Labor Day Adventures, Part IV

It would be nice to say that the rest of our trip to Chicago was much more relaxing, but then I clearly wouldn't be talking about our family! We are always busy when we go to Chicago!

Friday morning, we drove up to Grayslake to visit my parents. It was my Dad's 56th birthday (yep, Sept. 11th), and the girls were dying to see Nana and Graycop. Little A crawled around like a maniac and Sassy spent about 3 hours playing with my parents garden rocks, of which she referred to as her dream come true rocks. Hey, if that's all it takes...

We had an early dinner of grilled Italian Sausage sandwiches (yum) and said our good-byes. We drove home through Rolling Meadows to see Auntie Kelli and Uncle Randy. Oh, and Morty the puppy, of course. We took a walk down to the neighborhood park, and the girls entertained themselves for a while:











Friday night, Kaitlin came home from Illinois State to spend the weekend with us! She is doing fabulously with her college transition, and we are so proud of her! As usual, my girls tortured her with toys, games, songs, and various other annoyances. She is SO good with them, though!

Saturday, we all headed out to Rockford for L & A's first birthday party! We all went- the 4 of us, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Joe, Kaitlin, Kelli, Randy, and my parents. Miranda & Jay are like members of the fam now, and it's great!

My Dad & Little A:



Kelli & Kait:



Little A was so sleepy. Just after this, she ended up falling asleep on Uncle Randy for a while:



Birthday Princess I:



Birthday Princess II:



Uncle Randy was successful at teaching Sassy how to pedal the tricycle all by herself... something Ty has been working on with her all summer!



We had a great day, and a fairly relaxing evening. Kait and I took a trip to... get this... Target and we crashed pretty early. We had one last busy day ahead of us...

To be continued...

Labor Day Adventures, Part III

We continued on with our busy trip Thursday, even though we were still tired and sore from our downtown gallivanting. I convinced Auntie Kelli to come and spend the day with us, and we took the girls to Lincoln Park Zoo.

Chicago is home to two wonderful zoo's. For all intents and purposes, Brookfield Zoo is the place to go for all the bells and whistles. However, we grew up going to LPZ, and it holds really special memories for me. Plus, it's FREE. (After you spend $30 on parking and $40 for icky zoo food, of course...) I digress. For the record, Milwaukee has a fabulous zoo, too... you know, if you ever visit Chicago for the mere purpose of touring the area zoos...

After we parked, we entered the gardens. I think Sassy was just extremely excited that Auntie Kelli was with us! Little A was pretty stoked, too, since the addition of a third adult afforded her the opportunity to be schlepped around all day!



Sassy liked climbing up on every rock to have a moment's rest:



I was a bit concerned with the proximity Sassy and Ty were to the water. Ty's response... "It's not deep"... as if my only concern about the extremely green, slimy, plant-filled water was the depth...



Meanwhile, Kelli & Little A looked on:





Sassy had a lot of fun having Daddy's attention all to herself!



Next, it was off to the zoo!



We checked out the lazy, sleeping lions, and then headed to a lesson stand. The employees taught us all about turtles and snakes!



We saw several more animals, and decided it was time for lunch. Sassy was impelled to sit in the middle of the sundial:



After lunch, we went to check out the seals:



Sassy decided she wanted to join the seal family for a bit:



Oh, and then we visited my absolute.favorite.animal.at.the.entire.zoo:



On our way to the lower level, we met an employee who had a stuffed polar bear paw to show us. It was HUGE. Now I have a better understanding of why you never want to be swiped by a polar bear:



They are just the cutest things under water. It was great to watch her swim:



Sassy was convinced that the polar bear swam to her specifically. She talked about it for days:



We has good intentions to visit the farm and continue on walking over the bridge covering Lake Shore Drive to see the beach and let the girls splash around in Lake Michigan. However, we decided it best to save that for our next trip, as everyone was tired and Little A was getting cranky.

All in all, we had a great day at the zoo, and we headed home to get ready for an exciting 3-day weekend!

To be continued...

Labor Day Adentures Part II, Part II

Once we were finished at The Field Museum, we started waling through Grant Park and towards Buckingham Fountain.

Sassy love visiting the small fountains at Bradley Fair and other places, so we thought we'd give them a real fountain to look at!





The girls and I took a break at the benches while Tyler retrieved our car from Soldier Field. Our next stop was Millennium Park, and by the time we hit Michigan Ave, the last thing I wanted to do was walk back to the museum campus!



We moved on to Millennium Park. I have been wanting to visit since it opened, and I really didn't know what was in store, besides seeing the ever popular Cloud Gate sculpture, aka The Bean.

As we entered the park, one of the first things we saw was The Crown Fountain, comprised of 2- 50 foot tall glass block towers at each end of a reflection pool. It was a gorgeous day outside, so I just knew the girls had to enjoy this fountain!

We stripped Little A down to her diaper, and I tried to coax Sassy to get down to her undies, like all of the other kids. She wasn't having it! She wanted to keep her dress on, but I knew that we had a whole lot of activities ahead of us, and no extra clothes. She was growing very upset, and finally, I had a thought...

I dug to the bottom of Little A's diaper bag and found a 9 month Carter's romper in there. I figured we'd give it a try, and Sassy slipped right in it. It fit her like a glove bathing suit!

The girls had a blast:









After the girls drip-dried for a few moments, we got them dressed and headed out to see the rest of the park.



Sassy enjoyed sitting by the gardens with her Daddy:



We checked out some of the other sculptures:



Then it was time... Cloud Gate!



Sassy and Little A giggled at their reflections:





I got in on a little photo-taking fun, too:



Little A just loved seeing her face in that bean:



Here's my little family gazing up at the skyline side:



And, the skyline side... so pretty!



Everyone was getting hungry, so we decided to begin our trek up Michigan Avenue and The Magnificent Mile. Here are some of the cool buildings:

The WGN Building:



The Wrigley Building:



The Hancock Building:



The Original Water Tower, one of the few buildings to survive The Great Chicago Fire:



And, finally, our destination:



The mecca for 3-year-old girls. American Girl Place.

Nana and Graycop gave Sassy money to buy a Bitty Twins Doll, and Mom and Dad contributed money for an extra outfit.

We extended the suspense by eating at California Pizza Kitchen at Water Tower Place. Then it was time to shop!



Sassy ended up choosing the blond twin, just like her. She spent approximately 216 hours going back and forth and weighing her options as far as an extra outfit is concerned, and she finally chose a ballerina outfit, so that her baby could be like her in "dancing class".

We took one final picture for Nana and Graycop:



And, we returned to our car and headed back to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe's- EXHAUSTED, and ready for another fun-filled day to follow...