Travelogue, Day Five (Thursday)

Out trip is quickly drawing to a close. It never ceases to amaze me how fast the time goes when you are on vacation! I wish I could slow it down and enjoy every last minute. Thursday began with a little shopping trip so the kids could finish spending their special trip money. Hunter is coming home with three new baseball caps to add to his already immense collection, one from the Lincoln Park Zoo, one for the Bulls, and one for the White Sox. Lily bought a shirt and hat at the zoo, and then found a White Sox t-shirt today. Sophie also bought a stylin' hat at the Zoo complete with matching scrunchie, and then spent the rest of her money on a Cubs t-shirt to make Nana proud.

After naps we ventured back downtown to go to Navy Pier and visit the Chicago Children's Museum. The kids could have stayed for hours. The museum was a madhouse, so poor Sophie spent the evening seeing the sites with her friend, "the monkey on her back". For the uninitiated, it's the friendly version of two year-old on a leash. You may think it's cruel, but we'd rather come home with Sophie than without her, and she wouldn't think twice about bolting. Anyway, there was so much to do at the museum that we couldn't even visit all of the exhibits, but the ones we did see were fantastic.

We got to play with shadows butterflies and the "rain" in the Big Back Yard exhibit.

This rain was so cool. It was projected onto a big screen on the wall, but when you would put an arm out or put up an umbrella, the rain would go around it.

Sophie loved "Kids Town", where she shopped for groceries, cooked in the kitchen, drove a bus, washed and filled up a car, and did many other important jobs around town.

Hunter and Lil loved the climbing schooner. They got to get on the deck of the "schooner" on the second floor and climb the nets through up to the third floor and across to the other side.

We also got to go digging for dinosaur bones and meet a T-Rex up close.
Hunter had a great time in the Inventing Lab. He got to design an airplane, and then send it up to the ceiling on a pulley system and release it to see how long it would stay in the air. He also got to make an invention on the computer, and play on the musical slide.

Sophie also loved playing in the Nature area, where she got to go "fishing". Of course, in true Sophie fashion, she had half the pond on her shirt by the time she was finished.

Before we left, Lily and Hunter spent time building with wood, nuts, and bolts. It was so fun to watch Lily and Papa working on their contraption together.


Of course, the very best part of the outing was spending all that time with Nana and Papa with smiles on our faces. It was a true joy to watch my kiddos with Nana and Papa, who they adore, making memories and having fun together.