Chicago Girls' Weekend

This past weekend I got to go to Chicago to see some friends. The group of girls that I met up with became friends online during the summer of 2005. We met on Babycenter when we were all in the midst of trying to get pregnant. We have grown so close over the past 2.5 years and it was so fun to finally get to hang out in person! Everyone from our online group wasn't able to come...but I have a feeling next year they won't miss it!

GG let me use her Delta miles to buy my ticket. Delta doesn't fly non-stop from Wichita to Chicago...so I had to fly to Atlanta (then have a 3 hour layover) and then to Chicago! Sounds crazy...huh?!? Anyways, I arrived in Chicago late Friday night. Before Kim (who lives in Chicago) came to pick me up from the airport her husband, Steve, said, "How are you going to recognize this girl to pick her up?" LOL! Little did he know that we've seen so many pictures of each others lives that I would've recognized him if HE came to pick me up!!

Saturday morning we picked up Amy and then Laura and then we headed to our first stop. COFFEE! I was so excited to get the caramel mocha that Kim had been telling me about for weeks! Here are the 4 of us in the coffee shop. Kim (from Chicago), Laura (from Alabama), Staci, and Amy (from Missouri). After coffee we did a little window shopping and then it was lunch time. We ate delicious wraps and then Kim dropped us off at the mall while she took her little girl, Courtney, to a birthday party. We discovered that none of us are big shoppers...so we decided to just have a little fun. We found a maternity store and proceeded to try on maternity dresses (using their strap on pillow/belly to make us look pg)! I'm sure the clerks were wondering why we were all dying laughing in the dressing room! Laura looked the cutest in her dress.
After the mall we headed back to Steve & Kim's for PIZZA!!! This was REAL Chicago pizza! It was THE BEST pizza I've EVER had (and if you know me...you know I LOVE pizza and have tried it lots of places). You can actually order this pizza online and they'll deliver it to you on dry ice and then you bake it. Just looking at the picture below makes me salivate! I've already told Mike that we need to order this pizza for a special date night :)
After dinner (which included entertainment...aka watch Laura get excited over the Alabama football game) Kim took us to our hotel room. I know a lot of my reading audience (or at least my brother and my dad) listen to Rush Limbaugh. He is always promoting Sleep Number beds. I was excited when I saw the sign at the front desk stating that they have Sleep Number beds! The first thing we did when we got to our room was try to find "our number". Kim wasn't feeling the bed change at all and kept holding down the arrow. Before long...there was almost a hole in the middle of the bed! Notice how low Laura is in the picture below compared to Kim?!?
We couldn't figure out how to get the bed to re-inflate. Not even the instructions helped! I think it was stuck. We ended up calling maintenance to fix it. I must not have picked the right number for me on Saturday night. The bed felt comfy when I first laid down on it...but by morning my back was killing me!!!! I'm sorry Rush....but I don't think I'll ever pay big bucks for that bed!

While maintenance was fixing our bed, we decided to get our sweet fix at the Coldstone that was just a few blocks away. Pizza and ice cream. Can a day get better than that?!?

Sunday morning we met up with Sapphire (from Colorado) and her 6 month old, Karalee, in downtown Chicago. We walked, and walked, and walked all around downtown! It was a gorgeous, fall day! (Below: Staci, Kim, Laura, & Sapphire)

We all loved getting to hold and play with little Karalee!
For lunch we stopped at Johnny Rockets. It was super crowded and for a while we were all scrunched around a 2 person table! The lunch of burgers, frys, and onion rings was yummy! After we finished eating we were going to stop at the bathroom before hitting the town again. We were surprised to find that you needed a token to use the restroom!!! Customers can get a token from their server while non-customers have to pay $0.25 to use the potty!! Of course, I had to take a picture of the prized token!
Here's a picture of all of us in front of Buckingham Fountain. (Staci, Amy, Laura, Kim, & Sapphire)
The fall colors were so beautiful. Leaves were falling all around us and the air was cool and a little breezy. I could never live in such a big city...but I loved visiting!
One thing that we learned about each other (that most of us hadn't really thought about) was that everyone has their own unique accent! Before meeting in person, when we'd read each others posts, we'd see that person's picture in our head. Now we hear their voice! It's kinda neat! I knew that Laura would have a southern accent (being from Alabama), but for some reason I never realized that Kim would have such a strong northern accent! Amy is the only one that I didn't think had an accent. That must mean she talks like all the Kansans that I hear on a daily basis ;)

We dropped Amy & Laura off at the airport on Sunday night and then I left the next morning. I met up with another girl, Jessica (from Georgia), while at the Atlanta airport...


Thanks for such a fun weekend girls! I can't wait to get together again next year!!!