Our Trip to Chicago

Yesterday we made a special trip and took Haley to Chicago to visit the American Girl store. Chicago is just less than a three hour drive from where we live. It was a beautiful day for a drive, construction wasn't too bad and traffic wasn't backed up.

We rewarded Haley with this trip because she worked on her bridge workbook and read every day over the summer. She saved her chore money to spend. Haley picked out the cutest dress outfit that she could find for her doll, Julie.

At the American Girl doll store, we browsed through all the books, looked at all the American Girl dolls, outfits, etc. Haley took Julie and Bitty Baby (who she has named Baby Haley) to the doll salon. The girls were treated to a cleaning and new hairdo's. Julie also got her ears pierced.

Yesterday was Haley's day of heaven on earth! This was Haley's first trip to Chicago since she was a year old. We live in the Grand Rapids area which is quite large but she was amazed by all the traffic and huge buildings. She thought the public train system was really cool. She could hardly stop laughing at all the taxi drivers blowing their horns.

We stopped for chicago-style pizza on the way home. It was a great day! It's only a rare occasion that we have a special day like that (a trip that costs lots of money) just for Haley. Making a special day just for her was a great pleasure for us too! She worked so hard over the summer and I wanted to show her that hard work has it's rewards.