We took a trip, just the five of us, for five nights! I was slightly skeptical that any of us would get much/good sleep, but overall, I think we all did! (I was pleasantly surprised, if you can't tell!) We started out with staying one night in Williamsburg, Iowa at the Wasserbahn ... fun! The boys loved the "ship" area -- I don't really think it was a ship, but that's what they called it. It wasn't very busy, so we pretty much had free reign to do what we wanted!
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| "WASSERBAHHHHHN!" |
On Sunday, we drove to Elmhurst, Illinois -- a suburb of Chicago. Our hotel was very nice -- specifically, it felt very clean, which I appreciate since Benjamin is still primarily scooting his way around the world!
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| Peek-a-boo-ing through one of our new "floaties". |
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| The boys, settled into their bed with their mini-zoo that they brought along. |
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| just us. |
On Monday, we unsuccessfully attempted to leave the hotel early'ish -- thankfully, it was because everyone slept in, not because of something bad. so, we got a lift to the local train station, took that to downtown Chicago and then took a cab from there. so it was almost 11:00 by the time we reached... the Shedd Aquarium!! I think that this was probably the thing the boys had been looking forward to most of all. (Everyday, at least 10 times a day, for the two weeks prior to the trip, Josiah asked me "Are we going to Shedd Aquarium today?") I think the boys really loved it. I'd say they are only *slightly* obsessed with deep sea stuff.
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| welcome to shedd! |
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| close to some jellyfish!! eek!! |
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| the boys, inside of a play submarine... |
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This was in the "polar play area". josiah kept trying
to climb this wall, only to slide down, very frustrated.
a few minutes later, we heard "hey look at me!"
and there he was, sitting at the top. so roman
decided to join him and help josiah crawl down.
some big brother love. |
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the boys loved all of the maps that we got on this
trip -- they studied them a LOT. |
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waiting for the big show to start! dolphins, beluga whales,
and a dog. yes, you read that right... a dog. :-) |
It was a full day for us, but so fun. We went as long as we could go. Benjamin was in the stroller most of the time in Shedd, so he was ready for a break by the time we left! We took the train back to our hotel and then hit the pool!
On Tuesday, we decided to drive downtown on our own, so we parked at Navy Pier and then took a cab over to Lincoln Park Zoo. This is a free zoo close to the lake. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was! There were bathrooms everywhere, air conditioned buildings in some areas, water fountains for the boys to play in (or not), and I think every animal that we had hoped to see!
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| ready to find some animals!! |
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| our monkeys... |
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nearing the end of our zoo trip... benjamin
is ready to crash. (that's probably an understatement.) |
Josiah took two tumbles near the end of our zoo trip, but he toughed it out and just kept going. and then just after we saw our last animal, he told me he had a song for me...
Between the place that the taxi dropped us off and where we had parked our van, we ran into a fountain that looked WAY too refreshing, so we couldn't help but go for it!
We spent more time at the pool that afternoon, which the boys said was one of the best things about our trip.
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| pool fun! |
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Here they are playing in our room, in the "fort" with their floaties.
Fun that they're starting to play together more! |
And then it was Wednesday and our day to drive home! The time was fun but went so fast! Looking forward to more trips in the future with my guys! :)
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| And this is how we roll... home-bound! |
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