Anyway... since we took a bigger vacation last year, we decided to keep things closer to home this year. We travel to Chicago about twice a year to visit family, but usually we're only there 2-3 days, and usually it's around the holidays, so rarely do we get out and do anything besides visit with family. So this time we decided to do things differently!
We spent a whole week in Chicago, visiting with family, but also getting into the city and seeing the sights. There's so much to do and see, we had a hard time whittling our list down! But in the next few posts, I'll share some of the fun things we found to do, and I'll make some recommendations in case you ever find yourself in that neck of the woods.
On our drive out, we stopped to eat lunch and let the kids play on a great big wooden play ground near the Amana Colonies.
From there, we made our way to Dixon, IL, to visit my aunt and uncle who are building a new house out in the country. After that, we stopped by my grandma's house, where we had dinner.
And finally, we arrived at my family's house, in time to unpack the van and get the kids to bed!
It's usually a 5.5 or 6 hour drive if we drive it straight through. But all the stops and visits make for one REALLY long day. Even so, it's worth it to make the stops to visit family we don't see often enough.
The next day we were planning on taking it easy, sleep in, visit some neighborhood parks, and let Josiah get an afternoon nap. However, my sister pointed out that it was supposed to rain later in the week when we were planning on visiting the zoo. She suggested we switch days and do the zoo first thing. So we did.
We had a beautiful day at Brookfield Zoo. I love this zoo for its flatness and its dolphin shows! It does have a lot of animals and other fun things to see and do, but when you're pushing around a heavy toddler in a stroller, and your kids have never seen a dolphin show before, flat grounds and dolphin shows tend to stand out. ;)
Waiting for the dolphin show...
Awesome dolphin show!
Dinosaurs, and tigers, and bears, oh my!
They had a fun kids area where the boys explored some animal horns, and then assumed their duties as "zoo vets." Josiah made sure the baby polar bear got some water, while Nathan was in charge of animal transportation.
Then we watched as the dinosaur tried to eat a lady's head (look closely), while Emma practiced being a totem pole, and Josiah found stuff to jump off of.
Lastly, the kids took a spin on the big carousel.
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And after that, we were out of steam! We headed back to my family's house, with two of the three kids asleep in the back seat. Once we got to the house, we had about 15 minutes to freshen up before heading out again to have dinner with friends.
We enjoyed a wonderful evening with our friends and their four kids. We even got to do some music with them before leaving. Dakota played piano, Jim played the violin, and two of their children played instruments, too. The rest of us sang along. Even Josiah was singing!
It was a wonderful start to our vacation! Stay tuned for more trip details!
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