Goodbye Chicago

Just one more sleep before we head home, but can you really say you’ve been to Chicago if you haven’t tried Chicago-style pizza? After a long day, we all indulged in cheesy, greasy pizza goodness—even Abby! I found a place that offered gluten-free Chicago-style pizza, and she said it was delicious!

The day may have been long, but the night felt even longer. Emmy had been really tired and dragging all day, and I thought she was just worn out. In the middle of the night, she woke me up, saying she didn’t feel well. She had a fever and was very hot to the touch. She also felt nauseous, and unfortunately, I didn’t have any medications with me. So, she and I ended up sleeping in the hotel bathroom (gross!) all night because she felt like she might get sick. I was panicking a bit, knowing we had to catch a plane first thing in the morning—having a puking child on a flight is everyone’s nightmare!

As soon as the store opened, I rushed to the Walgreens across the street. They had literally locked up everything, I guess the homeless population probably made that necessary. I managed to get some Tylenol, Motrin, and nausea meds, and I prayed we would get through the day.

So, back to the ID crisis. We had asked Aaron to overnight Brook's ID to us at the hotel. We checked daily, but there had been no delivery. According to the tracking information, weather had delayed it, though we weren’t sure what kind of weather could cause such a hold-up. As we headed to the airport that morning, Brook was feeling a bit of a mental meltdown—I think I would have felt the same way in her position.

We made it through the Omaha airport, but the Chicago airport was a different story. You could probably get through Omaha with just about anything; security there isn’t exactly top-notch. Ginger reassured Brook that we wouldn’t leave her alone in the Chicago airport and that if necessary, they would take a later flight. By sheer luck, we managed to get her through security after explaining that she had just turned 18 and making light of "kids these days." Ginger and Brook had to sign a statement verifying her identity, and a manager had to approve it as well. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we got to board the plane together. We had a great trip!