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The last day of vacation was mostly consumed with packing up (at least for the adults!) so after the boys were all dressed, Nana let them watch tv so that we could finish up all the last-minute details in peace. The boys had a sort of up and down relationship with Wrigley all week – yes, they really like him, and yes, Miles no longer has to be held ALL the time when Wrigley is out, but unfortunately he likes to steal everything from stuffed animals to matchbox cars, and the boys were definitely stressed (particularly Miles) about him taking stuff while they were playing. But at the end of the trip, it all came down to one moment – Quinn was watching tv and wanted to cuddle with Wrigley, and Wrigley was happy to oblige. Good bye, Wrigs! See you next time!

To see all the vacation photos, go to theChicago vacation 2010 album.

On the last full day of our trip, we met up with Eric’s Aunt Barb, and our college friend Jessie and her two cutie-pie kids at the Kohl Children’s Museum. This was probably the best children’s museum I have been to – I wish we had one just like it near our house!!!

The kids visited the art room, and the car room (spent a while in there!) and then hit the grocery store. Here’s Miles shopping…

Somehow I think it’s supposed to be groceries on the conveyor belt!

They visited the library and the home center (didn’t spend too much time there – the boys weren’t interested in putting baby dolls to bed.) Then they zipped over to the animal hospital to be veterinarians…

…and apparently pets as well!

Next was the water room and after that they discovered a house that you can work on! You can put siding up on the outside walls and shingles on the roof, and then head inside to wallpaper (magnetic panels) and “paint” the interior walls and install flooring! The boys had a blast in this area – who knew, apparently I should be putting them to work more at home!

They also explored the recycling center and the area about the great outdoors.

We ran short on time, so we missed the restaurant section and some other areas, and we couldn’t go to the big outside area (they closed it because the temp was in the 100s.) We stopped for lunch and afterward I realized that I hadn’t tried taking photos of the four kids together. Here was the best shot out of MANY:

Most of them looked like this:

or this!

It was a blast and we’d definitely go back again. And it was awesome to see Jessie and finally meet her two kiddos!

Check out more photos in the Chicago vacation 2010 album!

A week into our vacation, we got up early on a Saturday morning to make the drive to downtown Chicago to spend the day with Eric’s Uncle Scott, Aunt Marsie, and cousin Jared. First stop was the Shedd Aquarium, a beautiful aquarium on Lake Michigan. Fortunately they reciprocate with the Mystic Aquarium so we used our membership there to get in. A good thing, too, since the regular admission line was out the door and down the stairs!

We decided to see the show (called “Fantasea”) after lunch and discovered that it’s not your typical dolphin (or sea lion or whichever) show where they try to educate you about the animals. Instead it was an odd sort of Disney-fied show with lots of costumes, lights, etc. through which, according to the introduction, we were supposed to see the animals showcasing their “natural behaviors” – no tricks for these creatures! It was unexpected and I thought a bit odd, but the boys were riveted (though Quinn had A LOT of questions about the girl who was supposedly taken out of the audience to be in the show – she was definitely a plant.) Here we are waiting for show to start:

Didn’t get many good photos of the show itself (gotta learn how to use this camera!) But the theater itself is pretty cool. The backdrop to this tank is actually windows overlooking a pedestrian/bike path which overlooks Lake Michigan. It’s really interesting watching the people go by, but for the show they raised this background to keep the focus on the tank.

After we were done with the aquarium (which isn’t to say that we saw everything – but we needed a break!), we took a water taxi over to Navy Pier and had some ice cream. Quinn needed two straws to sip his mint chocolate chip shake.

Here’s Papa and Miles after all the chocolate ice cream was cleaned off his face (Miles’s face, not Papa’s!)

Eric and his cousin Jared

Next we went for a walk on the pier and the boys went for a ride on a little Thomas train.

While we were viewing the garden’s, Uncle Scott was playing with the kids and stole Quinn’s hat.

Check out the face that Miles is making – just daring his Uncle to steal HIS hat away!

After that we took the bus back to Scott and Marsie’s lovely penthouse and RESTED a bit before walking to dinner to get some Chicago stuffed pizza. What a day!!!

Check out more photos in the Chicago vacation 2010 album!

One of the highlights of our vacation for the boys was a visit to the Illinois Railway Museum! They were jittery with excitement to not only see lots of trains, but also ride on them! Unfortunately since we went on a weekday none of the steam trains were running, but we did ride on two electrics.

On the first train ride of the day:

There were many sheds full of just about every kind of rolling stock you can think of – here are the boys exploring an old passenger car.

Too bad this wasn’t on rails anymore!

By the end of the trip we had managed to visit all of the sheds except for the one with the steam engines, so even though everyone was getting tired we just had to find shed number 9! Quinn was especially adamant about seeing the steam engines. I don’t think he realized just how big they were going to be!

Here the boys try to measure up to one of wheels on a large steam engine:

Check out more photos in the Chicago vacation 2010 album!

Our vacation days were packed with fun things to do, including:
*Mini-golfing to celebrate a belated Father’s Day with Papa

*Swimming in Nana and Papa’s community pool

*Hanging out with cousins (even Wrigley wanted to get in the pictures)

*and friends!

More photos coming soon of aquarium, train museum, etc.!