Wonderful Weekend!!!

We had a fun filled weekend in Chicago. It was a great time and I don't think it could have gone any better. Leila was a dream child. She behaved through a Cubs game, a Hawkeye Football game and an hour and a half long boat ride on the Chicago River.

Now for the pictures!

We started out for Chicago on Friday morning and checked into our hotel by Grant Park before walking to the train station to hop a train across town to Wrigley Field for Leila's first Cubs game! It was Iowa Day at the ball park so we all wore our Hawkeye gear. BJ Armstrong sang the 7th Inning stretch and Iowa Athletic director Gary Barta threw out the first pitch.
The Cubs lost and played pretty terribly, but we didn't really mind.
Here is Leila hanging out in the stands with Steve's mom Mary Alice.


A girl can't sit still for that long without stretching her legs. Grandpa Carey didn't mind though.


Leila didn't quite make it to the 7th Inning stretch before she needed a break.


After the game we caught the train back to the the hotel. We decided to walk around and find a place to eat. I had never really been to Chicago other than to attend an event and turn around and go home so it was a neat experience for me. We saw the huge fountain in Grant Park and walked all along Lake Michigan on our way to Navy Pier where we had dinner and checked out the Hawkeye Huddle. There were so many Hawkeye fans in town that if we always felt pretty close to home. We had a few people asking us what all of the yellow was about because they had seen so much of it around town. I think Chicago definitely noticed the Hawkeye presence! On our way back to the Hotel we hopped on a Trolley and got off on Michigan Ave and headed back from there. It was a long walk but it was also really neat to get to see the City and night and all of the stores on Michigan Ave. Chicago is definately a different experience then we were used to.

Andrea and Steve had stayed in Iowa City until after Steve's high school football game was over and they didn't get to go to the Cubs game with us, but they had a secret to reveal on Saturday morning and I couldn't wait! Since the whole Howard family along with the Smith family had made the trip, it was the perfect time to announce the upcoming arrival of BABY SMITH!!!!! ETA April 19th, 2008.



I can't tell you how excited and happy I am for my sister and Steve!

Here are some pictures from the Iowa game.
Leila is SO excited to see her first Hawk game, and is also considering trying out for a KISS Cover band.


Lets go Hawks!








The Hawkeyes won 16-3 and we all had a great time.
We were dead tired after the game and decided that we were not in the mood to wander around for 4 miles like we had done the night before. We ordered some Chicago Style Pizza and headed to bed.

We decided to round out Leila's first vacation with a Sunday spent at Navy Pier. We went to Lunch at Bubba Gump shrimp company




And walked around and checked out the fountains.





We ended our afternoon with a boat ride up the Chicago River. It was really cool. Our tour guide was funny and he told lots of interesting stories and described the buildings all along the river. Leila wasn't so sure about the boat ride but she settled down and did a great job.









Leila fell asleep as soon as we got on the road and only woke up for the stop at Ikea.
We all had a great time and are looking forward to our next family trip, when we will have two little babies around. Did I mention that I am SO EXCITED to be an aunt?!?!?!!