The Country Mouse and the City Mouse

My sister-in-law, Teresa, and nephews came to Chicago last weekend en route to Seattle. Teresa's sister is currently deployed to Afghanistan for six months. Mary works for the Air Force and lives in Seattle with her professor husband and their 2 1/2 year-old son. Teresa and the boys flew to WA partly for support and partly for vacation.

My brother's family lives down in the North Georgia Mountains {map}. Last Friday, the boys had a sleepover at "Uncle Brad's house" in the big city of CHICAGO. We filled the evening with many activities! As we got them ready for bed, Brad and I had to give them the run-down on some of our city noises. Such as our neighbor walking on the second floor, the steam radiators heating our apartment, and people walking to Starbucks along the sidewalk outside our building, etc. We also had to teach them about Chicago alleys. This city lesson came into play as we walked to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast the next morning. The boys seemed to have a great time although it wasn't them that woke us up at 7:01am... it was the jackhammer of death. I hate road construction- blah.

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My parents and sister-in-law joined us later in the morning for a downtown Chicago outing. Brrr, it was a chilly day to play tour guides! We walked to the train station and journeyed downtown. The boys, who are 10, 8 and 6, seemed really enchanted by EVERYTHING.

Lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern. The place was made famous by John Belushi and Saturday Night Live... "Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No fries, cheeps! No Pepsi, Coke!"

Whew, we walked A LOT! We had pizza for dinner and I think my sister-in-law was in heaven.

I miss them already.