Trip to IL Day 1: 9/3/10

My cousin, Susanne and her daughter Kate live in NM. they flew up to visit her parents in IL for a couple of weeks. We decided we wanted to see them so we invited ourselves over. ;-)

The kids did a good job of keeping themselves occupied (for the most part) on the 4 1/2 hour trip over there.We headed to the outlet mall after we checked into the hotel. We were hoping to find a few good deals on just a few more school "essentials" at a good price. We did!! and maybe then some! ;-)

On our way to one of the store we were heading to we ran across a slot car race place. It cost $4 for a 5 minute race. All 3 boys raced while Samantha watched on, wanting to do it herself (but you had to be 3 years old or older to do it).
After some racing and some shopping we went and had dinner. We decided to splurge and have dinner at Rain Forrest Cafe. Samantha loved the fact that her chicken nuggets were shaped like dinosaurs.
Marc was really hungry, so he ate his grilled cheese very quickly!
Both kids loved all of the noise and movements of the animals. We were sitting somewhat close to an elephant. Every time the "storm" came through we could hear it trumpeting. Every time Samantha heard it, she copied the noise. I decided to video her doing it. As soon as I decided to video her she decided to eat. This video is not the best one she did, but it is still cute.

We bought Samantha a portable toddler cot a few weeks ago and were excited to test it out this weekend. As you can see in the picture below, she slept great!

We had fun on Day 1 in IL. We are looking forward to days 2, 3, and 4!