Living on Love: Vacation: Part One

Hey, gang! Happy Wednesday! You probably noticed the plethora of posts from some amazing guests over the past week. I cannot thank them enough! If you didn't get a chance to read all of their posts, make sure you do. They were filling in for me while I was on vacation with the fam! We got back late Monday night, after a week of fun. Phil's whole family planned an awesome getaway on the coast (or is it shore?) of Lake Michigan. We decided to add some fun adventures of our own before and after our trip, including 2 morning stops in downtown Chicago and a couple days in Milwaukee. I thought I'd have just one vacation post, but we did too much and took way too many photos, so I think I'll break it up into chunks. :) Anyway, here is part one.

Traveling with a toddler and a 4 month-old who hates her carseat is no easy feat. We had an 8+ hour drive ahead of us, so we decided to do it in the night. We've done this before. Phil is a good night driver, too! Anyway, we slept for about an hour at home. We set the alarm for 12:45 am. I woke Ingrid and fed her, then we woke Addie, loaded them into the car, and we were off. We timed our departure pretty well, and even took the Chicago rush hour into consideration. Bottom line, we couldn't be late.

For donuts, that is. Have you all heard of the Donut Vault? We first saw them on Huff Post Food. They were named one of the top 5 donut places in the country. They open at 8:30 each morning, only sell a handful of flavors, and stop selling when they run out. See why we couldn't be late? :)

Seriously, the best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life.

After our donut breakfast, we battled city traffic and headed to Lakeshore Drive.

Next stop: Shedd Aquarium!

I forgot to mention that on our 6+ hour drive through the night, Addie only slept for about an hour and a half. She was awake and happy and talking up a storm. By the time we got to the aquarium, she was pretty out of it. Anyway, the aquarium was still awesome.

Ingrid was a trooper. She only got fussy while we were stuck in traffic before our donut stop. Poor thing was starving and there was nothing I could do. I fed her in the car a few times, so after our aquarium visit we hung out under some trees and looked out at the harbor so peanut could have some relaxing milk & mama time.

Yup, you counted right. About 3 hours total spent in the windy city. I wish we could have spent more time there, as it's one of our favorite places, but we were on to Wisconsin! Before we left though, we grabbed some chicken from Harold's Chicken Shack. Apparently this was Obama's favorite place in Chicago. Again, we saw this on Huff Post Food. (Really, this trip just revolved around eating. No shame there.)

One hour later, we arrived in Kenosha, where we'd be spending the next few days. It was too early to check into our place, so we opted for a picnic at a beach park. Awesome. And still going strong with just an hour or two of sleep under our belts.