the girls during the day and took some pics for me, they played at the park across the street and walked to the Aquarium one day and the Field Museum another day. 

One night we went to the Children's Museum at Navy Pier, we all loved the Toddler room there, they played for a long time and we actually got to relax a bit. 

I would get to join them on lunch breaks, I loved the day we took it easy and just ate a picnic lunch on the  bed. The hotel had 3 restaurants on site so it was easy to order or grab food and snacks. 

Our room was huge and we had this great view of museum campus from our windows. 

AM had this great baby carrier that Ava loved to ride around in, when given the choice between the stroller or the pack she always chose to ride like this. 

Our only picture of the whole gang!

She called people for pretend on my phone a a lot!

We lucked out on the plane ride home Izzy and Ava got their own seats!

It feels so good to be home! The training was incredible, it was rich and intense and I am pretty excited about all I learned, the ways I grew and what I hope to bring back to better my program.