First Day of School!

On August the 18th Matthew started 3rd grade and Elizabeth started the 6th grade. The night before was a little anxiety ridden, but after that it got a little easier with each day. I took a couple of pictures of Matthew since he was available, she now gets ready and shows up to go out the door, so I only got the one of her. We took Matthew and walked him to his classroom, but Elizabeth opted for the drop off at the door, as I am sure all 6th graders do. I was sad to see them get another year older and start another school year, but happy at the end of the day to pick them up and hear they had had a great day!!














Our 3rd grader!






































Our 6th grader!

Elizabeths Birthday and the rest of Vacation Week!

Well we celebrated Elizabeth's 11th B-day while we were in Chicago, and I think it was a great day! We started with breakfast out and then headed to the Field Museum with Sue the T-Rex. It was a huge place and again more than we could really handle in one morning. We did the best we could and then headed back to get cleaned up for dinner at American Girl and a little AG shopping. We ended that day with a water taxi ride back to the end with our hotel and called it a very successful day!

Matthew did this lovely artwork for Elizabeth that morning at the Yolk restaurant!

The Field Museum and Sue the T-Rex!

This was a huge and impressive building even if you didn't look at all the stuff in it!

We had to cross the tracks to get to everything we went to and that day we finally saw a train going under!














We stopped at Hersheys on the way to American Girl so Elizabeth could make herself a personalized souviner, and she did. This was not it, because that bar costs $40.00!!!!!!




























Here we are at dinner in American Girl, she had a special drink called the Cherry Blossum!

Matthew had a little hot chocolate!














Elizabeth at dinner with her Hershey's Bar!














Happy birthday, we sang and had the cutest little desserts!
















































Back to the Navy Pier to catch the water taxi!














Great views from the water!
























































Soldiers Fountain, the opening of Married with Children!

Tired and done with walking around the City, he was ready for some country living!

Goodbye City Life......














We left the City the fourth day around noon and headed out to Indiana Dunes! The water was a balmy 71 degrees and the kids enjoyed cooling off.










































Once we got to Aunt Darlene and Uncle Terry's we relaxed and enjoyed a family meal, which I should have taken pictures of but didn't:( so our first pics are at the Zoo in South Bend. We had been to this Zoo a couple years earlier and the kids had enjoyed it, Matthew especially likes the train.

We also enjoyed a trip to the South Bend Chocolate Factory, we took a tour of the Factory and enjoyed their small museum that is all about their history there with chocolate. Of course we got some samples too!

Don't you love the hair nets?










































This is a zuchinni!!!!!














Matthew rode everything with wheels that they would let him ride and they both enjoyed a horseback ride, thanks cousin Kyle!!!!!











































We got there just in time for sweet corn coming in and we ate it everday and even took some home and ate it until it was gone. Thanks Uncle Terry!




























Thanks to Aunt Darlene, Uncle Terry and Cousin Kyle for housing, feeding and tolerating us for four days, we love you all and hope to see you again soon! A extra huge for Aunt Darlene for all the cooking she did for us!!!!!

Vacation Day 2

We headed out to the Musuem of Science and Industry on
our second day and it was amazing. We spent almost the
entire day there, the pictures don't even begin to show
how huge the place is. They have an entire 727 airplane,
a German submarine and a coal mine. It was all very
interactive so the kids and David and I really had a great
time. After that we headed to the overlook ledge at the
Sears Tower building(now known by some other name, but
after flying over it for years and calling it the Sears Tower
I have no need to change). It was interesting to step out
over the city and they said you could see four States, but I
only counted three, oh well. It was a busy day and we ended
it with a train ride back to the hotel, there is certainly plenty
of transportation options in that city!














Below is a train set that was huge, and had models set
up of the Chicago and Seattle, Washington skylines. It was
very impressive, and for Matthew it was heaven on earth!















































Matthew worked on making his own tornado but
there was also a floor to ceiling one, that was
quite impressive as well!



















The United Airplane was like heading back to work. It
had the insides as well and working landing gear. They
even had a real United Pilot in there to answer questions!














This was down were the submarine was, it was a game
you could play!



















Always a clown!



















This was a screen that where ever the kids touched
the things coming down would look like they
were catching in their hands. Very interesting!



















Heres the first view when we got out on the 103rd
floor and looked out!














Sitting in the glass boxes!

























































We found Chicago style pizza for dinner that night,
they were very happy about that and ate all but a
piece!














Train ride back to the hotel, of course it wasn't a long
enough ride for Matthew!