Over the hills and through the woods to Grandma's House we go....

From Chicago, Il to Clarinda, IA is about a seven hour trip ~ The kids got a good night's rest at the hotel before we left and off we were across the great state of Iowa ~ I took some random photos of wind turbines and a church from the van window~

Navy Pier and The Chicago Children's Museum

"II" and the kids at Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier, the kids at the Chicago Children's Museum, The skyline from Navy Pier, and Daddy's walking taxi service ~ Even a 90 pounder can

get a lift :)

ARGH! We are Pirates!

The Field Museum was had a special exhibit on Pirates ~ We didn't have the time to tour it (or the extra mula;) but we did take some fun pictures with the pirate props in the main hall~ I think Brandon and Gigi make for the most authentic pirates...Hayden and Sawyer are just too nice like their Mom ;)

My Kind of Town...Chicago is..

First stop...The Field Museum ~ We spent the better part of our first morning on vacation exploring the Field Museum. We had a great time and we enjoyed having "II" come along on our adventure.
I was especially excited to go with the kids to a museum that reminded us of our favorite movie "Night at the Museum" I knew that Sawyer would be excited to see "Sue" the largest T-Rex skeleton. Sawyer pointed out the Kinkajou right before we lost him in the South American Animal exhibit ~ Not a good moment ~ BUT we were very proud of him in that he found a security guard and explained that he was lost ~ Our 5 minutes of terror felt like forever! We were so glad to be reunited with our Baby B.
Sawyer and I were missing Rosie the turtle at home so we made ourselves feel better by trying on the Mommy and Baby turtle shells in one the interactive children's exhibits.