Family Vacation, part two!

Sunday was the day we had baseball tickets. We are not really White Sox fans, but we hadn't been to this stadium, so this was our choice for this summer. (We would hate to not go to a MLB game every summer!) They were playing the Yankees which is Garrett's team so it was a good game to go to. And, I like afternoon games. I'm not real crazy about getting out of baseball games late at night in strange cities with four kids. NYC wasn't bad, as everyone is out 24/7, but some cities are a little creepy.

Remember this was the trip we were just winging it, so Mama hadn't set down and mapped out every detail like she normally would. So, we missed the train going to the White Sox game. We didn't think about it being Sunday and that the train we needed would only run every two hours rather than every hour. So, we got to drive to the White Sox game. Oh, joy. It took us two hours, bumper to bumper. If there was no traffic from our hotel to the stadium, it would take about twenty minutes. Of course I don't think there is ever a day without in traffic in Chicago! We finally made to a parking lot and got to our seats at 1:05, game time, 1:05. Todd like to get to games waaaaay early and soak it all in, so he was a little disappointed, but it was fine. Except, that we were sitting in bleacher seats. This the first time as a family we were in bleacher seats. We paid for seats 9-13. We sat in 9 1/2 - 12 1/2. Other than all this I have mentioned, this was once of the most fun games we have been to.

Lovely ballgame traffic.

We weren't really sure what to expect at the White Sox stadium. Everything we had read was that they didn't do such a good job when they built the new stadium. Well, I will say it lacks the charm of a St. Louis, Baltimore, etc. But, it was the most family friendly stadium we have ever been to. They even had kids meals! The best thing was an area for kids to come and "practice" baseball. The boys got to do running, pitching, catching and hitting drills. Our kids are pretty good about sitting down for ball games. I don't let them wander around if they think the game is too long. But, we do usually get up to get something to eat and get a souvenir. This area gave us an excuse to get up for a while. It took us two innings to do all the "stuff". I really think the big boys would have just as soon watched the game, especially since we missed some home runs. But, they were good sports and did enjoy showing up the little kids :). All in all, a fun day. We even saw some sights of Chicago on the way home. We had had to get a new GPS because ours was recalled. What we didn't realize is that it was set to "avoid traffic". You should see all the interesting things you see when you are trying to avoid traffic in Chicago!

The next day we ventured to Gurnee, IL to Six Flags. We haven't done anything like this since we went to Silver Dollar City. Unless you count Mall of America, which was fun, but more like a carnival. The boys were excited to say the least. I really don't have much to say about this since I have to say this was not that fun for me. I felt like I needed to send my parents a cookie bouquet or something for all the times they sat around Six Flags waiting on all of us kids to ride rides! Callie and I did a lot of sitting on benches and waving to the guys as they whirled around us. The guys all really had a great time though, so it was worth it.

Their faces are priceless. OK, I guess it was worth sitting on a bench all day!

Poor daddy! He agreed to do all the water rides with them. (He had just as much fun!)

I wish I would have had a video of this to hear Gannon's giggle the whole ride long! He has the ultimate giggle! Callie doing the wave.

Callie's one and only ride, you can see why! Poor thing, I really thought she would love it as adventurous as she is.

Our last day on vacation we split up for a little bit. The guys went looking for sports memorabilia shops and Callie and I went to the mall. I don't remember what mall, but it was a nice big mall. I really didn't have a lot we needed, but we were avoiding coming home. We were having such a nice relaxing time, we just wanted to prolong it. But, we were too tired to do anything in particular. One nice find at the mall was a store where the boys could build their own cars. Do you know the Build-A-Bear Stores where you pick out a bear and have it stuffed, dressed, etc., for like fifty bucks? It was like that only you pick out a car body, the proceed to pick wheels, engines, etc. The boys loved it. It was great for all ages. You could see the big boys dreaming of the car they think they could actually own. Gannon just loved putting his together. Great idea Build-A-Bear people!

Later that afternoon we headed for home. This is when we realized we had been avoiding traffic the entire trip. I can't even tell you how the GPS was sending us home. There are some really pretty areas around Chicago though. We did enjoy the scenic route. I don't know if we would have switched the GPS to this setting on our own, so it was a nice accident!