Amercian Girl Doll Store

My parents came to visit a couple of weeks ago and we spent about 4 or 5 days of their time with us over in Chicago. My mom got rooms at The Marriott on the Magnificent Mile downtown and we went to the aquarium, Navy Pier, the children's museum, saw Cirque Shanghai. The kids went bike riding with dad and played on the beach and we all got to ride The Tall Ship Windy where John David was chosen to shoot the cannon. My dad has all the pictures of those things, so I have to patiently wait for him to post them on his smugmug site. (ahem, Davus.)

The lobby of The Marriott
(just envision four monkeys running around hollering and that's what it looked like when we were there)

We had two rooms that were across the hall from each other
(if I remember correctly, we were on the 34th floor - do you think I opened that glass door?)

One evening we had a girls' night out! Here's my mom and the girls outside the
American Girl Doll Store as we were leaving, shopping bags in hand.
(Oh my, what have we started??? Have you ever been in one of these stores or seen one of the catalogs???)

In addition to the store, there is a restaurant there. Everything is so dainty and sweet and they even have little seats for your dolls. This was the appetizer we enjoyed.


I don't know what Aulora was doing here, but I think it's just too funny.
I guess she was really excited about her plate of dainty desserts.

Julia chose the colonial era Elizabeth for her doll.
(Can you tell that Julia looks kind of strange in these pictures? She had some mystery fevers before this trip and nobody, including the doctor, could figure out what the problem was. We chalked it up to a virus and decided to let it run its course. Our second day in Chicago she woke up with very rosy cheeks and a red blotched body. We finally concluded she had fifth disease. This was confirmed when Aulora developed the same rosy skin a few days later.)

Aulora chose a bitty baby which has yet to be named anything but "Baby".

Julia and Elizabeth had impeccable manners at the table.

Aulora and "Baby" had some tea.

The girls pose with Grandmamma.

I know my dad has some fun pictures from the trip so hopefully I can steal them soon! Thanks to Grandmamma and Dodie for a fun trip and lots of memories! And thank you to Gran for buying the girls their outfits they are wearing in these pictures!