Day 7 - Museum of Science and Industry

 On our last full day in Chicago, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Locals had told us we needed an entire day to spend here and they were completely right. I think we saved the best for last. This place was awesome. If we lived in Chicago, we would get a yearly pass here hands down. It was really amazing and it was HUGE. I think the first room we wandered into was the space room. They had the actual Apollo 8 space craft. It was so neat to see it up close and see how small it was for the astronauts. They had all sorts of actual space craft stuff that was used in missions. The kids also got to take their pictures in these astronaut suits.

 I'm sure I won't remember everything we saw, so I'll just narrate the photos. They had a gigantic train room. There were actual steam engines in the room that kids could walk through and explore.

 They also had this super cute model train display. It was huge as well, and along the track, they had place different buttons. When you pressed the buttons, the trains or the scenery would do different things. One scene had a stick of dynamite explode and rocks were loaded into a train to be hauled away. In another scene, construction workers would build/repair part of the railroad track. It was really cute!

 Lucy keeping warm after her nap. She did SO incredibly good for the entire trip. I don't think we were in the room for her to take a nap one single day. So she just learned to sleep on the go in her stroller and did beautifully. Such a good girl! And the bonus was, all the kids were so tired at the end of the day that they slept through the night!!

 Another room had this climbing wall the boys enjoyed. The museum was three stories tall and had so many different rooms and exhibits to try and explore. It was amazing. One of the exhibits we paid extra for, was the coal car exhibit. I don't have any pictures because cameras weren't allowed. But we got to go down into a "coal mine" and ride a coal car while we learned about coal mining and how it has changed over the years. It was really interesting and sad to learn how coal miners used to work and live. Seems like a sad life and a sad job.

 Sleepy girl.

 Another room had all sorts of experiments the kids could try dealing with wind. This particular one showed how to make a tornado. By moving the glass and allowing more or less wind in the tunnel, a tornado was created. They had a lot of fun with this!

 They also had a chick hatchery! Henry was really, really excited about this! You can see the brand new hatched chick right behind him. It was kind of sad to see them hatch out into a lonely metal cage. Seems like they needed their mom!

 On the other side of the hatchery were the fluffy "older" chicks. They were really cute running around and chasing each other.

 Good ol' static electricity ball.

 Lucy had a diaper malfunction. Serves me right for trying to use the cute "organic" diapers that weren't meant to actually hold anything. And of course, I didn't pack any spare clothes. And the museum only sold a really lame onesie for like $25. So she cruised around in her shirt, diaper, shoes & socks. Nice. Anyways, she really liked the farm exhibit. It had a life sized cow, a fake cow you could "milk", fake pigs with piglets and lots of gigantic farm equipment you could climb on.

 The boys waited in line for a long time to climb up into this huge tractor thing.

Look how big the wheel was! We saw a ton more stuff in the museum, I just don't have the pictures to remind me of everything. It was a really fun day and the kids were so tired by the end. It was really a great way to end our vacation. The next day, we grabbed more donuts from a different donut place and just relaxed in our hotel room until it was time to go. It was really nice to have a little down time. We just watched some HGTV (nerds!), the kids played and then we took the "L" back to the airport for the four hour flight home. What a great vacation!! It will be hard to top!

Day 6 - Chicago Art Institute

 Today we went to the Chicago Art Institute. This is probably one of my favorite places on Earth. I've never been to Europe, so one day, when I go, I'm sure I'll add to my list. But for now, I love the Chicago Art Institute. I could spend an entire day here and probably be ready for more then next day. Sadly, when you come to a place like this with three little kids, spending any time here is a gigantic task. We had to wait in a really long line to get in, and it was raining outside. So the kids were already going a bit crazy. Then once we got in and they saw what it was like and how quiet it was, Henry turned into Mr. Hyde. Seriously. The kid went from cute to grouch in like two seconds. He was so angry to be there and refused to enjoy one tiny bit or smile for one tiny photo. Good times. Thankfully, we were able to get Lucy to sleep and Jonah tried to enjoy himself. So we were able to roam around and at least see my favorite paintings and some of the other things we couldn't wait to see again. Thankfully, Dan and I have been here two times before but we were still sad the kids were so grumpy.

 My absolute favorite painting ever. And it's huge. The photos don't do it justice in any way. When you get up close, you can see each individual brush stroke, or dot. It is simply amazing.

 Jonah posing with a Monet painting. It was beautiful. They had a large collection of his water lily paintings and each one was incredibly. Look how big it is compared to Jonah!

 This photo sums up Henry for the day. I threatened him. I pleaded with him. I'm ashamed to say, I even tried to bribe him. And this is the photo that I got. Even surrounded by all the knights and armor and cool stuff, he was Oscar the Grouch. He needed a trash can. Seriously. Look at his face. I don't think he could have tried any harder to show his displeasure.

 Jonah enjoyed the armor and knights.

 American Gothic. It was so cool to see it in person.  We saw a lot of other famous paintings. Even the paintings and sculptures from artists we didn't know were really cool. They also had a large display of sculptures and art from the Roman Empire and Egyptian ruins. Such a neat place. If I lived in Chicago, I'd want to go here every weekend!

Lucy looking quite spiffy for her art outing. She was probably the most well behaved out of the three!

Day 5 - Shedd Aquarium

 The next day, we woke up bright and early to head to Firecakes Donuts. It's a local donutery that makes specialized donuts. We were lucky because we got there early enough that all the donuts were available and there was room on their teeny tiny patio for us to sit! Yay! The donuts were amazing. We all got different types and then shared with each other. I can't remember what I got but I know I loved every single bite!

 After donut heaven, we hopped a bus and headed to the Shedd Aquarium. Dan and I have been there before so we knew what to expect. But the kids were still excited to see the new animals and lots of fish. The place was super crowded since we were there on a Saturday, but we still made the best of it. We pretty much had to stand in line everywhere to see any fish or animals. Lessons in patience!

 Yes, it's all fun and games until someone gets their hand chomped off by a fish.

 Didn't learn his lesson, I guess.

 Down at the bottom of the building, they have a huge tank for dolphins and smaller whales. We were watching them through this porthole.

 If you look closely, you can see a seal right behind Henry. The seal was waiting to be fed, much like Henry.

 Jonah posing with the seal - behind him again!

 Lucy loved the penguins! What's not to love?!? So she wanted to pose with Henry next to this little baby penguin statue.

 Jonah chose the giant penguin with it's chick.

We saw a ton of different fish, penguins, dolphins, jellyfish, octopus and other aquatic animals, I just wasn't able to get pictures of most of them due to the crowds. But it was a really fun day! At one point, we got to see a 4-D movie from Ice Age. It's the kind of movie where you wear the 3D glasses and then things poke you or they squirt stuff on you. Super fun, right? Well, Lucy DID NOT enjoy one second of that movie. Of course they showed a scary and intense scene where a huge mean dinosaur is chasing the animals and trying to kill them. So things are squirting us in the face, it's super loud and something kept poking us in the back. Lucy screamed through the whole thing.  Hopefully she doesn't remember that part of the trip!!

 It was pretty hot that day, so on the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the fountains for Jonah. We had promised him we would come back and bring his swimsuit. He was SO happy!!

 I LOVE this picture of him! He is so cute and such a good sport. He didn't even care that Henry wouldn't dip so much as a toe in the water. He was happy to play and splash and meet new kids all by himself. Sometimes I really admire him!

 Picture out of place, but Jonah was excited to get a picture with a shark! Good thing Dan has good camera skills!

Henry was excited to get his picture next to this GIANT macaroni & cheese noodle! His FAVORITE food ever!!

The video is of the fountains squirting the water out of the mouth. Jonah had so much fun!!

Day 4 - The Field Museum

 We were really excited to take the kids to the Chicago Field Museum. We've been there a couple of times (before kids!) so we knew it would be a fun place for them to explore. The museum has a lot of hands on type stuff, which they love, and fun exhibits that kids are interested in - dinosaur bones anyone?

It was really crowded when we got there, but once we headed off into one of the wings, it was much quieter and we were pretty much alone. The first wing we went through had all sorts of exotic animals that had been stuffed (kind of creepy but still neat!). The kids enjoyed looking at all the tiny animals, as well as all the animals they already knew.

 Jonah wanted a picture with Lucy next to this baby octopus.

 Henry loved this little kangaroo/fox type thing. He loves furry, small and cute and this little guy fit the bill!

My little barnacles. Not the best photo, thanks to my phone case and the flash, but you get the picture - sort of.

After we went through the taxidermy wing, we headed across to see the gigantic T Rex named Sue. It is the largest, whole skeleton ever found. It is seriously huge. Glad it's dead because I would not want this thing searching for snacks while I was around! The kids are hiding under the sign. Look how tiny they look in comparison to this skeleton!

 Next up was the mummy exhibit. We had told the boys about it so they were chomping at the bit to get to this one! I think they were both scared out of their wits, but also incredibly fascinated with the whole mummy/embalming thing. It is super weird. I didn't get a lot of photos because my flash was annoying and the kids kept rushing ahead to see what was next. They really loved this exhibit. They have actual mummies on display - not very enjoyable to look at. They also had a whole room dedicated to the animals that were mummified for the gods. It was super weird. They mummified baby crocodiles, cats, hawks/falcons, a goose, small dogs.  It's really fascinating to think Moses grew up among all of this. We were reminding the kids of the roll Egypt played in the Old Testament.

 There was also a bug exhibit where you "shrink" down to bug size and experience life as a bug. They have you walk through this "shrink ray" type thing and mirrors make it look like you are shrinking. The boys totally believed it and were a bit creeped out by it. But once we got into the exhibit, they were excited. They each got a turn shedding their exoskeleton. Nice. I have a picture of Dan doing the same thing on our honeymoon. I've never loved him more.

 After the bugs, we went downstairs to the whole kids area. It was so neat! They had a forest for the kids to play in with fun costumes to wear and animal sounds to explore. Lucy made a really cute skunk! There was also an Indian hut with a corn field where kids could harvest the corn and cook it up to make food. (They didn't actually cook anything, but it was really cute!) The boys played in this part for a long time!

 After prying them away from the corn field, we found this cute dinosaur area where you could excavate dinosaur bones from sand. Henry had fun doing that for a while. Lucy enjoyed playing in the dinosaur nests with the baby dinosaur puppets.

 They also had a music room that was sound proof from the rest of the place. Do they know kids or what?!? Henry LOVED playing the drums! He actually played them pretty well too!

I know we saw some other exhibits that I don't have pictures of. Overall, we had a really great day and enjoyed taking the kids to the museum.