The end of the summer bowling season came to a close. Caden loved bowling with his cousin, Keilyn, but unfortunately, Keilyn will be moving on to a new sport for the fall. They ended the season with an awards ceremony. Caden received a metal with his name on it and his high score, 99! Way to go Caden! He also received a gift of 2 packs of cars! Caden will be bowling again in the fall-spring league! So check back for more bowling updates!
On our last day before heading home, we traveled down to Frankfort to visit Mike’s old neighborhood. We drove around and saw his old house. We also saw the Junior High that he went to, but it is now an Elementary School. We then drove around and saw many of the houses that his extended family lived in. He really enjoyed reliving old memories!
Next we drove to the next town to visit Mike’s grandmother. Mike’s aunt and uncle drove in from Michigan and we all went to lunch at the Olive Garden. We haven’t seen them since Caden was 2 weeks old, so it was nice to be able to get to see sit down and talk with them! They also got to meet Connor for the first time. Hopefully it won’t be another 4 years until we see them again!
Finally, we headed back to our hotel and caught some sleep. We had to be outside to catch the shuttle to the airport by 4:30am to head home! It was so great to see so many people on our vacation. We had a great time and can’t wait for our next trip!
Over the past week of vacation, we pretty much covered all the “must see” places. So, we started out our day by going to breakfast with an old friend from high school, Kim. We had a great breakfast and got to know each other’s families….we hadn’t see each other since I graduated high school (14 years ago!) so it was great to catch up and find out what we are doing with our grown-up lives!
We then decided that we would head out to the downtown area and make sure we see the major Chicago sites…..Willis (Sears) Tower, John Hancock Building, Water Tower Place, Chicago River and Wrigley Field. Thank goodness for the Iphone Maps app that got us around the city without much trouble! Mike and I really liked seeing the sites….Caden was more interested in the game on his Itouch. He’ll enjoy it more when we go back in a few years again!
After driving around the city for a few hours, we decided to stop for lunch and indulge in a Chicago Favorite….White Castle Hamburgers. We both used to love White Castle as kids, so we were excited to taste them again!
And then after lunch, none of our stomachs felt very good….apparantly some things should be left to memories. No more White Castles for us, thank you!
Next we headed over to the Kohl’s Children’s Museum close to our hotel. It was really busy with some groups, but once they left it was a lot easier to see everything. The Museum is divided into several sections such as music, water, shopping and cities. Caden loved going grocery shopping in their store with kids size shopping carts and then scanning all the items in his cart. There were evenpadded areas for Connor inbetween most of the exhibits with infant toys in them. We haven’t been to the Children’s Museum in Phoenix, but if it’s anything like this place, I’m sure it’s lots of fun!
The next morning, we wanted to go and see the Field Museum. For months, we had been telling Caden that we were going to go to Chicago and see dinosaur bones which is an exhibit at the Field Museum. We arrived at the museum and in the center of the museum is Sue, the most complete, best preserved T-Rex. Caden was pretty excited. We then walked around the rest of the museum, which overall was not very exciting for kids or adults. We did enjoy the other dinosaur exhibit with lots of other skeletons. If you are really into history, you will probably find it interesting, but it just wasn’t our thing.
Since we made it through the Field Museum pretty fast, we decided to head over to the Shedd Aquarium next. After much confusion with the price signs, we bought tickets only to the main floor of the Aquarium. There are other shows movies and dolphin shows that you can go see, but we opted to only see the fish tanks. The Shedd is divided into several different areas of water: Rivers and Reefs, Lakes, and Oceans. We saw everything from Nemo (Clown Fish) to sharks to lobsters. It was pretty interesting too see the different colors of fish and how big some of them were! We also stopped for lunch here and enjoyed some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches….they also serve fish which I kind of found disturbing!
Next we headed over the the Adler Planetarium. Caden really loves learning about space stuff so he found the planetarium really fun! I was really impressed that this was really geared towards smaller children. We explored the whole museum. One of the highlights for Caden was being able to see a “planet” through one of the telescopes they had set up.
To end the day, we went to my aunt and uncle’s house and had a home cooked dinner. We rarely get to see my family so it was nice to be able to sit and chat for a couple of hours and catch up. Caden kept himself busy with a puzzle and all the toys they have.
One tip for traveling, we got into all the museums except the Aquarium for free because we have memberships to the museums out here. So, if you are planning on going on vacation, make sure you bring your museum card and check out which ones you can get into. It’s well worth it!
Mike and I love roller coasters and we have been to Six Flags in LA a few times. We were excited to go to Six Flags Great America and experience some new rides. We asked our friends Jen and Chad and their family to join us.
Our original thought was for the adults to alternate riding rides and hit the kids stuff in the middle since I didn’t think there would be enough to keep the kids busy the whole day. As a teenager or an adult without kids, I can remember running from roller coaster to roller coaster, trying to get to the rides before the wait was too long. I guess I never slowed down to notice all the other small rides and shops there were at Six Flags. We started off with a few kid rides and then found more kid rides and more kid rides. We ended up spending all of our time on the kid rides and moderate, smaller roller coasters that the kids could ride.
The kids started out simple….the carousel. They rode on the top deck and had a great time. Next stop was The Condor….a big step for the kids. The Condor takes them 112 feet above the ground and spins parallel to the ground. Once again the kids loved it, but Luke commented that he liked “a little more carousel and little less that!”
One of the highlights was going to Wiggles World. Caden loves the Wiggles and was so excited to see all the rides based on the Wiggles. The kids rode Dorothy’s Tea Cups, The Big Red Planes and The Big Red Cars.
We also watched “Get Ready To Wiggle”, a show with actors singing The Wiggles songs. Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus and Wags the Dog were all there. Caden got a front row seat and was pretty excited. Our family knows all the songs and have been to a few concerts, but this show was pretty awful. If you have never seen The Wiggles before, don’t see this show and make a judgement about The Wiggles. Even Caden was a bit disappointed…he barely danced or sang along.
After lunch, we rode some more kid rides and once everyone’s food was sufficiently digested, everyone wanted to ride a roller coaster. So, all of the kids (except 1) were all tall enough to ride Spacely’s Space Rockets, a kiddie roller coaster. They also rode the Little Dipper, a roller coaster that I remember from my childhood at KiddieLand. Everyone had a great time!
Of course we ended our Six Flags fun in the gift shop and all the kids got superhero capes!
We then went to Giordano’s Pizza for some Deep Dish Pizza and reminisce about our great day! The pizza was so good as it is something we greatly miss it in AZ!
Another fond memory that Mike and I have of living in Chicago is going to to Brookfield Zoo. We met up with my cousin, Britt and her family. We were very grateful that my high school buddy, Tracy, gave me her guest passes so that enabled all of us to get into the zoo for free!Since it took so long to get into the zoo and park our car, we decided to just hit the highlights of things we could not see at the Phoenix Zoo.
We started out seeing The Fragile Kingdom, even though these were a lot of animals at our zoo, it was interesting to see them indoors and in different habitat.
We then went over the the Seven Seas. We didn’t have time to see the Dophin Show, but we made sure to see the dolphins, seals and sea lions underwater. Caden loved seeing them swim towards the glass and then make a turn towards the back of the tank!
We then took a break and had some lunch at the Safari Grill and had some time to chat. When we were finished, we continued on our journey. Unfortunately, the bear exhibit was being worked on, so the bears were not out. That was always my favorite exhibit growing up so I was very dissapointed that I couldn’t share that exhibit with Caden.
Next stop….Tropic World! This one of the largest animal houses in the world. It’s primarily primates and has 3 separate areas that brings you through 3 continents along with the primates that live in that area. It was extremely busy so it was a little hard to get to see all the animals, but we definitely saw the larger animals!
We ended our day with The Living Coast. We saw the penguins swimming around along with some fish! Later that week we would see a lot more fish!
After the Zoo, we went to my cousin Geoff’s house, who was kind enough to host a family BBQ for us! We had chicken, hot dogs, salads, chips and corn on the cob! So good! I also got to meet my cousins’ children, most of whom I had never met. My family also got to meet Mike, Caden and Connor since most of the them had never met them either. It was so great to see almost all of my family in one place. It kind of reminded me of our 4th of July get-togethers when I was a a kid. The kids played while the adults socialized. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do it again next time we visit!
The next morning after the storm, we were finally able to make our way up to Milwaukee. We had been invited by Kristen’s college friends, Jen and Chad to stay at their house for the weekend. This was the first time that their kids would meet our kids. The last time Mike and I were in Milwaukee, I was barely pregnant with Caden, Grace was a toddler, Luke was an infant and Ruthie wasn’t much of a thought yet! It’s amazing how much our families change in only 5 years time!
We started the weekend by going to see their kids in their final show of Bible Camp. I admit, we are not a church-going family, so I had to give Caden reminders on where we were going and how to sit. Caden was amazing and sat with his hands in his lap and watched everything. We then decided to have a good old fashioned BBQ. It was great!
Our plan for later that week was to go to Six Flags with them and go to Wiggle World. Jen told me that her kids have never seen The Wiggles, so Caden decided that he would make sure they were exposed before our visit. The kids learned a few songs before Six Flags and got to learn all the character names.
The next morning, we decided to start our day by taking a walk along Lake Michigan. It was nice to be able to stroll and have some great conversations and catch up on the last several years! Caden enjoyed seeing “Michigan Lake”, especially the ducks and running around with the other kids. Mid-way we took a break and had a snack on the stairs to the art museum and then headed back to the car to head to Marquette.
On our final night, after the Marquette reunion, we went to dinner at The Chancery and then went to Kopp’s for frozen custard. I have fond memories of going to Kopp’s in college and really wanted to make sure we visited before leaving.
The plan was for us to stay in their basement, but that was sidelined and we ended up camping out in their living room. Caden also decided to have a “sleepover” in Luke’s room, so it ended up being nice to be all on the same floor.
We had a great time and Caden got to do a few things he can’t do in Arizona like catch lightning bugs. The kids got to be good friends and were sad to leave each other. Although, I’m not sure they all understood how far away then live from each other. Caden and Luke have asked us if they can have each other over to their house. Maybe we’ll see them in a few years when they come visit us in Arizona.
Sidenote: Thanks Jen and Chad for letting us crash at your house and going above and beyond for our stay! We really appreciate everything that you did to help make our stay as comfortable as possible!
The reason why we chose to take our vacation this year when we did was because of my 10 year college reunion at Marquette University. There were several events planned throughout the weekend, but we only chose to go to a couple. With kids in tow, it was difficult to get to some of them.
The 1st night of the reunion was the year by year get-together. However, they chose to have this at a bar in Milwaukee. I was very disappointed by the choice in venue as an alum who has come from over 1000 miles away with my small children. I couldn’t take my kids to the bar and who was I supposed to leave them with? I heard there were several people there that I knew from nursing school, but didn’t get a chance to see them.
The next day, we went to the College of Nursing and heard an update on the school. We were told that this year there were 1800 applications for nursing and only 75-80 spots available. Wow!! That’s amazing. They have also updated their clinical lab since I was there last. I recently was given a tour of ASU’s College of Nursing and their lab was very simiar to Marquette’s. It’s unbeleivable how much things change in only 10 years!
We then headed over the the Block Party that was held at the Al McGuire Center. We enjoyed brats and hot dogs for lunch and eventually ran into a few people that I haven’t seen in years! While we didn’t have a lot of time to socialize, it was great to see everyone and get a quick catch-up on what they have been up to.
I wish we could have spent more time together and on campus, but such is life with kids and a schedule. Hopefully, we’ll see each other again in 5 years…..
Sidenote: Thanks Charles for the great picture of the Block Party.
We decided to stay the night in a hotel near Midway Airport and try and save ourselves a day of rental car fees. So, first thing in the morning, we took a shuttle back to Midway Airport to pickup our rental car. We were offered an upgrade to a Ford Explorer for $10/day and took it. Turns out it was a great idea because we had so much luggage, I’m not sure it would have fit into the car we intended on renting!
After gathering up our luggage and packing our car, we were off to our first destination…The Museum of Science and Industry. Mike and I have fond memories of visiting this museum as a child and couldn’t wait to share it with the kids (Ok, Caden, but I can’t leave Connor out!). We have a Arizona Science Center membership which enabled us to get into the museum for free! We explored the whole museum, but here are some of the highlights!
We headed to the main level first to see the The Great Train Story first. Caden loved jumping from step to step to see the enormous train set. The train set has over 30 trains that are going continuously on 1,400 feet of track. This is a section that hasn’t changed in years and we were glad to see it was the same.
Next, we took a stroll down Yesterday’s Main Street. This street takes you to what Chicago looked like in 1910. The floor is cobblestone, just like the streets were back then. You can look in all the store windows and see what you could have bought back then and for how much. We took some time to visit Finnigan’s Ice Cream Parlor and split a brownie sundae. We were disappointed that the Ice Cream Parlor no longer served ice cream in glass bowls, but it was still a fun experience to re-live.
One of their newest exhibits is Science Storms. Science storms teaches the science behind tornadoes, lightning, fire, tsunamis, sunlight and atoms. This exhibit spanned two floors and had an tornado spinning in the middle of it. It’s definitely geared towards the older child, but Caden still found some of the demonstrations interesting to watch even though he doesn’t understand what they actually are.
One of the biggest changes from the last time we visited, was the moving of the U-505 submarine indoors. We learned that they moved the submarine and then built the building around it! The U-505 submarine is the only WWII German submarine in the United States. You can walk around the submarine and take a tour inside (the inside tour costs extra which we didn’t do.) It’s hard to believe that this thing could float underwater!
We ended our visit around 4pm….just in time to catch Chicago Rush Hour traffic. However, this traffic turned into a blessing in disguise. Due to the traffic, we were running behind on what time we wanted to get to Milwaukee to stay at our friends’ house. As we were driving, a storm was brewing in southern Wisconsin Jen called us just when we got to Gurnee, Illinois and suggested that we stop for dinner to let the storm blow over. We agreed, but the storm caused massive flooding in Milwaukee (including our friends’ basement where we were going to sleep) and multiple tornadoes in Racine, so we decided to stay in Gurnee for the night and hopefully make our way to Milwaukee the next day. That night major storms came through and there were tornado warnings issued for the town a few miles down the road. Once the storm passed, we had a quiet night and got some sleep.
We will be slowly be writing blogs about our Chicago-Milwaukee Vacation. Keep checking back for more updates!
We began planning this vacation months ago. The reason for picking the dates we went was for my 10 year college reunion at Marquette. Our first order of business was finding a flight. We looked at all the airlines and started counting our bags. The most cost efficient ending up being Southwest since they don’t charge for your 1st two bags. We decided to buy Connor a seat as well even though he could have flown for free being a lap child, but buying him a seat enabled us to be able to put him down during the 3 hour flight and let him sleep easier.
Mike and I decided that we would sit in rows that were in back of each other. I took Connor while Mike took Caden. This was Connor’s first flight and Caden’s third (although if you ask him he had never been on a plane before). The flight to Chicago left at 5:45 pm and didn’t arrive until 11pm.
The staff on this flight was terrific. I always enjoy it when the flight attendants add a little bit of humor to their very boring safety instructions. He explained that if our floatation device did not work, then we should start swimming….fast! They offerred to carry Connor in his car seat to where ever we wanted to sit, so I didn’t have to hit everyone with the seat and all the carry on baggage all the way. The snacks were an assortment of Nabisco snacks and of course peanuts and pretzels. This was way more than I got on any other airlines in the last several years. Mike even thought the leg room was bigger than other airlines.
Caden kept himself busy with games on his iTouch (formerly mom’s iPhone) and eventually fell asleep. Connor slept the entire way! We couldn’t have asked for a better flight!
