Girls trip to Chicago!

Every year the roommates I had in college (Truman State) get together to catch up and have fun.  We try to vary the location and time of year, depending on each other's schedules.  This year our annual trip was in Chicago.  2 of my roommates live there with their families and it was a nice central place for everyone to meet.
Our trip is starting to need some serious planning though, because each one of my roommates, there are 6 of us, have kids of our own now.  So before, we would plan on hitting the clubs and partying at night, and now we plan on hitting the zoos and childrens parks.  My, how times have changed!!

Maggie and I flew in on Thursday night and came home on Sunday.  This was her first time flying and she did FANTASTIC!  I thought for sure she would fall asleep on the flight there, but she didn't and luckily I had a seat partner that was having a good time making Maggie laugh.  Free entertainment!
I wasn't sure how well Maggie would do sleeping in a new place, but she didn't mind at all.  She did really well sleeping at night and during her naps while we were there.
We stayed with my girlfriend Jamie and her family's house (that they just moved into 1 month ago!).  She has 2 kiddos, Owen who is 4 and Ava who is 1.  They had tons of toys and we had lots of fun there, especially since Ava is totally obsessed with babies right now.

Here is Maggie sitting in Ava's chair in her room. Maggie slept in Ava's crib while we were there, and I slept on a futon in the same room.  It worked out really well.

Jamie and Maggie at the park right by their house.  We had beautiful weather - it was 80 degrees and sunny the entire time we were there.

We had a picnic lunch at the park the first day. 

Maggie really liked laying in the sun on the blanket!

Maggie and I, and another roommate Deidra with her little girl Evelyn (who is 1). 

Watching the kids feed the ducks

I found another swing, just like the one that used to be at the playground by my grandparents house in Michigan.  We took lots of pictures of Colin when we were there a couple of years ago, but they took the swing down since then.  Well, this park had a swing like it and of course, I had to snap a few pictures of Maggie in there, even though clearly she was too small for it.

She wasn't as excited about it as I was!

Ava entertaining Maggie.  She would've just loved on Maggie all day long if we'd let her.

Maggie with my friend Angie.  Angie just had a little boy one week before Maggie was born.

So big!!

Here's a shot of all the babies (and there were other kids that were older, too!).  It turns out that 3 of us were all due with babies within a few days of each other. 

Chris is on the left (2 months older than Maggie), Lucas is on top (1 week older than Maggie), Keagan is on the right (2 weeks younger than Maggie) and then Maggie.  LOTS OF BABIES!

Maggie doing a high-kick for the camera.  She was by far the smallest of the babies, such a little peanut!

All of us girls hanging out one night. 

Me, Stephanie (from St. Louis), Karla (from Nevada), Angie (from Chicago), Deidra (from Kansas City), and Jamie (from Chicago) 

They are so thoughtful.  My swim team was being inducted into Truman State's Hall of Fame the same weekend we went to Chicago.  Of course, I had already bought plane tickets so I wasn't able to attend.  But, my roommates got me a "congratulations" cake and put together a slide show of a bunch of fun pictures from college.  We sat around and drank wine and reminisced about the good ol' days.  Had tons of good laughs and funny memories. 

The flight home was pretty uneventful.  Maggie did great again and Daddy and Colin were waiting to pick us up when we got off the plane.  Geez, I missed Colin like crazy!  He and Daddy had fun while we were gone though.

I can't wait until next year.  I am so lucky to have such a great group of friends!