By the time we left the next day, it was lunchtime so we stopped at Sweet Art Bakery in STL on our way out. (I'm going to try to just use pictures that Cary didn't include when she blogged about our trip.) We love Sweet Art; I think it's fairly new, really cute, and right up our alley. They have great sandwiches, etc...
and, of course, yummy desserts.
We stayed at Hotel Felix, which is where we stayed during our last Chicago trip. We like it a lot.
One of the reasons we like it so much: Whole Foods is about a block away. I kind of wish I lived in those condos/apartments on the right.
We also like Hotel Felix because it's in walking distance to one of our favorite restaurants, Karyn's Cooked. (There is a Karyn's Raw, which I love, also.) We got the fried zucchini/cauliflower/broccoli basket, (And pizza and stuffed eggplant and pie...yeah, I never learn. I always order too much food on the first night. We learned our lesson, though, and I think we did pretty well the rest of the weekend.) but for the record I never eat breaded, fried foods - only once or twice a year when we make homemade doughnuts and certain things on vacation. This is my post of all the food I ate on my last Chicago trip.
The next day we met our friends, Sarah and Chris, at Delicious Cafe. This was a new, random place we wanted to try. I liked it and would definitely go there again. I ordered a grilled cashew cheese sandwich with un-bacon. I only picked at the chips; I would have preferred different chips or fruit or something else on the side instead.
But more important than that, it was great to spend time with Sarah and Chris. Sarah is one of my oldest friends (when I say oldest, I mean longest-enduring). She was one of my first friends when I moved to a new school in the 3rd grade. We wrote tons of letters to each other throughout college, and she was in my wedding. She's one of my favorite people in the entire world, and luckily, she married someone I like a lot, too!
Cary and I shopped that afternoon in the Bucktown/Wicker Park area. Some of my favorite stores in this area are Mojo Spa, Una Mae's, Buffalo Exchange, and my new favorite place is Rudy's Roundup. I wanted to buy almost everything in that store. We also got a snack at Veggie Bite, another major draw to the area.
Later that night, we got to try out another new restaurant, Karyn's on Green (another in the Karyn's repertoire of wonderful dining). It was upscale and modern. We took this picture to show Andy that Cary was indeed catching the Duke game, which happened to be on at the bar behind us.
I finally gave in and ordered a caesar salad, which is what I always want to order at restaurants. I just love them. But I eat them at home all of the time so it seems silly to order them, too. This one tasted different (but great!), though, and included different things like dehydrated olives and herb croutons. I was also a fan of how it was served on a long plate.
On the way back to our car, we got completely lost. We walked two blocks this way, three blocks this way, back to where we started to get our bearings - we tried street after street in every direction. I think Cary was starting to get a little panicked. I wasn't too worried, but it was clear I had no idea what we were going to do if we couldn't find our car. (Call a cab and have him drive us around until we found it?) And it was getting late, and it was rather desolate. I was starting to become convinced my car had been stolen because it made no sense that we couldn't find it. Fortunately, Cary had her iPhone out, leading the way, which helped a little. This is the picture of us finally finding the car.
My sister and her family live downtown in a cool loft, which I am very jealous of. We stayed at a hotel down the street from her building.
We spent the first part of the day at the zoo before we had to hurry back to get ready for Winnie's party. The kids are posing near one of my favorite exhibits, the penguins and puffins. I love puffins. There is this poem I have had memorized since I was a little girl. It was in the Poems and Rhymes volume of our Childcraft set, and I remember my mom sitting on my toddler bed, helping me learn it. It's a cute poem; you should read it. (There is a children's book of it, too, which we now have.)
Winnie was literally attached to Tornado the whole day. She only wanted him. It was ridiculously cute. He kept his eye on her and looked out for her. Ryan, we could totally have another child because Tornado could just carry him/her around for us. Just think about it.
my little matching cuties
Cary put together a successful 2nd birthday party for Winnie complete with beautiful decorations, cute snacks, a loftful of guests, and vegan cupcakes from Sweet Art to top it all off.
As if it wasn't enough getting to spend time with my family and staying in a super cool loft in a fun city, Cary and Andy also gifted me with a Whole Foods gift card, a pretty scarf, and these cool silver-plated flowers (in their new home on my table). Not to mention - yummy, homemade strawberry muffins. Thank you so much, you guys.
I'm fairly sure I wasn't supposed to post a picture of Cary in her pajamas/Andy's boxers, but I'm overruling that because she looks super cute (cuter and skinnier than I've ever looked pregnant) - and it's the best picture to showcase her gargantuan stomach.
Tornado was - let's be honest - pretty psyched about having a little peace and quiet for a few days. Surprisingly, staying with a dog and a 15 month old was much quieter than a house with a 2 year old and 4 year old. They enjoyed lots of wagon rides and Winnie-type play, such as wheeling the shopping cart around and filling it with random objects.
It's hard to resist a 600,000 square foot museum/indoor-outdoor playground (with a bus hanging off the roof) that can be seen right outside your window. Tornado was hopping up and down, chanting, "Museum, here we come!" over and over all morning...until we finally got there (first delayed because I realized I hadn't brought my credit card, and we had to walk back to get it).
It was actually a little hard trying to keep up with Tornado. They have these metal cages and slides that span several stories, and I sort of panicked a few times, racing around with Winnie in her stroller, guessing where he may have exited. We stayed a couple of hours, then went home for lunch and a nap, then back later for another couple of hours. I left the stroller behind the second time, determined to hold onto Winnie and follow Tornado through whatever route he chose to go. (My knees got a little sore, but all in the name of fun.) As much as he loved crawling through all the mazes and enchanted tunnels, his favorite part was probably Art City. He stayed for a long time, helping the lady work on a magazine mosaic of the sun.
I wish my entire house looked like the inside of the City Museum. You feel like you're in this bizarre Alice in Wonderland type world; it's fascinating. It's really amazing how everything is reclaimed/recycled - and honestly, potentially a little dangerous, which is kind of refreshing to experience, in this sign-a-release/lawsuit crazy world we live in.
Winnie was clearly delighted to eat at the vegan restaurant, Vegadeli, in Chesterfield. :)
This is what we ordered to share...BBQ "Cheddar" veggie burger, sweet potatoes with apples and raisins, macaroni and "cheese", and nachos. We ended up going back the next day, too, (hee, hee) and ordered more macaroni (good stuff!), a "tuna" sandwich (made from seaweed and garbanzo beans - quite tasty), and lasagna (Winnie was a wild woman going after that one.).
We got up Saturday morning and headed to the hospital to meet Winnie's new brother! Unfortunately, I discovered that I left my camera memory card back at the loft so I didn't get to document my very first meeting with my nephew, sigh. We next headed to the Museum of Transportation. (I let Tornado choose our outing, and that's what he picked.) I bought a disposable camera in the gift shop. Tornado was very agreeable this trip, posing for pictures. Winifred, despite my many "Turn around, Winnie! Woo-hoo, look over here!" pleas, can often be seen in the pics, standing backwards or walking out of the shot.
The highlight of the museum trip was the ride on the train (and the ride on the tram that took us to the train). Very fun stuff for both of them. Here, they are just posing on the engineer's seat, and Winnie was not sure how she felt about that. We sat in the very back seat in front of the conductor, and the highlight for Tornado was calling out, "All aboard," into the microphone.
If you click on this picture, you can see the bird (sorry, I'm not up on my ornithology, not sure what kind of bird) guarding her eggs that were next to the tracks. It was so sweet. When the train started up, she'd pace excitedly until it was out of the way again.
Baby Rush, weighing in at 9.7 pounds. (See earlier photo of Cary's stomach.) That's how much Sissy weighed, but I didn't have to push her out. Go, Cary! We come from a big baby family. I weighed 9.12, and Cary weighed 10-something. After lunch, a nap at home, and a quick supper at Whole Foods plus little jaunt into Borders, we went back to the hospital for another visit.
lollipop buddies!
I love having nieces and nephews. I'm not just saying that. I won't be able to have the number of children I'd really love to have, which would be a houseful, so it does soften it to know I have so many special kids in my family altogether. Rush was #9 on my side of the family. (Just 1 other on Ryan's side; get to work, guys!)
glad to be back in Momma's arms
Sunday morning, we decided to sneak in a little trip to the Arch before "Mom and Dad" got home. Tornado had never been to the top before, and he obviously loves a good museum.
me and Winnie, in the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is located underneath the Arch
Winnie wasn't overly impressed with the museum. However, there WERE steps to go up and down, so she was happy as can be.
Again, Winnie is more interested in learning about "the builders" than my picture taking. 
There was a slightly long-for-a-15-month-old wait (not to mention an eager 9 year old) to get into the elevator. (The wait really wasn't as long as I expected - maybe 30 minutes.) However, we eventually got to more steps - yes!
Tornado was giddy with excitement while we were waiting. 
On the way up in the elevator, Winnie cozied right up to the man sitting next to her. No worries - he was a sweet Papaw/Sir type.
Winnie's first view out the Arch window
This teenager started talking to Tornado after hearing his excited narration of everything he was seeing. I thought it was really sweet of him to engage with Tornado. The teenager even told him, "See - that's Busch Stadium. I'm going to play there one day."
first father and son nap in the recliner together...Andy and Rush, home at last 