Chicago Fun and Fiasco!

So back in November me and some of my friends, that I do a Bible Study with, decided that we would take our girls to Chicago and enjoy the American Girl Place, shopping and many more things. I think my Megan when I told her was more excited about our trip for spring break then she was about Christmas! Anyways I was very proud of her she saved all her money since then, and she also sold most of her toys on ebay so she would be able to buy things while we were there. She had $167.00 to spend. You go Megan!!!! Anyways, the day finally came and we all got up around 4am to meet and hopefully leave by 6am. We came close to our deadline. With three vehicles, and twelve people in the the middle of the night, that wasn't going to be an easy task, but we pulled it off. Me and my friends stood in the street and we said a prayer for our safety, and boy did that prayer pay off!

So here are the girls in my van with their American Girl Dolls!

Here I am driving and trying to stay awake!

Here is my friend Shanna who did an awesome job keeping me awake while driving!

My friend Mary driving the other van!

And here is Sally driving with my Alisha and her teenage daughter Sarah!

Wild and Crazy!

Finally they went to sleep! This was the quietest moment of the entire trip, and it only lasted about 30 minutes.

So we finally arrived after 7 hours of traveling and we all shouted for joy when we saw the sign on the street that said American Girl! The store was so big and so overwhelming. All of us mom's split up with our girls because they all had things they wanted to look at. It didn't take Megan long to find what she was wanting, and she had no problem spending all her money.

Me and Megan with her doll!

What a wonderful day!

Me and Alisha in the parking garage!

So we were all done shopping and we headed back to the hotel. What should of been 30 minutes of driving, pretty much ended up being an hour and a half. I was the lead vehicle, with Shanna and all the young girls. All of our GPS's in our cars were not working downtown Chicago because of all the tall buildings, so we were relying on our mapquest directions that I printed up just incase. I knew the road I was suppose to turn on but some how I drove right by it. The other two cars made the turn and they were on their way. I thought no big deal we will just circle around and catch that road, but that never happened. We drove around for 45 minutes trying to find any road that was on our directions. Our GPS the entire time was wigged out so it was of no help to me. Finally we pulled up to a light and my friend Shanna said, Kim that's the road we need to turn on! The only problem was I needed to turn right and I was at the front of a red light with three lanes to my right, all taxis. I said Shanna there is no way I can cross 3 lanes to turn right here! She thought differently and rolled down her window and asked the taxi driver next to us if we could cut in front of him, he said yes but he said there are two other lanes! So we crept over where the crosswalk for people was and asked the second taxi driver if we could cut in front of him, he said sure, so then we went for the third one. He wouldn't even make eye contact with Shanna, so Shanna said Kim go! So I did! I think we might of broken a traffic law since we made a right hand turn at a red light crossing over 3 lanes of traffic! After we got on that road we were finally on our way! Our hotel was awesome. We stayed at the Hyatt and got a great deal. We had joined rooms that slept 6 people each, and it only cost each family $30 something a piece! That was awesome!

Getting ready to go swim!

Alisha and her friend Sarah!

Me and my girls in the pool!

So we thought that since it was Good Friday we needed to acknowledge that with our girls, so we read the story to them from a Kids Bible Story Book!

Me and Alisha ready to hit the town for a second time!

Me and all the ladies!

Chicago Shopping!

Megan with her new doll!

Lunch at American Girl Place!

Well about 4:00 Chicago Time, 5:00 Ohio time we headed home. We were doing great on time. We stopped for a pit stop after about 2 hours of driving. Then we made it about another hour and out of no where the oil light came on, in my car. I'm thinking that can't be good, and then the next thing I new, I wasn't getting anything when I was pushing on my pedal. My friend Sally was to far in front of me to notice there was a problem, but luckily my friend Mary was behind us in the other van. I was just coasting at this point, and I noticed that there was a gas station about 1 mile from where we were. Mary couldn't figure out why I was going so slow, so they started passing us thinking that is what we were wanting. I then started pressing on my horn, and they at first just thought we were messing around. Unfortunately on the way down I did that fooling around, but this time I really needed help! So then I rolled down my window, and my friend Cathy did the same. I yelled to them something is wrong and I have no power, and we need to make it to the gas station. Meanwhile, Shanna calls Sally and tells her to pull off at the gas station. By God's grace we made it to the gas station still going about 40. I went in the gas station and the guy working came out and looked at the van. The car was overheated so it was hard to tell where the oil level was. We put a half of a quart of oil in the van and waited a little bit for the van to cool down. I started it up and the oil light was off, but within 2 minutes the oil light came back on and the van overheated again, and I was only letting it sit there. At this point I decided to have my meltdown because I knew there was a bigger problem at hand. My friends were great and we got out of our crisis. We let the van cool down again for over an hour and we called a tow truck guy who was a mechanic to come and evaluate the situation for me. So the guy showed up and within a few minutes he diagnosed the van needing a new thermostat. That is what was making the van overheat, but the van wasn't drivable. Luckily because we had another van with us, and 2 spots open in the car we were able to fit everyone in the other vehicles. We were crammed with all our stuff but at this point it didn't matter. I was just happy to be safe. The mechanic towed my van to his place and on Tuesday I have to drive 3 hours to Indiana to pick it up. So unfortunately my Chicago adventure hasn't ended yet. We arrived back home around 2am, and I didn't get to bed until 2:30. We did make it for church however, but wow what a way to end our wonderful weekend. I do think me and my friends pulled together, and throughout that process we bonded! We say down the road we will talk about it and just laugh. I'm already laughing!!!! God watched over us and that is all that matters!