Shedd Aquarium

Last week, the Colorado Gorschs were here for a visit. This summer we were blessed with free family passes to the Shedd Aquarium, but couldn't squeeze into their July visit... We decided to save it for this visit instead. Last Monday we loaded up (our pilot and our truck!) and headed to the windy city. We had great weather (at least for the beginning of the day...) We spent over 6 hours in the aquarium exploring. We took a break for our picnic lunch and spent sometime outside looking at the lake and the city skyline. We enjoyed the dolphin show and explored some more until it was time to go. We wanted to try a walk downtown, but by the time we left it was pouring rain (and we had some tired, cranky kiddos!) Instead we sat in traffic for a very long hour and made it to Cracker Barrel where we were promptly seated right by the fireplace-yeah! It was such a fun day!

(The above picture was the best we could get of all 5 kids! It was fun to see Jaren's excitement at seeing the skyline. It was also fun to watch the kids wrestle on the pavement--I think some other tourists enjoyed this spectacle as well! With Uncle Nathan's help, they created a "wrestling move" called "The Dirty Diaper"--it was frequently requested for the rest of the week.)

Waiting in line at the entrance...

The kids were excited to find fish right away--Emmy's request was a polka dot fish! I was excited (and thankful) to have Aunt Cori's help wearing Macey!

Macey loved exploring the different types of coral that were on the walls. Jaren's question: "Are these real corals that have been preserved or models that feel like real coral?" I love his love of learning!

Sitting down to watch the dolphin show. Shedd was doing a dress rehearsal of their Christmas show to open later in the week... complete with dancing girls (not so thrilling), Christmas songs, a dancing frosty, parading penguins (live ones--that was fun!), and Santa descending from the ceiling riding in a boat. Kinnick was so excited to see Santa. He kept saying "Santa on a boat!" all day (and continues to say it!) The only downfall--this was his first time seeing Santa this season and he now gets mad when Santa is not on a boat! We have tried to tell him that Santa rides on a sleigh and he furrows his eyebrows and exclaims "No, Santa on a boat!"

In the last 2 years, they've done lots of renovations at the Shedd--including a big "Polar Play Zone" in the lower level. There were lots of interactive exhibits. This was perfect b/c we went here last and it really helped keep the kids attention as they were getting tired.

Here Sadie is telling her dad how she got to touch a real live starfish... The starfish incident went something like this :

Museum Man: "Touch the starfish lightly with 2 fingers, do not try to move it." (Complete with demonstration)
Me: "Look Sadie this is how you touch it." (Complete with demonstration)

Sadie: "Like this?" (Picking up the starfish and giving it a toss)

The museum man was so flustered he didn't say anything. I promptly grabbed Sadie's hand and said, "Time to look at something else!"

Kinnick snoozed his way through the polar play zone...

They had a very fun penguin play area!

Sadie refused to put on the penguin costume, but enjoyed the sliding and climbing fun.

Playing in the submarine...

Looking at the beluga whale--they were fascinated!

When we left, it was pouring rain. We rain (as fast as we could with 5 children) back to the parking garage... best pic of the day, soaking wet!

Fun with Friends!

Jennifer and the girls came for a short visit and we had a GREAT time! They arrived Monday night and were already excited to play. Sadie and Grace did very well playing together. Sadie was also quite interested in Faith this time. (She seems to be taking more of an interest in babies--both infants & crawling. I guess that's good!)

Tuesday, after eating pancakes for breakfast, we loaded up--lunches and all, to head to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Our drive there was good. It took 1 1/2 hours and Grace & Faith mostly slept. We parked, loaded the girls into strollers, and we were off. They did very well and generally enjoyed most of the fish. Sadie liked the smaller fish better this time (last time she was fascinated with the Whales). She still wanted to grab them through the glass! Lunch went great. After lunch we decided to watch the dolphin show (we should of known better...) We had to go about 1/2 an hour early to get seats. Of course Sadie & Grace wanted nothing to do with sitting still at this point! We made it (barely) to show time and they loved when the music came on and seeing the dolphins jump high in the air. Unfortunately there was a lot of "fact" time when the dolphins were not too active--not fun for toddlers! We thought we were going to have to make an early exit, but we made it! After the show we got a snack and did one more exhibit. It was a good thing because Grace & Sadie's favorite part of the museum was climbing around on the big fake turtle (see picture)!

Our ride home took significantly longer (about 2 1/2 hours). Sadie & Faith were asleep right away, but Grace was glued to the "Pat Pat" movie (Little Einsteins). The last 30 minutes of our trip involved a lot of screaming by Sadie, but we made it home! That night we took a walk to get ice cream. Faith got her first taste of ice cream (and it's a good thing b/c I think the 8 grandparents at the tables next to us would have killed Jennifer if she didn't give her a taste!) It was a great adventure before school started back up--I'm so glad we got to do it!



Waiting for the dolphin show!

The Giant turtle! (Wouldn't this be your favorite part?)

Princess Pancakes and Fish

Today was Sadie's 1st birthday! We feel so blessed to have such an amazing daughter. Marc took the day off so we could all celebrate together! We started the day with her "Birthday Breakfast"--eggs and princess pancakes (blueberry-lemon pancakes cut in the shape of a tiara!)

Marc and I decided to take Sadie to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We guessed that it might be busy because of spring break. Busy turned out to be an understatement. We parked our car and began the hike to the aquarium. As we got closer, we started seeing crowds of people. I asked Marc, "Are those people waiting to get inside?" They sure were, and we sure did wait with them. We waited in the rain/snow for about 45 minutes to get inside! (Fortunately, Sadie and I were only outside for about 20 minutes when an aquarium lady started letting people with small children wait inside.) After we finally got in, it really didn't seem too crowded. We saw dolphins, beluga whales, penguins, turtles, snakes, sharks, otters, and LOTS of FISH! Saide loved it. She loves watching people and she really enjoyed checking out the animals. She loved being so close to the tanks and trying to "touch" the fish. What a great day!