Can You Name This City?

Yes, that's right. What you see behind us is the Chicago skyline! Joel has had a week off of school and we decided to go up with some friends on Tuesday for free admission to the Shedd Aquarium and some general sightseeing. We were not disappointed. It was beautiful weather and the kids had a great time.

Highlights for Everett: The car ride to the airport to the bus ride to the train ride to the city, and later, eating pizza at a restaurant.

Highlights for Ashley: NOT the train ride home. Everything else, yes.

We walked through Milennium Park and saw the famous Cloud Gate sculpture. Everett thought it looked like a giant jelly bean, and I think he was right. Ashley had a lot of fun venturing off to explore by herself (or so thought some of the other tourists, who informed me that my child was wandering around and were appeased once I pointed out that she was heading right over to Joel.)

Everett enjoyed finding his reflection underneath the giant bean.

Another highlight was this giant T-Rex sculpture, part of the Chinese Modern Art display in the park. I thought it was clever that the belly of the dinosaur has "made in china" on it, but the kids only cared about making roaring noises.

Everett and Joel, pontificating on the nature of that giant T-Rex sculpture. Or something.

Everett was ecstatic to be riding on the train. A few days before the trip. Everett and I sat down with the calendar and drew little doodles about the events of our week. Needless to say, he had been counting down almost hourly until we got to ride on the "choo choo train". The morning of our trip he woke up acting like he had chugged twelve energy drinks. Fortunately he was largely occupied by the window for a good part of the two-hour ride, even by passing cornfields.

The other parts of the train ride were consumed by snacks, books, and stringing beads. I thought the beads would work well for Everett, but I had no idea how well. He loved it, it kept him entertained for a long time, and he has even wanted to sleep with his finished bead ropes. Even Ashley loved playing with the finished result.

Joel helped Everett with bead string number two on the way home. I kept teasing him that he and Everett get the same slack-jawed look of concentration on their faces, but he just scoffed. Here is the proof.

It was a great trip and I hope to go back before we move away from here. Chicago is a fun city. We treated ourselves to famous deep-dish pizza and famous popcorn, and plenty of walking to make up for it. It was a perfect day.