Lifelines

Well, we’re back home and it’s been fast and furious since we crossed the threshold.
We spent our last day in Chicago at the Field Museum…cool in a Smithsonian kind of way (says Charlie) but our kids are spoiled and used to exhibits being tailored to them and these…not so much.

It was still neat, HUGE…9 acres of exhibits. We couldn’t have seen the whole thing even if we’d spent all day there. I was happy to have gone, next time we’ll check out another museum and perhaps have better weather so we can spend more time on the streets.

All in all, it was a wonderful mini-vacation! Our favorite day was our first full one there…the day of mass sight-seeing. Some we will return to…Millennium Park, the El, Buckingham Fountain, the Sears Tower, the Navy Pier. Others…the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum were a bit disappointing so we’ll replace those with things like the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Museum of Science and Industry and maybe a river tour of the city. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Because next up for us is a week of shoreside relaxation with family and friends (who are really family also) in July over Greer’s birthday. We need it, after all this crazy, fast-paced city fun!

Hope you enjoyed travelling with us! ;)

Leaving the Sears Tower, we wandered the streets for awhile looking for a place to eat. We found a small bakery which was perfect for us…similar to Panera so we could get salads and sandwiches and fruit cups. And it was fast too! We didn’t want to waste time with a long lunch.

Our plan upon finishing lunch was to find the El and take the kids on a little journey through the city. Charlie and I always liked taking the train in from the airport and since we drove in with the kids, we wanted to give them a small taste of the public transport system.

Instead of finding the El as planned, we saw the Millennium Park looming in the distance and since that was on our agenda also, decided to cross it off our list.

MANY cool things in this park, the first pictures are of the Crown Fountains which display the faces of over 1,000 Chicago-ians and even spouts water out of mouths! The second set of photos are of the “Cloud Gate”…this futuristic chrome sculpture that mirrored the city and all who stood before it. This was a crowd pleaser for sure, with the boys hamming it up at the end, pretending to hold the sphere in place.
And I was able to take family shots capturing all six of us! Granted, I am holding a camera in all the photos but you can’t be picky when you’re me. ;)

Last are some train photos and a few street shots. The kids (and adults) enjoyed the El ride, being able to look into windows and see people living and working was very cool! Rhyse seemed to really like this, never taking his eyes from the window…watching the world flash by.

That’s all for now! Happy Hour has started in the hotel and Charlie and I need some drinks. ;) It is, after all, our anniversary and after schlepping four kids through Chicago, I could use a stiff one. Har, har!

After the aquarium, we hopped in a cab and headed over to the Sears Tower which was high on Chas’s List of Things To Do.

Unfortunately.

Damn field trippers! As it turns out, every publicly schooled child in the greater Chicago area had a tour of Shedd Aquarium with us today. Which sucked, big time. Nothing quite like 25,000 kids manned by 7 adults to really make a day enjoyable!

But my goodness, it was a gorgeous day! As miserable as yesterday was, today was as intensely beautiful!

We started the morning at the aquarium which, though crowded, was still fun. We watched a few shows, browsed the exhibits, deciding to move on before lunchtime. (The time change has worked in our favor here since we are always late, late, late!)

Much of the day was spent on foot, walking through the city. Chas and Rhyse were wide-eyed in awe of the hustle and bustle around them for the first half hour or so. It’s been a little difficult to navigate the city (fast-paced, these Chicago-ians!) and we’ve had to rely on the kindness of strangers quite a bit. But they have been kind and helpful…we attempted the El (the elevated public transport) on our own and we just kind of stood there reading the board like it was written in Alien until a very nice (though scary looking) man worked some magic with the machines and presented us with El tickets. And when we’ve been standing on street corners, attempting to read maps and keep a visual on all four kids, people have stopped to help us with directions, give us tips, etc. It’s been wonderful, really.

Am going to blog by activity of the day so they’ll be a few coming.

Our hit parade:

The Shedd Aquarium
The Sears Tower
Millennium Park
The El

We’re home for a refresher and tonight we’re heading to the Navy Pier for some more fun.

Tomorrow will be another full day but it’s our last! Hard to believe it’s almost over…

Photos from Shedd Aquarium:

I’m referring to “The Windy City.” Which is frigging windy.

We got off to a late start, even by Martin standards but Charlie and I have decided to just go with it and have fun. We’re on vacation, right?

Ah, but it’s hard when there’s so much to do and so little time. We rolled in here around 3:30 and it took the bellhop about 25 minutes to unload our car. :) We’re staying at Homewood Suites, right off Grand Avenue so we’re in the thick of things.

The kids were adorable as we pulled into Chicago, the big city looming in the distance. The Sears Tower is way impressive to the boys and both are excited to check it out. Chas chimed in from the backseat today…”D’ya know it’s 1,454 feet high?” Nope, Encyclopedia Boy but happy that you know!

We were rather frazzled by our arrival…the kids were in meltdown mode. Naps were cut short, meals were late in coming, tempers flaring. So we quickly unpacked and headed out to a cute little Italian place for dinner.

Two things I noticed within minutes of hitting the streets. One, the absence of kids! Where are all the little people?? Two, it’s GD cold. Like COLD, people. It was 49 degrees out when we pulled in and by the water with the wind whipping…it feels like March in Ohio.

So that’s kind of a bummer. It makes life a little harder to get around here in the city where walking is all you do. But we have many options for indoor activities tomorrow and Thursday if the weather stays frigid. I was just not prepared mentally for…winter!

After dinner, we decided to check out Grant Park which boasts the Buckingham Fountain…one of the largest fountains in the world. And those we froze our asses off, I’m so glad we went! It was gorgeous and enormous and grand, our photos really don’t do it justice but they’ll have to do. :) Creux fell asleep and Rhyse chased the birds (he loves letting them settle into a pack on the ground and then he yells, “Rrrrrrrr” and runs into the pile of them, sending three dozen birds into a flapping tizzy) and Charlie and I just tried to keep the small ones warm.

We had trouble hailing a cab (Charlie thinks we are the only family of six in the entire city!) but finally, someone stopped for us and we made it back here to the hotel. Since Creux was still sleeping, I stayed in with him while Charlie has the kids down at the pool.

Tomorrow’s plan is to head to the Shedd Aquarium and the Lincoln Park Zoo if nice, stopping off at Millinium Park maybe and after a refresher at the hotel, perhaps heading up to the Navy Pier. That’s the plan anyway, most likely it will be modified by half and we’ll play catch-up on Thursday when we plan to do some city sight-seeing (hopefully as temperatures rise!).

Hotel room is quiet, baby sleeping, I have a glass of wine…time to relax and enjoy my smidge of freedom before the troops return, ready for showers and snacks and bedtimes!

Some photos from Grant Park:

I had three good hours in the car to sit and think about yesterday’s fun and there’s a few more photos I’d like to share before venturing into the Chicago portion of our trip! :)

We’re in Indianapolis this morning, heading to Chicago as soon as we get these rugrats contained back into the car.:)

Our day started yesterday at 5:30am, we left the house at 7:25 (what exactly takes two hours, I can’t say but know that it drives me crazy). No problems getting into town though omnious looking clouds forced a change in plans from our spending the day at the zoo to us heading to the Children’s Museum.

We had a terrific time, we stayed until it closed then headed to a Japanese Steakhouse (no steak for us, of course :)) for a fun dinner. The cooking-on-the-table is always a big hit.

This place is deserted! There were no crowds at the museum, only one other family at the hotel pool so we’re hoping for similiar luck in Chicago.

We’re starting late today, we missed the complimentary breakfast (you didn’t think we could get up early two days in a row, did you??) so we’re doing our own now. We bring a full kitchen when we travel. :)

Must run but here’s a few highlights:

Happy Holiday Weekend, everyone!

The moment I’ve spent an entire week preparing for is almost upon us! After countless (but I assure you, plentiful) loads of laundry, days of hoarding “the vacation clothes”, multiple trips to Target for pool toys and this-n-that’s, a last minute run to the grocery for yummy and easy-to-eat-and-not-likely-to-choke-on fruits and veggies and snacks…we are almost ready!

Ready for what, you ask? Ready to celebrate TEN YEARS of marriage!

Next Friday, May 30th, Charlie and I will have been married a damn decade! Though we’ve been together for 16 years, this is still a big anniversary for us. We had always dreamed (good word for it) of a 10-day Hawaii get-away but it seems like a better possibility for our 15th (sigh, could be 20th?) when we don’t have nurslings and such small ones. Plus, we rather like our kids. :) They’re good travel companions and we’d miss them crazy if we left them all behind.

We decided to take the whole fam to Chicago…a city that is special to Charlie and I as we used to fly in every year for a weekend while we were dating in college. The last time we went, we were expecting Chas so it’s been AWHILE!

We’re taking a slight detour through Indianapolis so we can either visit their zoo or their Children’s Museum (which is amazing, we went a few years back and jumped at the chance to go again). So we tagged on an extra day and tomorrow, bright and early (and I do mean early…my goal is to hit the road by 7:00…wish me luck!) we’ll be heady to Indy for a day and night, waking early again to travel to Chicago on Tuesday.

I’ve planned oodles but am staying flexible, too. It helps me to have a good idea of what we’d like to do and then we adjust as temperaments allow. We’ll never see all that we want but even wandering around the city and swimming in the hotel pool would be a fun break from “real life”.

We’re staying right downtown in the middle of it all so it should be a great getaway! We’ll be there until Thursday night and then we’re heading back home. Since Friday is our actual anniversary, my mom is taking the kids that night and though we don’t have plans yet we’ll figure something out. Most likely, we’ll stay in and collapse from all the vacation exhaustion (cause there are few true “vacations” when you take kids, right?).

Laptops are coming along so I’ll try and post pictures as we go! If not, I’ll get an album out when we get home.

Oh and speaking of pictures, we had a little treat today when Grandpa and Cookie stopped by for a quick visit. Since they live mainly in Florida now, it was Cookie’s first meeting with Creux and all the kids enjoyed seeing them both again. What a beautiful little bunch, if I do say so myself!

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Yesterday was the big day! Greer’s recital began at noon so we spent the whole morning preparing. My mom had taken the boys overnight on Friday so they wouldn’t have to go again (because you know they were dying to do it twice) and since Charlie’s dad is back from Florida, he was able to join us!

It was much more crowded yesterday than on Rehearsal night. The parking lot was filled, parents and grandparents milling about everywhere, dancers, dancers, dancers every way we turned. Creux must’ve been in heaven with all the colors and sparkles and feathers flying past him!

Charlie, Jon and Creux went to get seats while I took Greer to the dressing area to assemble her into her costume and wait with her before she was called to the stage.

And that was right about the time that she decided she didn’t want to do it. :) She saw all the Baby Dancers sitting in chairs, lined up and waiting for the teachers to accompany them onstage. She was completely fine while I was with her but whenever I tried to disentangle myself so I could sit her with her class and go find my family…she freaked out.

Since the same thing had happened at Rehearsal and had worked out fine (she was not crying onstage) AND since she said she had a great time…I decided to hand her off to a teacher so she could have a chance to calm down without me. It was hard to walk off with her crying but I knew she would settle and I also knew they’d call for her parent if she wouldn’t.

It seemed to take ages for them to take the stage (it really wasn’t but I was so caught up in wondering how she was faring) but after the opening…a line of tiny dancers came shuffling out, bumping into one another, some holding hands, some not, and two sweet ones being carried by teachers.

Guess who one of them was? :)

Greer wasn’t crying at all (whew!) but she was simply not going to perform.

So they did their dance and as soon as it was over, I raced back to the dressing room so I could be there when she was carried back in. She was wearing a medal that they’d given all the dancers and she smiled when she saw me.

I asked her if it was ok, if she had fun and she nodded…”Yes!”

I was so happy that she had a good time, I know she enjoyed her year of dance, I loved watching her weekly and could tell which were her favorite songs and dances. When asked if she would like to take class again next year, she said yes so we’ll sign up for the fall session. Rhyse has expressed an interest in Hip Hop so it’s likely we’ll be very busy at the dance studio!

We managed to squeeze in some good family time, too. My mom came to the Rehearsal and we all went out to dinner together and then we spent the afternoon yesterday with Charlie’s dad, picking up the boys and all heading out for lunch. Thanks to you both for coming and watching and telling Greer she was wonderful…I think she really felt special and she was proud of herself.

Me, I’m happy it’s all over! We’re about ready to kick off our anniversary trip and this weekend’s events…for Greer and with family…were a great lead-in to what I know will be a wonderful holiday for us.