We're managing to fill up our time these days, probably more than we'd like - but we're making the most of our before-school-starts weekends. Here are our little Trojans sporting their new TU gear from Auntie.
Thursday night, my office had a team building event out at Chef JJ's and we had a fabulous time. Envision something similar to Chopped on the Food Network, but on the water, with alcohol and cooking on Green Eggs. It was highly entertaining.
My team's salad and flat bread.
Our final submission using the ingredients we were provided. We were awarded points based on taste, creativity and presentation.
Panna cotta for dessert.
Or rocket pops if back at home...
Friday we headed to the Windy City to spend some time with Uncle Steve. We had dinner at Rainforest Café and Maverick wasn't too sure about all the animals...
Still eyeing the crocodile in the water...
Maverick was too concerned about the gorillas and elephants to eat his food but we had a good time taking it all in. I'm pretty sure that's a smile of relief to be out of the restaurant!
Then we headed to Water Tower Place to check out the American Girl store.
And the Lego store...
And one of Uncle Steve's favorite stores, "Marbles." We also stopped to buy $5 worth of grapes and boxed water so Maverick could get some sustenance since his rainforest dinner was a bust.
We got up the next morning and headed to Eggsperience for breakfast with Uncle Steve and Bevin.
After breakfast, we headed to Lincoln Park Zoo (on the bus!).
Mack was so excited to climb up INTO the tractor this time since all the tractors at the Hamilton County Fair had been locked.
It was fun to see different animals that we don't have in the Indianapolis Zoo.
We also did some monkeying around of our own.
Saw LOTS of animals!
And then did some climbing.
Maverick entertained himself outside since he wasn't tall enough to climb through with Phoebe.
The kids had SUCH a great time at the zoo - hard to believe it's FREE!
We got to try out ALL kinds of transportation in Chicago. Here's what our experience looked like on the city bus.
Then we made the trek on foot to Navy Pier.
Took a ride on the ferris wheel.
And stood in line for 40 minutes to get hot dogs.
We opted for a taxi ride back to give our feet a rest. The kids loved not being buckled in.
Then we went to Uncle Steve's apartment and checked out the views from his rooftop pool. The crazy weather was actually perfect for us. It was mostly blue skies and cooler - definitely NOT pool weather though!
Phoebe sure wished it was though!
Since neither kid voluntarily naps on weekends, we just hung out for a bit to rest. This was probably more for the adults than the kiddos, but we'll say it was for them...
After dinner from Lou Malnati's, we headed out to Millennium Park. Saving our feet once again with a ride on the bus! At least this time was less crowded!
And then we took a walk along the water.
I'm pretty sure whatever calories were consumed over the weekend (and trust me, there were thousands...) every one of them got walked off while carrying a child! Phoebe did a fabulous job walking and was such a trooper - she put in a few miles on her own two feet which is pretty impressive for a five year old!
Sunday morning, we hopped on the train to meet for breakfast.
Made it to Eleven City before the crowds (our kids didn't adapt to the one-hour time difference so Uncle Steve pulled some early mornings just for us!).
You can see the progression of the weekend on all our faces. We were pretty tired from all the walking and from the stupid people in our hotel who didn't go to sleep like normal people in Indiana do! I called the front desk on our neighbors at 11:15 (getting ready to head out) and again at 3:45 in the morning (when they came back in). Yeah, I was THAT person, despite the fact that I was the only one in our room still awake. Luckily, we got a great breakfast and LOTS of coffee to get the day started!
After breakfast, we made an essential stop at Garrett's. Poor Phoebe looks exhausted in this picture and not nearly as excited about caramel corn as I was!
We dropped off our van at Uncle Steve's apartment when we checked out of the hotel and watched people swarm to Soldier Field for the Gold Cup. It was like Fourth of July with all the red, white and blue we saw!
We had plans to go to Shedd Aquarium and walked towards the museum campus. We did a little running and rolling near the Field Museum along the way.
After seeing the line to get IN to the aquarium, we opted to do some more sightseeing instead.
We may or may not have played hide and seek with the dinosaur...
And did some more running and rolling...
Then hit a little park near his apartment.
And for our grand send-off, headed to Greektown for some saganaki. Opa!
Maverick is either in the mood or not when it comes to having his picture taken. Obviously, during our late lunch, he just wasn't feeling it.
On our way to the Greek bakery for some bougatsa and pastries.
On our trip home, we took in the wind turbines.
We made it home after 9:00 and got the kids to bed around 10:00. About 2:30 in the morning, Maverick woke up crying so I just brought him to our bed. Then he puked all over me and our bed and then promptly fell asleep. Perhaps we had a bit too much junk food over the weekend? He woke up happy on Monday so that was a relief!
We headed down to Bloomington for a kids' day on the lake with some co-workers. Phoebe was especially excited about being on a boat AND in the water! Still looking sleepy though!
We got out on the water around 11 and didn't come back in for lunch till almost 2:00 so Maverick ate his way through a bag of pretzels and then went on to chips. Again, not feeling the camera love.
We got to swim in the water which was surprisingly warm, considering the cooler temperatures we've had here recently.
After lunch and a rousing game of hide and seek, we got out on the raft, or as our kids called it, the "couch." We went very slow and I'm not sure if Maverick liked it or not. He'd break out in a big smile whenever we'd hit a rough patch and catch a little air so my guess is he did, despite his not-so-happy faces.
They loved the golf cart rides to and from the house.
Maverick was SO tired, he fell asleep while the boat was going full speed. We headed out shortly thereafter, hoping to catch the window and get a nap on the way home but no such luck!
Tuesday was a bit rough to get back in the swing of things but we're getting there. Had dinner and played some more hide and seek (Phoebe's favorite activity lately) and then Maverick wanted to play the piano by himself before we headed upstairs for bed.
Here's to getting back into a routine just in time for school to start. Two weeks from today is the BIG day...guess we should go buy some school supplies?
