Waking up to view a city in action right at your feet, seeing building after beautiful building outlining the river, finding a cafe for breakfast, discovering that with our cool breeze we were actually cold and might need a jacket(!!!!) and then walking hand in hand with my little ducklings the 5 blocks to the Stone Ward office..all to see Daddy at work...it was great. The city is so clean! There are flower boxes everywhere, just bursting with perfectly selected plants and greenery.

We hung out at the Stone Ward office for awhile, picked up a borrowed stroller, ate lunch with Daddy and then the kids and I hit Michigan Avenue. We had some specific destinations in mind, and we made the most of our time. H&M, J. Crew, these were priorities.

A & B hung in like champs. Brooklyn must have walked 3 miles that day from our hotel to the office to Michigan up and down and then back to the hotel. Such a trooper.

We crammed in a mini-nap for August while Brooklyn tried on her new H&M dress.

Lovely and lovely.

Their favorite spot.

Then, like true Chicagoans, we took the train to Lincoln Square to have dinner with our friends/Kyle's co-workers in a legitimate neighborhood!

Tom and Kyle

We then crashed Tom & Cindy's house and ended up letting the kids play for hours while we talked about everything under the sun.

When we finally got back to our hotel, it was after midnight, and we were all tired, but deliriously happy. Ready for a good night's sleep and another day.