Spring Break '09: Day 3

We've been looking forward to this day since we planned the 2009 budget: Museum of Science and Industry Day. And nobody's more excited than me. I managed to schedule a little time off work (a very rare event for sure). It was 9:15 am, and we were just finishing up packing the daypack.

Just one problem.

"Dad? My ear hurts..."

Oooo. This was coming from the kid who gets ear infections, and gets 'em real bad. And fast and furious too. He's been known to mention that his ear "kinda hurts" at bedtime, and by 12:30am he's screaming in pain until it ruptures a few painstaking hours later (poor kid!). So we had to take this threat to MSI day seriously.

Lucky us, we got a late-breaking appointment with the doctor (a REAL doctor; not one of these PhD hacks), and by 10:15 am, Brandon was diagnosed with what is technically referred to as "an eardrum filled with pus that is actually bulging a little bit." Ouch. Good call taking him to the doctor, then, eh? After picking up a bottle of orange-flavored amoxicillin, and a little bit of Tylenol, we decided to push forward with our original - and now 2-hour-delayed - plans. The upshot is that Brandon was already feeling a little better.

The museum was interesting, educational, and fun, just like real museums should be. They have a scale model of Chicago with electric trains running through the mountains to a scale model of Seattle. The waterworks at the hands-on "Idea Factory / Imagination Station" was a lot of fun. And in the "Whispering Gallery", Kelsie and I told secrets to each other even though we were standing 100 feet apart. We watched an old movie, the kind they made before "talkies". Some robots drew pictures for us too. We also learned lots of fun facts too: Did you know that cows eat 30 pounds of food and drink 20 gallons of water every day, which makes them produce 13 gallons of manure everyday?! Gross, I know. But sometimes, those are the facts that stick in yer head.

We had a great time, and best of all we wore everyone out. I don't think anyone is going to be waking up tonight.

At least we hope not.

Spring Break: Day 5

For our last day of Spring Break, we were super excited because Wally was able to take the day off of work so we took the kids down to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. We walked over to the train station and rode down into the city. Brandon had a great time on the train and was even more excited to find out that we got to ride on a bus to take us to the museum! Public transportation is a magical thing to a kid!

The museum was so much fun and there was something for everyone. Wally particularly enjoyed the Inventing Lab, Kelsie loved building a dam in the Waterways room, Brandon couldn't get enough digging for dinosaur bones in the Dinosaur Expedition room, and Caleb enjoyed the Treehouse where he could walk around for the most part undisturbed! We had so much fun and it was great to see the kids having such a good time. Kelsie, Brandon, and I even made stamps at the end of the day in the art center to take home with us.

We had dinner at the pier and Wally and I tried a genuine Chicago-Style Hot Dog and Polish Sausage. It was pretty good, but admittedly, not my favorite thing to eat. Wally asked Brandon and Kelsie if chicken nuggets and some french fries would be good for dinner and Brandon said, "But Dad, that's not a happy meal!" I guess that would make it an unhappy meal? So, in the end they got their happy meals and were happy'! (How many times can I say happy in one paragraph?)


We had a really fun day in Chicago! Once we got on the train to come home, Brandon immediately fell asleep and Kelsie was just glad to be done walking. Brandon slept the whole way, even when we changed trains and then walked home from the train station. He woke up right when we put him in bed, so we decided to go ahead with our movie night, since it was Friday. It was an exhausting day, but everyone had such a great time!

Just a short video of the kids dancing at the pier