chicago in the summertime

free weekends in summer are like rare and precious gems. when you find one, it's a pretty special event. well, folks, we found one. one week ago, we stumbled upon so weekend free time. it was glorious! we used it to sneak in one more visit with david's sister becky and her daughters--our nieces, and the kids' special big girl cousins--before they move to London to join matt. they will be oh-so-missed. fortunately, they're going to keep us all updated right here.

we had some burgers, wandered around their empty home, and had fun at the nearby arboretum before they all headed off to sleepovers with friends eager to get a few more minutes with the mcfarlands.

cousins!

after saying good bye, we hopped into the car to head right into the heart of chicago. after some excrutiating eternity in traffic downtown, we found the hotel, and ditched the car for 24 hours. our hotel lobby was beeeeeautiful. i couldn't really get over the ceiling over the main lobby.

the kids liked the golden peacocks in the main level doors, and did a pretty sweet peacock pose.


after getting all checked in, we wandered a block away, and under the rackety el train, we found dinner at miller's pub. highly recommend. 

 from there, we took an evening stroll to millenium park. we checked out the bean,


 

and stumbled upon a free outdoor orchestral concert in the jay pritzker pavilion.


we also found some young ladies taking selfies. which isn't unusual, except that these ladies appeared to be amish. i'm just jumping to conclusions here. they could be mennonite, or hutterite, or a sewing group that got a discount deal on floral patterns.

in the morning, we took a dip in the pool,

took the subway ride that ramona has been begging for,

 

and checked out the chicago view from the top of the john hancock building. 

down on the street, we re-enacted a family selfie with the water tower, first taken in early january 2016, when it was about 100 degrees cooler out. 

(the original)

we returned to millenium park for a little lunch, and some serious play time in the new and incredibly awesome maggie daley park. james got as wet as possible in every single water feature he could find.

the playgrounds are amazing...

and james had no reservations about splash play in his shorts and underwear. 

neither one of the kids seemed to care that this milleium park fountain smelled like urine. it does.

we had a wonderful and joyful visit in chicago, including the urine-stinky fountain.