Chicago

On our way to Ohio from Wisconsin, back when we closed on our house in July, we stopped in Chicago.

We visited the Hancock Tower.  (We'd been there before.  But it was a long time ago, so David and especially Mary did not remember.)  It's pretty neat feeling like you're on top of the world.

We have also been to the Willis-formerly-known-as-Sear Tower.  It's taller, as you probably know, and the Skydeck is pretty cool.  But you can't beat the location of the Hancock Tower--right next door to the Lego and the American Girl stores!

The next morning we visited the Field Museum.  (Pictures are M.I.A.)  We said hi to Sue the T-Rex and visited a number of the exhibits.  David and Mary especially enjoyed the precious gems on display.  We have been dragging them to museums for years (mostly for our sanity than for their enjoyment), but now David and Mary are getting old enough to really "get" museums.  It's great.

After the Field, we climbed back into our cars and drove to Cincinnati to begin a new chapter.

Sara goes to the Art Institute

While my mom was here following the Weekend of Awesomeness, Greg and I left her in charge of David and Mary so we could celebrate our 10th Anniversary.  Yes, our anniversary is in April not June, and, yes, our 10th anniversary was in 2012 not 2013.  But you do what you can do.

Last year, for our 10th anniversary, we had big plans to spend the day in Chicago visiting the Art Institute.  I had been to Chicago a dozen or more times ... and still hadn't made it to the Art Institute.  Grrrr!  It seemed ridiculous.  Our 10th anniversary seemed like a great time.

And then all of our kids got sick.

When our 11th anniversary rolled around we were so busy (and stressed) I forgot I even had a blog.  We did nothing for our anniversary.  But Greg brought me a whole pie!  So we did acknowledge it.

I really liked my pie and all, but I still wanted my visit to the Art Institute before we moved farther away from Chicago.

Enter Grandma Evie.

So we finally got our day in Chicago without the kids.  Sara doesn't count.  In fact, she was a very happy part of our trip.

I loved the Art Institute.  It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.  Being there with Greg brought back a flood of memories.  We used to do things like this!  A lot!  And I remembered why we did things like that a lot--because we really really like it.

And it was such a pleasure to have Sara with us.

She is such a content baby.

Her latest trick was blowing raspberries.  As we walked the galleries, she blew raspberries to her heart's content.

It's good to know that her spit is on a fair number of famous artworks.

We hit many of the highlights.  What was interesting is that Greg and I noticed things in famous paintings that we'd never seen before.  Paintings like the one above or below are reproduced a million gazillion times. Yet seeing the real thing was different--we noticed details we'd missed before.  (Like the monkey.  How had neither of us ever noticed the monkey?  Or in American Gothic, I never noticed the plant.  Or, more importantly, I never noticed that the woman is much younger than the man.  More father-daughter than husband-wife.)

Still love Rothko.

But the highlight was when, in the American folk art, we found Sara's hair twin!  Check it out.

It was a wonderful visit.  Art museums make me really happy.  I forget how happy they make me and then I visit one again and I leave happy and I can't even explain exactly why.  Something about good art speaking to the soul, I'm sure.

But I will say this.  At one point a lady stopped us to coo at Sara and she said, "She is more beautiful than anything in this entire museum." I agree.

Happy 10th (and 11th) Anniversary to us!  Even better, Happy Sara to us!

Tio Dave came to play

The day after his law school finals ended, my brother David jumped on a plane to come play with my kids.  Hooray!  It's always a good time when Tio is around.

We aren't exactly a thrilling group these days.  But Tio was a good sport.  He hung out with me during the day, and, once the kids were home from school, he spent hours and hours playing with them.  They were in heaven!  He even took them miniature golfing, another dream come true.

One day we did make the trek the Chicago and back.  We visited the Museum of Science and Industry.  We've been a couple of times before in years past, but it was time for a revisit.

With David's recent obsession with World War II, we knew he would have a new appreciation for the museum's U-boat. I do have to say that the German U-boat is very cool.  Definitely the highlight of the museum.  I'm glad we could take David to see it again.  And, even better, I'm so happy Tio Dave could be with us!

The rest of the museum is pretty cool too.  This time Mary bravely ventured into the "coal mine"--we're proud of her!   Here are a few pictures from the museum.  (These are for my kids, who like to browse my blog looking for pictures of things they enjoyed doing.)

Thanks for visiting, Tio!  We love you!

The best laid plans

Last week Greg and I reached that milestone of a decade of marriage.  We celebrated...sort of.

With the help of three wonderful friends, I coordinated a whole day of school pick-ups and play dates so that Greg and I could escape to Chicago for the day.  The drive alone (three hours each way without whining and the sounds of Pokemon videos coming for the backseat) had me giddy.  Also, we planned to go to the temple together.  TOGETHER.  That is like the ultimate treat.  And it seemed an appropriate way to celebrate ten years of marriage.

Then David got sick.  But he got better.  Phew!

Then Mary got sick.  And she did not get better.  Boo!

Oh well.  But there were touches of celebration last week...

Greg arranged to have the piano tuned.  I think of the piano as my 10-year anniversary gift.  We actually got it a month  before our ninth anniversary.  But, somehow, it has become in my mind a mark of 10 years.  For me it represents real life and adulthood and stability, some measure of which we have reached after 10 years.  It also shows that my husband loves me (because isn't there something terribly romantic about a husband buying a piano for his wife?)  So having the piano tuned last week was fitting.

Also, on the day of, Greg brought me tulips and Dr. Pepper.

Then, on Friday (the day we'd arranged to spend in Chicago), my heart was still aching for the peace and quiet of the temple, even though Mary wasn't well enough to be passed off to other moms.  (Seriously, I think I am getting addicted to the temple.  I think this may say less about the temple than the amount of chaos and disquiet and messiness in my life!  I am desperate to escape!)  So we tossed an improving Mary into the car, picked David up at school, and drove to Chicago after all.  (Who says kids have to be sick on the couch?  They can be sick in the car...and in a hotel...right?)

So it was a quick, terribly unromantic trip of truck stop meals, separate temple sessions, and cramped double beds.  (Also, we had to rush home right away Saturday for a previously scheduled and very important play date of David's with his BFF.)  And then we spent Saturday afternoon and evening at separate church meetings (it was stake conference weekend), and then we juggled the kids in church on Sunday morning through the marathon that is a multi-congregational, stake conference meeting.

We celebrated our ten-year-anniversary with a whirlwind of sick kids, car time, separate church meetings, outpourings of the Spirit, general grouchiness, arguments, much-needed naps, heartfelt conversations, cereal-for-dinner, inspiration, the BFF, tears of happiness, tears of sadness, reflection, exhaustion, procrastination, and did I mention those cramped double beds?

Somehow it was perfectly appropriate.  We have hopes of escaping to Chicago alone for a day, a night, and a day sometime this year.  (Do you know I have NEVER BEEN TO THE ART INSTITUTE???!!)  I also feel very grateful for the celebration of our 8-year-anniversary.  Yet, to mark 10 years, the imperfect--the very very imperfect--was perfect.



P.S.  Actually, the very best anniversary present was a perfectly normal, unremarkable, average, run of the mill, rather pleasant (pleasant!), tantrum-free Family Home Evening last night.  We did it!!  Finally! (And it only took 10 years!)

Much too big

Saturday was a quick and very last-minute jaunt to Chicago and back.  The Saturday before I had the chance to go to the temple in Chicago with Leah, my very dear friend and former mission companion.  (Can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday??)  I think I loved the peace and quiet and meditation so much that I had to go back for more.

Greg and I took turns visiting the temple, while the other hung out with the kids at a nearby children's museum., where it was discovered that--

David is 49 inches tall and weighs 49 pounds.

Mary is 42 inches tall and weighs 42 pounds.

(How about that?)

They are big.  But what was discovered long before the trip to the museum, with its scale and measuring tape, is the size of their personalities.  They are big.  Very big.  They have quirks.  And those quirks are growing bigger and bigger.  Much too big for me to handle, I fear.

Much too big.

Mammals! And fish too!

Monday we "ran away" to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. You didn't think I was going to let the week go by without posting plenty pictures of fish, did you?

Our first attempt to visit the Shedd ended this way--which was not bad--but it did make us realize that we should try to visit the Shedd on a less busy day.  So we chose a non-holiday Monday in January.  Greg juggled some things in his schedule, and we excused the kids from school.  It was so worth it!  The crowds were minimal, which made it so much fun.  We had a great time.

Want to see some pictures of fish?

Oops.  I just realized I had the sense NOT to take a picture of everything interesting I saw.  In fact, I pretty much only took pictures of mammals.

The highlight for the kids was the aquatic show...

with the beluga whales

the sea lion

and dolphins.

But these mammals were my very favorites.  They were so happy to be there!

Mary had a huge smile on her face during the show.  She was glowing.  And David was so excited that he fell out of his seat!  (Which reminded me of when David fell out of his seat at Sea World when Baby Shamu made an appearance.  Incidentally, the Shedd goes to great lengths to distance its show from the low-brow likes of Sea World.)

The whole Oceanarium part of the Shedd is new.  (Now the Shedd is on par with the awesome Monterey Bay Aquarium.)  We enjoyed the sea otters and penguins and whales and dolphins and all that.  Very nice.

But I think my favorite was the old school part of the Shedd--the building and tanks and displays that have been there since 1930.  I visited the Shedd waaaay back in the day, when I was in elementary school.  (It was also before I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium.)  Back then I was amazed by the tanks and tanks of fish.  Now that aquariums are a dime a dozen, the idea of tanks of fish isn't as thrilling.  But the contents of these tanks at the Shedd are incredibly interesting.  (Like my favorites, the old green moray eel and the strange tiny garden eels.  Who knew I was so into eels?)

Greg and I (and the kids too) really liked the Caribbean Reef exhibit.  What was so remarkable was how mature the fish were.  All of these newfangled aquariums might have fancy bells and whistles, but their fish are small and young.  And the truly interesting ones are few and far between.  The fish at the Shedd have been there for ages.

Take Granddad, for instance.  He's been there since 1930!  He's an Australian lungfish, and, yes, he has a lung.  Also, he is probably 100 years old!  (They don't know exactly how old he is--but he was a mature adult when the aquarium acquired him for its opening.)  He's pretty chill.  Even compared with his fellow lungfish companions.

Hey.  Want to see something weird?  A fish taking a gulp of air.

(Really, what is it with Australian fauna?  They just can't follow any of the rules, can they?)

You can't beat Granddad.  So we left on that high note, managing to beat rush hour traffic.

A hop, skip, and a stop at Ikea later, and, soon enough, we were back home in our chaos.  Weary but happy.

By the way, while I was busy running away from my problems, SwindleFun was solving them for me!  As always, very good advice.  (Ask her to solve your problems too!)