Fun with friends!!!

Thursday night I met up with some friends from Wichita Falls (I wish I could say new friends in Chicago but I haven't been very successful at that!) and we went to dinner! Let me preface this by saying I honestly wasn't sure how it was going to go down. All I knew was that I was taking 5 adults and 3 little ones to dinner and I was to pick the place. NO PRESSURE!!! My past attempts at being a tour guide to parents with small children was a disaster so I was 0-1 and really nervous to strike out again!!! I'm really not used to navigating this city with a stroller but I'm gaining experience! haha!

So, I go to meet everyone at the hotel and we're off! I picked a Mexican food restaurant that I knew was big and loud. (let's face it, taking 3 kids to a quiet restaurant is just asking for it.) I know, go figure, I picked Mexican. Of course the place I pick isn't right around the corner, so I decided a bus would be the best choice b/c the trains usually mean stairs and strollers + stairs= too much work. So we get on the bus. Which is GREAT at first, but at EVERY stop 6 more people get on the bus (NOT exaggerating). By the time we need to get off, we're literally trapped on this bus. We start moving to the exit and we've taken so long, the bus is starting to go again! We yell up to the driver to please wait b/c we're coming! Eventually, people start getting off the bus to make room for us to get off! haha! Obstacle one...TACKLED!!!!

We finally make it to the restaurant (45 mins after I had called ahead to have them set up our table) and they had to give away our table. Which I understood, I had told them we'd be there in 15 mins and we didn't make it. Again, I'm NOT used to converting normal time to "traveling with little ones" time. haha! But, the restaurant was awesome and accommodated us perfectly and we had a GREAT TIME! Obstacle two...TACKLED!!! I'm on a roll!!!

I really was anxious about the dinner and it was so wonderful! The kids were great!!! I was picturing food flying everywhere and screaming b/c for some reason 3 kids=disaster in my head and well, I'm a "expect the worst, hope for the best" kinda girl! I made some new friends and got to spend time with some old friends. Erin & Dutch & their adorable little girl, Liv. They're the kind of people you can be around for 5 minutes and feel like you've known forever. She's from Wichita Falls, and I swear looks like Kate Hudson, but now lives in Indianapolis. Then, Crystal & her beautiful little girl Savannah. I feel like I know Savannah from following Crystal's blog. Crystal is Lauren's (my bff) sister in law and she helped make sure everything was perfect on my wedding day. Their husband's were at the Cubs game. And then Lauren and sweet Luke were there too! Did you get all that? I hope it made sense.

Lauren, Crystal, Erin & co: I had a BLAST with y'all! Y'all are the cutest mom's on the planet and it was so refreshing and fun to be with such amazing women! I hope I'm half as cute as y'all when I have a little one and I hope I can make it look half as easy too! Luke, Savannah & Liv are so blessed to call you their Mommy! And Dutch, you were a trooper hanging with us crazy girls while we almost blew away in the monsoon winds on the way home!

So if you've got kids and you're in the Chicago area, BRING IT ON! haha!