That's What Makes You Beautiful

I don't know how to begin to do justice to the trip Ava and I had to Chicago. We've been anticipating this trip for along time.  We had the unexpected good fortune of having the MAIN EVENT (the One Direction concert) receive a substantial upgrade. I gave a lot of thought and care into planning the trip, the flights, the activities so Ava would have a great experience.  And even with all that, our time together in Chicago was more fun and more special than I could have ever imagined.

Thursday afternoon Grandma Jo drove us to the airport to catch our flight to Chicago. Here we are, on the plane, ready to start our big adventure! We were seated in the very last row of the airplane...

Everything was smooth as could be, our flight was on time, we made it into the city in decent time, got checked into our hotel, freshened up a bit and set out for dinner.  We decided to make the 2 mile walk down Michigan Avenue, with a little detour through Millennial Park so we could see a bit of a the city and stretch our legs after the flight. 

On Michigan Avenue we spotted a billboard that invited us to customize a Coke bottle. My Coke loving girl in front of her very own 10 foot high bottle....

No trip to Chicago would be complete without snapping a selfie in the Bean... We loved wandering through the park. There was a jazz festival going on, people every where, beautiful weather...

All along I really wanted to make sure Ava had a very Chicago experience. And there's no way to go to Chicago and not eat deep dish pizza. After our nice stroll through the city we made our way to Giodarno's for some dinner. Even with a long walk and a travel day this was all we could eat of our small sausage pizza!

On Friday morning I was super excited to introduce Ava to one of my very favorite breakfast spots, the Corner Bakery. I know it is a bit silly  to be so excited about a chain restaurant/sandwich shop, but they make the yummiest breakfast sandwich and we don't have them in Iowa. We walked the 5 blocks to the restaurant and Ava was teasing me a little bit about how excited I was- then she ate the breakfast sandwich and totally understood.... We ended up eating breakfast there every morning of our trip! 

After breakfast we walked to Willis Tower to check out the Sky Deck.  We bought our tickets and rode the elevator 103 floors to check out the views. It was really remarkable.  We were there pretty much right as it opened, so it wasn't very crowded and we really got to take our time walking around the perimeter and working up our courage to step out on the ledge, into the 4 foot glass boxes that hover over the city.  It took a few moments, but once we got out there and got comfortable we had a great time taking pictures, looking down and all around. 

Photo of me, by Ava - I'm one happy mom....

Sweet Ava Jane....

While we were visiting the Sky Deck there was a mom there with two daughters who were probably about 7 and 9.  Her younger daughter went out on the ledge with her, but the older daughter was scared and stayed in.... The mom was very kind and understanding - we offered to take pictures and chatted with them briefly before we moved along.  As we walked away Ava said, "I think she will really regret not going out on the deck.  I mean, I know it's a little bit scary, but I think she will be sorry she didn't try."  I thought that was very sweet....

Continuing our Chicago adventure, next stop was Navy Pier. We rode the giant ferris wheel, of course.... 

With my girl, sky line in the background, me having the very best time...

From the Pier we rented bicycles, giant cruiser city bikes, and toodled along the Lake Front Trail (one of my very favorite running routes). We stopped at a small little beach where my water loving girl couldn't get enough of puttering in the lake.  She rolled up her jeans and walked up and down the shore line, indulging me by letting me take a few pictures.

This picture might be my favorite of the whole trip.  You can just see the joy....

One of the best parts of this trip for me was the opportunity to slow down, to have the one on one time with Ava who is changing so much...  The chance to just go with the flow a bit more (not always my best thing) and let the days unfold even in the context of our plans. To say yes as often as possible. To listen to my girl when she talked without all the distractions I'm guilty of tending to....

Our One Direction ticket upgrade left us with two sets of tickets - one for Friday night in the 3rd tier of the stadium, one for Saturday night on the floor. I listed our Friday night tickets on the Ticketmaster auction site with the unfortunate timing of Ticketmaster releasing a block of better seats for direct sale on the same day. By Friday morning our 3rd tier tickets hadn't sold, so even though it was probably overkill of the highest order I decided we'd go to the show two nights in a row.  Why not?

Our seats actually weren't too bad, but it felt a little bit like we were watching the concert at a big movie theater.  The boys themselves were kind of hard to see, but the big screens and the experience was a lot of fun.

The stadium lit up with cell phone flashlights during "Little Things..." A view from our seats.

Seeing the concert on Friday made us even more excited for our awesome seats on Saturday.  It gave us a chance to buy t-shirts and get a lay of the land. And it was pretty awesome.  

To make up for the fact that I took Ava out of school for a day and half to attend a concert I figured we ought to have some educational aspect to this trip. Saturday morning we slept in, ate breakfast at the Corner Bakery, bought some popcorn at Garret's popcorn to continue the Chicago experience, then headed to the Field Museum. 

Ava in front of Sue the dinosaur....

When Ava upgraded to the iPhone the only social media I ok'ed for now is Instagram.  With the conditions of course that I follow her, I can see all her posts etc....  It has given me a really delightful perspective on the things Ava photographs and posts.  This one showed up Saturday afternoon - LOVE!

Saturday night arrives - the main event - the One Direction concert from the 9th row. We thought we knew what to expect, but I was blown away by the experience.  Ava, with her pretty braid, showing off our proximity to the stage....

With my sweet girl....

The energy and the proximity were absolutely electric. If we were observing on Friday night on Saturday night we were participating. The show started and Ava's idols were RIGHT THERE.  They were real people.  We could see them and hear them apart from the sound system. Our seats were on the front part of a long catwalk stage and the band moved up and down in front of us for their whole two hour performance. 

Ava's favorite is Harry (he is adorable) and Harry more than any other member of the band spent the whole evening interacting with the crowd.  He made his way along the stage, stopping, pointing, waving, blowing kisses, talking to audience members between songs.  He would take people's iPhones and snap selfies - at one point he told a girl he was texting her mom. It was remarkable to watch. Several times Harry pointed and blew kisses in a way that seemed directed at Ava and I thought she might burst right out of her skin.

Most of the pictures I took were total crap - to the point where I put my phone away and focused on enjoying the show. The quality isn't great, but this picture gives you a sense of how close we were to handsome Harry and how he was interacting with the crowd.

So I know this is a bit of a travel log- "then we did this, then we did this, it was so much fun...." I really knew this weekend would be really special and I didn't want to leave things out!  Hardly ever have I had the experience where I felt all the time like I was in the midst of a life time memory.  Ava is delightful, an easy travel companion, a smart and observant person. I feel so unbelievably fortunate that everything came together the way it did to make this time what it was for me and for her. It was hard to leave the experience behind, but I am left with the most wonderful feeling of happiness and gratitude that we could do this trip this way....