Pix ... pre-Vacation!

Here are some pictures from recent times ... all of them pre-vacation ...

Emma and Timmy messing around with their favorite hats.
Tim at Farmer Katie's

Auntie Diane and Emma with the barbies.

More times with the chickens at Farmer Katie's

Emma getting ready to watch fireworks at the July 4th party

Everyone getting ready to watch the parade in Crystal Lake.

Timmy with his sparkler.

Emma and Sarah at the Day Camp orientation.

The non-Day Campers took a walk by the lake one day.

Cyndie sailing.

Friday ... Last Day

So, it's our last day of vacation. Cyndie and the kids when to the end of Montrose (the larger east/west road we're staying near) to go to the beach this morning. I've been working. We don't have any really big plans for the rest of the stay. After quiet time this afternoon, we'll clean and pack up a bit and then have dinner before we head over to a local park to swim. In the morning we'll probably leave fairly early.

It's been a very fun stay. We'll definitely pursue doing more home exchanges in the future!

Thursday and back on the Tourism Trail

It's Thursday, and that means that Cyndie and the kids are out doing a "tourist thing" today. They just left for the Navy Pier and the Children's Museum there. They'll also likely check out the sights and maybe do a ride or two (there's a ferris wheel and carousel).

Yesterday was low key. After the Japanese grocery store, they rode the El and got lunch at a noodle place. We had an early dinner and then walked to a new park. It was pretty hot still when we went about 5:30 p. By the time we got there we were ready for some ice cream at a little stand in the park ... only to find that there was no cash in my wallet! Fortunately the playground was in the shade. As we walked home, a heavy cloud cover came in and some nice cool wind which really helped to cool us off. We were amused to see an adult kickball league warming up at the other end of the park as we walked home! Hilarious!

So that's the story as it unfolded yesterday. I'm working for the morning and early afternoon, and then I'll probably join in on a trip to a park with water fountains that the kids can play in.

Wednesday ... back to work!

So it's Wednesday, which means that officially my vacation has ended and I'm now back at work. I'm sitting here in the loft ... the fourth floor of the four level condo. It's a bit hot and I think I may end up on the first floor where all the cool air from the air conditioner ends up! Anyway, it's great to be able to work remotely like this. It allows us to take a "real" vacation with only two vacation days. It turns out it was a good idea that I took those two days instead of trying to work nights and take no days ... if I would have gone that route, I would have ended up traveling for work this week. My boss two levels up called yesterday to ask me to go to JCrew, but he didn't realize I was on vacation. Whew, dodged that one!

Quick editor's note ... there will be no pictures of the trip until we get back home as we didn't bring the camera/laptop connection cord with.

So I think I last wrote early on Monday ... that day we went to the Field Museum. That was pretty fun. When we got there we realized that we'd lucked into the "Target Free Second Monday". What would have been $33 adult passes and $15 kids turned into $0 and $0. Yeah Target! We stayed there until around 1:30 (which has turned into our "normal" vacation day) and then headed home. The free entrance really allowed us to just have fun there and not feel like we needed to see everything. One thing we did realize (after both the zoo and the museum ending with me carrying Timmy) is that next time we would be well off to bring a stroller. After quiet time we walked over to the local park to play for a bit and then walked up to the Essence of India for some Indian food. It was very good. Probably only slightly behind the place we went all the time in SoCal. I think we'll probably try it again before we leave.

Tuesday (yesterday) was the Millennium Park trip. We loaded up the scooters to explore the park and hang out. We were disappointed to find out that bikes and scooters are not allowed in Millennium Park ... oh well. The day turned out to be pretty hot, so we were glad to have brought swim suits so that the kids could play in the cool fountain. It definitely kept the kids cool and prolonged our visit to the park.

While we were there there was a symphonic orchestra rehearsing for a performance later (in the big pavilion). The rehearsal was free, so we sat there an listened while we had lunch (in the shade). Emma liked to see the "real harp". The kids also really got a kick out of this huge reflective bean sculpture thing.

We also walked over to see the Buckingham Fountain. Fortunately the kids could ride their scooters over there or I don't think they would have made it. It was fun because it had this huge, tall column of water that was being blown by the wind so that we all got to cool of in the spray.

After quiet time we headed out to watch a movie ... Kung Fu Panda. The kids enjoyed it, although I think their favorite part may have been riding the escalators for 10 or 15 minutes before the movie while we waited for it to begin. We went to an older theater and probably only saw 8 other people the whole time we were there. On the whole, I thought the movie was okay. Definitely not bad, but not the worlds best either. It actually ended better than it started, which is pretty unusual for a movie.

This morning we walked over to the local Bean and Bagel shop for coffee and bagels for breakfast. I think Cyndie and the kids are going to lay pretty low for much of the day. They're planning on hitting a Japanese grocery store to stock up on coconut milk and dried seaweed, and we're going to ride the El and get lunch. It's totally great to have a house as a home base as that allows us to have a down day and kind of recoup our energy.

More later as things develop!

Exchanging and Chicago

So we are here at the four story townhome (I guess that's what it would be called) in Chicago. It's near Montross and Ravenswood (or Lincoln if that's bigger and more known to you ex-Chicagoans). We got in in the early afternoon on Saturday and took a walk around the neighborhood and went grocery shopping, and basically laid low on Saturday. The house is fun. There are four units in the complex. The first floor is a two car garage and small sitting/living room. The main/second floor is a kitchen/dining/living room with twenty foot ceilings. The third is two bedrooms and a bath. The fourth is a loft/computer room with a roof patio. Far different than our house!

Sunday, yesterday, the big trip was the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a free zoo, which is great! We got there about 9:30 and stayed until 1:30 or so ... plenty of time to see most everything and to get worn out. I carried Timmy the last 15 minutes. I don't think we got any "favorites" out of the kids, but they definitely enjoyed the experience. After quiet time, we had an early dinner at the local Italian place (just two doors down the street). I think if we lived like this, we'd spend all our money on eating out since there are so many fun little restaurants that are within easy walking distance! It was authentic style Italian pizza. Cyndie and I loved it, the kids were less hot! After that we broke out the scooters and took a 10 minute walk to the local park. When we got there we discovered that there was a Chicago Folk and Roots festival being held there ... definitely an interesting mix of people! Anyway, we walked around there for a while and then made our way through the chaos to the playground stuff where the kids played for a half hour or so.

So today we're going to hit the Field Museum. The kids will be excited by the dinosaurs, and there is also a mythical creatures exhibit that I think they'll like (dragons and unicorns).

More later ...

Quick one

So, we have a busy Friday. Emma has her last day of day camp, Cyndie is getting the oil changed in the car and she and Timmy are out and about with Amy, Benny, and Kristi. I'm working a bit. This afternoon we'll work to clean the house and pack our junk for our week's trip ... Chicago. This is the first home exchange (of two) we've got scheduled. It should be fun. We'll take of tomorrow, late morning, and get back the next Saturday. Oh, and we also have a BBQ at Pastor Ryan's tonight!

Dragon's Lair progress made

I'm sure this post will be followed by requests for pictures, but you're just going to have to be patient on that front.

I've worked quite a bit on the Dragon's Lair in the past week or two. It's gone from two platforms connected by a bright yellow tunnel, to a chain of three platforms with two slides, a rock climbing wall, a ladder, a fireman's pole, monkey bars, and a four station swing set. I have two further additions to come, and then we'll call it done for a while. It's been pretty fun to work on. I think I'll have to stop now or I'll risk eclipsing the size and variety of the playground at Emma's school!