Chicago 2014

My husband had a business conference to go to in Chicago, and I was the lucky gal that got to go with him :)

So we made a mini vacation of out of it and stayed for 4 days in the suburbs and city... just the two of us. It was fantastic!

We ate at the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to on the 64th floor overlooking downtown Chicago. It was breathtaking!

This was my dinner.. 'ink dyed' fettuccine with shrimp and scallops'.... it was scary looking but tasted yummy!

We had a hot tub in our room... not even in the bathroom! It was next to our bed and right across from the TV. When we weren't out exploring Chicago, I enjoyed lots of shows and books in that bad boy!

The traffic was insane!

The architecture was beautiful and so ornate!

We ate at a very loved little pizzeria, and got to people watch as we sat at a table next to this open door. We had a deep dish Chicago pizza and lemme tell ya, it was delish!

We did the tourist thing and checked out lots of interesting places:

We had a great time and can't wait til our next little vacation to Florida in October. I love being being with my man. Super big thanks to my mom for taking such great care of our kiddos that they didn't want to come home when we picked them up :)

Las Vegas trip

Two days after Christmas, my man, kiddos and I packed up a few suitcases and headed to Vegas. Justin had about 2 hours of work to do for a customer but because it was only a few hours away, we made it a mini family vacation.

We decided to stay off of the strip because we didn't want to subject out kiddos to all things strippers and seedy :) Instead, we stayed at a hotel a couple miles from the strip. The selling features were the continental breakfast (Justin's fave- weird I know) and an indoor pool and spa... a MUST in December!

We spent massive amounts of time in the pool because that's what the kids wanted to do.

But we also did some fun kiddo-themed things while not in the pool.

Like the M&M shop, where all three got to choose a small sample of any colored M&M's they wanted:

We also visited the Coca Cola store:

and bought a sampler tray, testing all of the different kinds of Coke products from around the world.

Some samples were tasty...

some were not :)

We also went to the Springs Preserve.  This place was sooo stinkin' cool. They had interactive science and nature exhibits, botanical gardens, hiking trails, a train tour, a Mad Science program, and lots of live animal shows. 

And on our last day, we did what we do best... eat ice cream. Gelato to be exact and it was heavenly.

We had a great little vacation. Lots of special memories were made and we all hope daddy has another work site to visit soon. Maybe in Hawaii next time, haha :)