close to normal: December 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

On Wednesday, we took the train and headed to Chicago to visit American Girl. We have been to the doll store, but have never taken the train. It was a fun day despite being long. I enjoyed the train as neither Nate or I find any joy in driving around that crazy city. Our train departed Normal at 7:30 so we were at the station before the sun had risen. Here's a picture of the girls standing outside the Amtrak station. It's not real clear but they are there.

Shelby brought Emily & Morgan brought her Bitty Baby & Ruthie

outside waiting for the train

on the other side of the sign is the construction of the

new station for the high speed rail

finally on the train

Morgan looking out the window

we rode backwards going to Chicago

sun finally coming up

We took a cab ride to Michigan Ave. from the train station. The Chicago station reminded us of more like an airport than the little station in Normal. When we got in the cab I told the girls to hang on.

We looked around the first floor of the store and then headed upstairs to the Salon. Uncle Al, Aunt Jill, Drew, Reese & Trey gave them gift certificates for Christmas. The plans for the gc's was to get Emily & Ruthie's ears pierced. We dropped them off at the salon and 15 minutes later they had earrings!

Next was more walking around and shopping. The store was crazy full of crazy people. I'm not sure it is ever slow around there, but I'm guessing Christmas break is not the best time to go! Both girls had gift cards from their birthdays to spend and some Christmas money. Morgan bought a snowsuit for Bitty Baby and a baking set for Ruthie. We let them use some of their Christmas money to buy a new doll. Shelby has had her eye on a Just Like You doll and Morgan has been wanting Ruthie's best friend Kit for awhile. Shelby bought a book and an outfit for her new doll with her money.

Morgan with Kit & Ruthie

Shelby with Emily

her new doll with have to be Emily's friend

I don't see Molly joining Emily any time soon

Thankfully we were able to check our purchases at the store and pick them up later. We headed to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. We decided to take another cab ride. After a long wait, we enjoyed some time resting our legs and getting a bite to eat amongst the elephant, apes and other critters of the rain forest. Morgan wants to go back for her birthday so she can get a volcano cake!

We walked back to Michigan Ave. and had a few more hours to kill before we needed to head back to the train station. We spent some time in Niketown where we ran into a San Francisco Giants scout that Nate knows. We visited The North Face and Nate got a coat he had been wanting. We went back to Water Tower Place and stopped in a few more stores.

tree outside of the John Hancock building

The North Face store was there

it was light outside when we went in.....

and dark when we came out

Woody outside the Lego Store

We went back to American Girl and got our bag. We got a taxi and headed for Union Station. That cab ride was the wildest by far! We weren't exactly in a hurry but that driver was. Morgan fell asleep before we somehow arrived safely! There were a ton of people taking that train south and we lucked out to be able to move to the front of the line. There are some benefits (beside tax credits) to having small children. Once on the train the girls were excited to get their new things out. Shelby put the new outfit on her new doll and Morgan played with the baking set. I thought the antsy one would fall asleep but no such luck. Big sis was the one to crash.

We got home around 10 and had a quick bite to eat before hitting bed. I don't know about them but I was pooped!

Shelby with her new doll

she named her Alex

Morgan and Kit

Friday, December 30, 2011

Celebrating Christmas - Part 5 - the 4 of us

I'm finally getting back to the blog to post about our family Christmas. By the time I did the 3 Greenville Christmas celebrations, I was too tired mentally to do another. I think it was the first time since we have had kids and maybe the second time since we have been married, that we were here at our house on Christmas Day. Anticipating this I was excited. Looking back on it, not so much. We were sooo tired from our weekend and getting home late, it zapped some of the fun and joy this day should bring. We didn't get home from Greenville until 9:30 or so. Thankfully, Shelby's new DVD kept them awake. Shelby didn't fall asleep at all and Morgan only slept the last 10 or 15 minutes of the trip. However, since we were traveling on Christmas Eve, there was no place open on the trip home to grab a bite to eat. So they needed a little something before they went to bed. This made the 3rd night in a row of going to bed late and getting up early. Since they needed baths before church, I had already decided we would wait until after church to open our gifts. If we had time they could look at the stocking gifts, but we didn't even get to that. Thankfully once the little peeps got to bed it didn't take them long to fall asleep. I stayed up and filled the stockings and carried the gifts up under the tree. I tried a little harder this year than in the past to make it look like Santa had come. But in reality, they really didn't care. They each had 2 gifts from Santa. I am left handed so I wrote the names with my right hand. Morgan thought Santa had sloppy handwriting. Shelby thought Morgan had done the writing. After they opened the gifts they would ask me where I found it. I had to catch myself and say, "Didn't Santa bring you that?"

stockings are filled