Chicago part 2

 On Friday, we spent the majority of the day at the Field Museum.  I loved this, and could have spent more time there looking over the exhibits.  The kids loved the dinosaurs, and some of the animal exhibits, but grew tired and somewhat bored after a few hours.  I got called a nerd, and that is ok because I really love a good museum.

 The little ones and I have been reading about Sue, the 90% complete t-rex that is on display at the Field Museum.  The kids were super excited to finally meet her!  Harper was majorly impressed.  Her story is a really cool one, and I think the little kids actually learned something!  :)

 Another hit with the kids was the mummy display.  We might have teased Preston that he and this mummy boy  have the same physique.  Preston seemed unfazed by this and still isn't eating vegetables!

 Sue's head weighs around 600 pounds, so it is too heavy to display with the rest of her body.  We decided that Sue is an orthodontist's dream!

 Harper was very interested in touching Sue's teeth and ribs.  There was one on display which had a rib that had been broken and healed in Sue's lifetime.  You could feel the difference in the bone.  Now Harper runs around feeling people's legs and arms looking for broken bones.

 I never realized that some of the displays in museums are casts of other museum's exhibits.  Sort of a copy permanently borrowed from another museum.  I found this pretty interesting.

 Apotosaurus footprint makes a good place to rest.

 Cameron was not thrilled with the plants of the world display.  He said he felt like he could die of boredom in that room!

 He had to do something to stay awake he said!

 I was happy to get to see the Lions of Tsavo.  I am planning to watch a movie about them soon.  Or maybe read the book.....haven't decided yet!  :)

 Friday we also made a little visit to the Willis Tower (formerly the Sear's Tower).  I told you, we bought the Citipass, so I forced the kids to do everything touristy in Chicago!

 Before we went up, we were warned that the visibility was 0 and that there were no guarantees on when it might clear up.  We went up anyhow, after all, Jim had squeezed the van of doom into a 2 inch parking space in a garage and we had already paid the unreasonably high parking fee.  In my opinion, it worked out good.  I can now brag that I did step out on the glass sky deck and so did the whole family.  I am relatively certain, with my tremendous fear of heights, I would never have been on that deck had I been able to see down!  Cam was a little disappointed, because this was the thing he wanted to do the most.  Colin said it was plenty scary just as it was! 

 We spent Friday evening at the Navy Pier.  The kids loved this.  Of course they did, there was nothing to read, nothing to learn about, and a carnival like atmosphere!  Some of us (as mentioned above) are not fond of heights, so Jim rode the tremendously tall Ferris wheel with the kids.  They thought it was absolutely awesome!  I am happy to take their word for it!

We ate dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp.  The food was good.  I will go on record and say that we will probably never go back there to eat again because the memories it brings up are not good ones.  Enough said.

National Kogpoons vacation - to Chicago part 1

 Jim and I will be married for 20 years at the end of this month.  Several weeks ago, we started talking about taking a family vacation in honor of this event.  At first, we talked about a nice romantic weekend getaway, but recent events with our teenage crowd convinced me that leaving them home alone would be a bad idea, and asking anyone to watch 4 teenagers plus 4 little kids is probably unrealistic.  Thus the idea was born for a few days in Chicago with the whole family.  It seemed like a great idea....a 5 day relaxing vacation, looking at Chicago sites, getting some culture, a real nice adventure with our kids.  Time together.  And it was.  Sort of.  We were supposed to leave on Tuesday evening, after Cameron's last football game.  On Monday, Saige got the flu.  By Tuesday morning, she felt better and so we thought hey we dodged a bullet there.  We do not get paid to think.  By the time we were supposed to leave, both Quincy and Harper were sick.  This is when we were faced with the choice - either forgo the vacation... or plunge in headfirst with towels and buckets and hope it was short lived.  We chose option b - plunge in anyhow.  We were planning to drive to Des Moines and spend the night, and then drive into Chicago on Wednesday morning.  And so, on Tuesday evening last week, we loaded up most of our towels, all of the buckets I could find, and all of our family into what would be dubbed the 'van of doom' and headed out into the evening.  By the time we got to Des Moines, every one of our children was sick (except for Saige) and I was not doing so well either.  

 Luckily, we are hearty stock and I have never been one to forfeit money easily, so we plugged into the vacation we planned anyhow.  Also, luckily, Jim seemed to escape the plague and since he was the driver, the rest of us held our buckets and let him do the driving.  

 By the time we actually arrived in Chicago, most of us were feeling much better and we did have a pretty good time.  We spent Thursday most of the day at the Shedd Aquarium.  This was a highlight for all of us.  I think Jim could have happily spent another whole day there!

 The kids really enjoyed the shows, and the little girls loved the Pacific White Sided Dolphins.  It was a great day and I am so happy that we decided not to forgo the trip.

 One thing that we laughed about on this trip....every place we went some person or people asked Colin to take their photo!  He must seem friendly?!  It is almost impossible to get a good photo of our whole family.  

 The kids loved seeing Lake Michigan, and I was repeatedly told we should have brought our fishing poles.  I think they all hang out too much with their dad!  :)

 I try....I really do.  I try to make them behave.  I try to teach them something about art, culture, history....it just doesn't work out in my favor!

 When we sat down as a family to discuss things we would like to do on this trip, one of the things the kids wanted to do was try a "Chicago dog" - from a street vendor.  The girls wanted to compare it to the awesome hot dog they got in Times Square last summer.  OK that is an easy thing to do.  Except my children all quickly got an education on what a Chicago dog actually is.  They all had to dance for ketchup, and they did not, even for a moment consider actually eating the Chicago style hotdog with peppers, onions, mustard, relish who knows what else and a dill pickle.  Jim and I did eat them - and I must say I would do it again in a heart beat!   Those kids of ours missed out!  :)

 I think Jim got a huge kick out of seeing Soldier Field.  I did not get a kick out of the parking in Chicago.  For one thing, we were driving a huge van which says right on the window it is 7 foot 3 inches.  The parking garages were about 7 foot 6 inches which to me was nerve wracking.  Do not even get me started on the cost of parking in Chicago.  Let me just say holy cow!

 Because we bought the Citipass, I forced us to go to all the tourist places including the sky walk at John Hancock Observatory.  The kids really loved this, and even though I am no fan of heights, I loved the views as well!  I am really happy we went when we did, as the sunset over the skyline was really awesome!

I will be posting a lot more - and these are photo heavy as I use this blog as our family scrap book!  Sorry in advance if it seems like a slide show from Carl Fisher!  :)