Race Expo, Nike wall of names, American Girl, etc.

The first plan on the agenda for today was going to the Chicago marathon race Expo. After breakfast, Lisa and Bryn met us in our hotel lobby. Then the 7 of us took two cabs to the Expo. It was HUGE! Of course we purchased race souveniers in the forms of shirts, skirts, arm warmers, sun glasses, etc. The highlight for me was meeting Hal Higdon. He just published a novel and was selling/signing copies. So of course I had to buy one and get him to autograph it! TOO COOL!!! Thankfully, we came to the Expo early, on Friday morning, and it wasn't too crowded. We saw Joan Benoit Samuelson speak. AWESOME! We were able to shop/look around without feeling overwhelmed. We eventually picked up our t-shirts. They were smaller than we thought they would be. Kyra and Nattie decided to wear my and Ty's shirts as soon as we pulled them out of the bag to look at them. We didn't really care since we weren't planning on wearing them tomorrow anyway... Lisa took a great photo of us while we were waiting on Ty and Natalie to return from searching out samples of something that they saw someone walking by with...

We had told the girls that after the Expo, they could decide the rest of the day's agenda. Natalie had picked up numerous pamphlets from the hotel lobby this morning and the girls planned out our adventures in Chicago. After we were finished at the Expo, we returned to the hotel to drop off our bags. The girls decided our next stop would be the American Girl Store.

We decided to walk to the American Girl Place since it was only a few blocks away. Those few blocks seemed like miles in the windy rain. Our umbrellas were turned inside-out several times along the walk, but we eventually made it to the Water Tower Place Mall. But before we did, as we were walking in the windy rain, we wondered if we should have taken a cab. As we walked past the Nike store I knew it was meant to be that we walked. Otherwise we wouldn't have seen the Nike store wall that listed every single name of the people registered to run the marathon. HOW COOL!!! We patiently waited for the crowd to clear so we could find our names. Sophia found my name before I did and called me over. In the photo, Kyra's pointing to my name. AWESOME! After finding our names and taking photos, we continued on to the mall. The American Girl Place was at the entrance. The store was HUGE; two stories! The girls looked around for quite a while before deciding on what they wanted to purchase. Kyra, Bryn and Sophia all decided (separately) that they wanted to buy the Rebecca doll. Natalie chose a different doll since she'd already asked for Rebecca for her birthday (next month). I was surprised that they selected the same doll since we pretty much went separate ways once we entered the store. Did they make this decision before we got there? Kyra had a hard time deciding between Rebecca and a "Just Like Me" doll, but eventually chose Rebecca. I let her pick out a few outfits since her American Girl Doll items had been ruined by the flooded basement. While we were there, I asked at the "hospital" if they could replace doll bodies since Kyra's dolls bodies had become moldy from the floods. They said no... that we would have to just by new dolls... bummer; especially since one was a girl-of-the-year which is no longer for sale.

Afterwards, we all went to lunch at a restaurant in the mall called Mity Nice. The girls proclaimed that the restaurant had the BEST macaroni and cheese EVER!!! And we adults thought the cheese/bread was the most amazing thing we'd ever had! WOW! We let girls open their doll boxes while we waited for our meal. How will they tell them apart? Of course, they have slightly different personalities. Some are ballet oriented, some like hair ribbons, and other is not as girly... I wonder if they'll be able to tell the triplets apart later...

After lunch we went to the Hershey Store. The girls wanted the 5 pound chocolate bar. No.... We did buy smaller packages of chocolate, plus hot cocoa. As we were leaving, talking about what to do next, Kyra told me that she didn't feel well; her tummy hurts. It was still rainy/cloudy outside and the rest were debating about going to the Sears tower but wondering about visibility. I told Lisa and Ty that Kyra wasn't feeling well. I said they were welcome to continue sight-seeing, but Kyra and I needed to return to the hotel. Since the weather was yucky and they were tired too, they decided to return to the hotel with us. On our way back, the girls decided that they would rather play with their dolls together in the hotel anyway. So that's what we did. The girls played with their dolls in Ty's suite while we adults rested/read our race packet materials. I painted my nails blue while we relaxed.

Next stop... Sears Tower...