We are saving money for Disney in 2013 so instead of going away on a vacation, we decided to have a staycation. Instead of our home, we chose the home of my best friend, Jenny...who has an amazing pool in her back yard. We did something everyday but our favorite place to be was simply poolside, relaxing with our family!
Day #1...we arrived after dinner and headed straight to the pool. Amara jumped off the diving board for the first time!
I was double fisting it within minutes
love this family vacation
Day #2...poolside early! First time off the slide
lots of floating
and jumping too!
we spent the evening at a Kane Co. Cougars game
they had inflatables before the game- HUGE hit for our kids!
It was a million degrees and we were HOT after the game. We headed to an icecream shop and stuffed ourselves!
Day #3...waterpark! We spent the whole day at the waterpark 45 minutes from St. Charles. It was so much fun. And while Mara was too small for lots of the slides, Al could ride everyone and did!
I think Amara did this one 5000 times ( seriously!)
Love these waterbabies!
We lounged some too!
Fun in the sun
Then we went bumper boating
Go Carting
and played lots of video games
And we loved every second we got to spend with the Murrays....especially Michael!
Day #4...Children's Museum. We explored
we created scenes in shadows
Brian professed his love
Not sure I can love these two men more
We played and played and played
Then we discovered the nearby Riverwalk and loved exploring it too! Nothing sweeter than a Daddy and his Daughter!
Look at these sweeties ( they never fought once on vacation)
We did discover the Naperville pool and we can't wait to go back and actually swim there!
Biggest find of the day....a place called Cookie Dough Dreams....8 flavors of cookie dough that they put ON TOP of your icecream. WHAT!? It was amazing!
look at this!
Then we headed into the city and went to Navy Pier to the ferris wheel
The lighthouse
The swings
And the carousel!
It was a such a fun day!
We finished with dinner with Amara's Godfather Anthony and his wife AND aunt Anita!
Day #5...We headed back to the burbs to enjoy our day at the pool. We loved spending time with The Laharts too!
And every extra second with Amara's Godmother, Aunt Jenny was precious!
Amara had a blast with Hadley
We had a half birthday party for some of the kids and celebrated Mara's birthday too!
Day #6...our last morning. We swam and swam and jumped and dived and slid and loved every second of it!
We enjoyed all the time we got to spend as a family
and lots of relaxing too....
and playing and laughing and being silly and more!
When we got back to C-U we headed straight to the movies to see BRAVE in 3D- Amazing!
What an incredible vacation. Can't believe the next vacation we take will be to the Greatest Place on Earth!!!
