Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

More fun at the museum. Seriously, you can't see everything in one day - and we are the people that walked to all of the DC monuments and the Kennedy Center in one day.

Watching chicks hatch 

Baby chicks 

Our family is a party in and of itself! 

What does this do?

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Museums are fun because you never really know what is going to be considered museum worthy - how do they choose to pick certain things over others?

I told you they were clowns.

Submarine 

Mirror Maze - the lights changed color which made it even more difficult 

That's one way to measure how tall you are! 

I thought this was awesome.

(Notice I didn't post any of my numbers!)

Wordless Wednesday

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

We visit this museum ever time we go and yet we had never made it down into the mine. There is just so much to explore and do that when you only visit every few years, it's worth the repeat trips.

Inside the mine! 

Every trip we end up with a photo of this tractor tire. It started before kids and has continued to show just how old we are each trip, hah! 

Learning to milk cows 

Operating a crane 

Operating a crane

Chicago with Friends

Traveling is always better when you meet up with friends.

The four men in this photo have been friends for years - all before they were married and had kids. Now they live in different cities/states/countries so it was fun to get the entire group together. 

The women in this photo have been friends since they were in their early teens. Now both have twins of their own! 

That looks like fun, though possibly painful, haha. 

Playground in downtown Chicago. This amazing playground had so many parts there is no way to get them all in photographs. Here you can see one part in the front and another off in the center back, but there were 3-4 other play areas with different themes as well. 

This photo was taken from the top of the far off play area in the other photo. The kids and I are actually in the picture (part of the crowd at the bottom waiting for people to slide down).

Around Chicago

We made time for another vacation! This time to Chicago. Vacations are getting more difficult to schedule with school schedules, music schedules, and sports.

Still loving public transportation

The kids don't remember it, but their first trip ever was to Chicago when they were just a few months old. 

Cool fountain 

The Bean 

She let me try braiding her hair! 

On the river 

Interesting sculpture

Library Programs

Our local library is amazing. It only has one branch, yet offers so much more than many other libraries. We use it for books, videos, and the other typical things. They also let you rent technology - 3D pens, programmable robots, and  maker kits. They have areas for different ages of kids to play when taking a break from reading. They also have great programs. These are pictures from one of the programs last year where you could meet animal ambassadors.

Well, hi there! 

So cute entertaining!

Wordless Wednesday

Swim Lesson

Basketball

Sweet Daughter loves sports. She wanted to try out a basketball camp in the summer. If you know us, you realize we aren't tall people. But if she wants to try it she can.

First day of camp - she could have gone to play with the girls or the kids her own size, but why?

By the second day she was scoring. She is the one in the blue shorts/black shirt (the tiny one)

Another Ninja Experience

The kids loved the first ninja place we tried in May so when we found out there was one close to us, we wanted to try it out as well. After 1-2 hours at one of these places our kid are exhausted. It's wonderful.

Half of the room

You can see this location was smaller, but still challenging 

Getting closer! 

She is on the warped wall and his is on the rope thing next to it.

Einstein and the Zoo

A quick stop at the Einstein Statue for a picture and some of our photos from the National Zoo.

When it's raining there is no crowd! 

 This is a sculpture made entirely out of garbage that washed up on one beach.

There were several of these giant sculptures throughout the zoo and all using garbage from that same beach. We really need to start taking care of our planet.

Observing the elephants

(Otherwise remembered as "Did you see how big its poop is?") 

Panda baby!!!

A couple of DC Museums

DC is filled with amazing museums and we didn't want to miss any. Here are our highlights from the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum.

GRRRR! 

Natural History Museum 

That's a big elephant 

Elmo! 

Trying to prove she's not too short to generate electricity.

Wordless Wednesday

They got up early to play Monopoly

Kennedy Center

When I lived in DC I worked at the Kennedy Center for the Arts. I knew we would visit once while we were there so I checked out their free performance schedule. I decided the best option was to go see Irish Dancing (I was secretly hoping Sweet Daughter would be interested and want to try it, but she wasn't.)

So after a long day of walking, we walked to the Kennedy Center. Yes, there is a free shuttle and yes, I knew about it. We are a family that likes to walk. I think we did 12 miles every day of our DC trip with no complaints from the kids (or adults).

Watergate Hotel 

So we stumbled upon this. It is an Earth Harp. It is huge and sounds beautiful.

The only issue was we had our dates mixed up and the Irish Dancing was the next night. We caught a performance of the National Symphony Orchestra (no photos). Then came back to the Kennedy Center the next day.  

Sweet Daughter and I joined in learning how to do an Irish Dance before the official performance.

The boys sat on the side and watched.

We are on the far side in different groups, but this was the result of our short lesson.

Around DC

Here are other places we visited while walking around DC.

White House 

Washington Monument 

Reflecting Pool 

MLK Monument 

We walked the entire mall and saw all of the monuments in one day, in the rain. For what we did that evening, come back tomorrow!