Chicago Part 3 of 3

Here we go again.  More pictures from the trip.

Papou and I took a trip out to the Brookfield Zoo along with a million other school groups and the hot sun.  The kids were a bit hot and whinny, but who could blame them, but we had a good time anyway.  We did find this small children's zoo in the middle of the regular zoo that was air conditioned and filled with cool exhibits.  Including this one where the kids got to pretend they were birds and sit on eggs.  They both really got into it.

Mette backing up to land on her egg. 

 Landed!

 Otto waiting patiently for his egg to hatch.

 Otto made a friend fast and they all got together to hatch eggs.

 Checking out some other nests.

 They had a room filled with plants and spray bottles for the kids to water the plants with.  Brilliant.  Otto would have been fine here for hours.

 Mette found a table with some natural blocks and started building.

 "Mommy take a picture of me with the Nunicorn", that is mette speak for unicorn.

 "no, see, it's a nunicorn, look at it's horn"  Of course, silly me!

 They even had story time!

 Share misters with Mette at your own risk.

 Rhino sighting

 After the zoo daddy was retrieved from the airport after his trip to L.A..  We meet him at the sushi restaurant for dinner.  Otto did not disappoint.  That boy packs away the fish and roe like it is his job.  He is amazing!!

 Roe.

 On Saturday we went to the Botanical Gardens which are nearby and really beautiful.

 Mette, catching up with Otto.  I love how she still has the head down running technique.  Otto has mostly grown out of that already...

 This is the best picture of the four of us we have had in a while.

 On Sunday our trip was almost over.  My brother who has been living in Chicago for the last six years has decided to come back to PA to work on his portfolio and prepare for grad school.  Since we were there with a car and an extra seat we offered to bring him back with us.  On Sunday eric and I picked up a U-Haul trailer, headed downtown and loaded him all up.  Monday morning the five of us set out for home.  This was my view for 13 hours as we made the trek.  Eric driving, Racer and his long legs up front while I manned the computers, toys and snacks.  Mette slept for 25 minutes in the morning when we got going and Otto was up the entire 13 hours!!!  Otto was an angel, Mette had her moments but they both hung in there and were in good spirits when we rolled into home at 10:30 monday night.

 The view out the back.  

It was a wonderful trip, even if the road home was long.

Chicago Part 2 of 3

Really, I have WAY too many photos from this last trip.  But when you are having fun it is hard to stop snapping away.  Since before I really only posted wedding photos, here are a few more of the whole trip, with more to come.  

First of all, on the way out we drove the trip in two days.  We spent the night in Toledo, OH at the Crowne Plaza which was a lovely hotel if you are ever in Toledo fyi.  We got the kids totally excited about Toledo by chanting TOLEDO, TOLEDO, TOLEDO with rock star fists pumping in the air.  Why, because they are two and four and if you tell them something is cool, they believe you.  And that kind of power totally rocks.  And truth be told, Toledo did rock.  As we pulled into our hotel we noticed it was located a few blocks from a minor league baseball stadium and the team was out warming up.  The valet told us there was a game starting at 7.  SCORE!  We hit up the hotel pool to burn off some car energy, found a local restaurant that served a strange Hungarian menu with hot dogs of sorts, dumplings which were like spaetzel and relishes then headed to the game.  As we got to the gate some woman offered us two free tickets.  It was meant to be.  We got some ice cream for the kids and sat down to watch a few innings in the lovely 100 degree weather.  It was a huge hit, especially when between innings some girls came out with big canon things and fired balls into the audience.  Otto LOVED that part!!

 We arrived in Chicago on Thursday and had dinner with YiaYia, Papou and Uncle Matt which was of course wonderful.

 Uncle Matt teaching Otto mad skills.

 There are a few more pictures from the rehearsal.  I just really like this photo of eric!

 Mette snuggling with YiaYia

 Here are the kids in their trial run down the aisle.

 This picture of Otto just before the wedding is so great.  

 Here are the kids with YiaYia and Papou before we left for the church.

 Otto with his love, Kristin.

 Getting coached by aunt Pitsa before walking down the aisle.

 Mette is one of the slowest walkers in the world, Otto was making her keep up :)

 Again, a great shot of eric, with brother Matt in the background.

 Another great attraction in Chicago is the children's museum.  We had a blast here with the kids.

 We also hit up the Museum of Science and Industry which is always a great experience.

 I wish I had the camera at this point of the evening.  It was in eric's pockets downstairs.  People were sitting down for dinner and the band was playing jazzy music, the dance floor was open.  Otto spent the entire time doing the worm and rolling all over dancing and jumping.  It was fantastic!

 On Sunday before heading out of the city, we took the kids to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  It is a really great zoo, I had never been there before.  We of course had to ride the "ponies that go up and down and play music".

 Eric headed to L.A. for work on Tuesday while the kids and I were spoiled by grandparents.  We even had a fire in the backyard and roasted marshmallows.

 Papou took us to the Field Museum where we saw an amazing exhibit on whales and checked out all the dioramas 

 We also took a trip to see Papou's new plane hanger and plane paint job.  It looks amazing!

 Otto was super excited to sit in the plane!

 Remember, there is no minimum age for a pilot's license.

 Watching jets take off and land.

 Trying their flying skills at home.

I have more photos to post later, plus stories and updates but this will have to hold you for tonight.