Our Family Trip to Chicago

Samantha: 58 Months, Week 4

Aedan: 23 Months, Week 2 (Week 102)

This was the week of our big trip to Chicago for Ben's political science conference. Since the trip is mostly paid for by the department, we always use it as an excuse for an extended trip to see my family as well. 

Because of our trip, we had a shortened week of normal activities in Oxford. We gave our kids a bath on Monday night, and I forgot to include this picture and video in my last post. Normally you hear about bath time being a calming and relaxing part of the the bedtime routine. However, almost the exact opposite is true of our kids. It seems like bath time riles them up even more. After the kids got in their pajamas, this is what Ben and I got to be a witness to that evening. Aedan starting spinning around in circles, singing "Oh Where is My Hairbrush" very loudly. It wasn't very long before Samantha joined in as well, and it was hilarious to watch. I love the fun that they have with each other, even though it's not the best activity to participate in right before bed.

I had thought about taking the kids somewhere on Tuesday, but it was just one of those days where I could tell we needed to stay home. Both kids were too tired and crying about the smallest thing. Samantha decided she wanted to stay home, and she was actually playing really well with Aedan that morning, giving me a chance to get laundry done and other chores around the house. Especially with our week coming up, I knew it was good to just get rest and play at home. In fact, Samantha was tired enough that she actually took a nap that afternoon, which I was thankful for. She was very emotional and still trying to recover from her cough. I got both Samantha and Aedan down for earlier naps, and Samantha ended up napping for an hour and a half. In general, we are still trying to give up naps, but there are some days where it is just still necessary.

Wednesday was a full, busy, somewhat crazy day. First of all, Wednesdays are my days to watch Bennett, so I already planned on having him at the house playing with Aedan. Then, we agreed to watch Isaac for Jim and Stephanie, so for awhile we had all three boys playing at our house. Isaac got dropped off at 6:40 a.m. so that they could get to a doctor's appointment, so we put on a show for him to watch until our kids woke up for the day. Samantha was really excited when she heard Isaac was there since we didn't tell her about it ahead of time. When Aedan woke up, Isaac wanted to go with me to his room, and Aedan was thrilled to see Isaac standing next to his crib first thing in the morning. Since we planned to leave for Chicago after Samantha was finished with preschool and Ben already made alternate plans for his classes, he stayed home from campus that morning. It was nice to have him around while we had a full house, plus we still had to get packed for our trip to Chicago, making it a busy morning in our house. However, the boys all played well together and had lots of energy, with lots of running around and chasing each other.

I forget when I took these pictures of Aedan, but I wanted to show his crazy hair after sleeping on it. It was sticking up on the side of his head. I love his crazy bed head.

I also love his little shy smile in this picture. He is so adorable.

We ended up getting everything packed up in enough time to pick Samantha up from preschool and head out. We stopped at Wendy's in Oxford for lunch first and ran into Samantha's friend McKenna from preschool. Samantha asked if we could all sit together, so the girls were super excited to be able to sit next to each other and talk while they ate their lunch. Then, we hit the road for Chicago, letting the kids play in the car until we got to interstate 70. Aedan was pretty tired from a full, busy morning, so he fell right asleep with his paci. Samantha, on the other hand, just wiggled and whispered for over an hour rather than sleeping. Eventually, after several attempts to get her to stop playing and fall asleep, we just gave up and let her listen to one of her books on CD while Aedan continued napping.

After Aedan woke up from his nap, we stopped to fill up on gas and go to the bathroom before continuing on our way. We arrived in Chicago a little after 5:00, dropped Roscoe off at my parents' house, and then drove over to Christy's apartment for dinner. The kids were definitely ready to get out of the car, and they were both hungry and tired. We had fun seeing Aunt Christy and Brielle, playing with toys, and seeing the cats before we went back to the hotel for bed time.

Since Miami was reimbursing us for our hotel, they approved a two room suite at the Staybridge Suites, giving us all plenty of room to spread out and sleep in separate rooms. Samantha had her own queen size bed in a room with an attached bathroom. Ben and I had a king size bed in a room with an attached bathroom, and we had Aedan sleep in his pack and play out in the living room area. It worked out really well. However, since it is an hour earlier in Chicago, that never bodes well with our kids' schedules. They normally wake up around 6:40-6:45 at home, so guess what time Aedan woke up on Thursday morning? 5:40 Chicago time. Ben and I definitely weren't ready to get up yet, but we told him to go back to sleep and that didn't work. We didn't want his singing and talking to wake up Samantha as well, so we brought him into our bedroom for a little while. Daddy was watching Sports Center, and Aedan was perfectly happy cuddling into him in bed with his paci. It was just too cute of a moment not to take a picture of it.

Despite our morning being earlier than we would have preferred, the kids were in good moods and excited for our first day in Chicago. Ben had to present at a panel at the conference, so we dropped him off at the train station before meeting Aunt Christy, Brielle, and Ava, the little girl she babysits, at the DuPage Children's Museum at 9:00. We got there right when it opened, giving us lots of time to play before it got busier. Grandpa and Grandma also met us there, and all the grandchildren were excited to see them. It was nice to have so many adults because then it was a one-to-one ratio with the kids, making it easier to watch them and interact with them in the various exhibits. There were so many fun things to play with at this museum. The kids had a great time. Here are some pictures from our day.

They made pictures with glow in the dark light tubes.

Samantha really enjoyed building this whole town and watching the shadows change as the light went across the ceiling like the sun goes across the sky. She spent a long time putting all these buildings up and was very proud of her finished product.

There was a bridge you could walk on with one side with little bumps up and down. The kids did that for quite awhile before moving on to the bubble area. Aedan LOVES bubbles, so he played here for quite awhile. He loved the bubble wands that he could pick up himself and were easy enough for him to blow bubbles all by himself. As he blew bubbles he kept saying, "self, self," which he always says when he has figured out how to do something all on his own. Brielle also really liked the bubbles. There was a water area there too, and both Brielle and Aedan got soaking wet from pouring water out of the table. In fact, I think Aedan got his shoes soaking wet from trying to pour a cup of water into a bowl and spilling most of it. It was fun to see Brielle and Aedan playing together.

Samantha wasn't too interested in the bubble/water section and wanted to flit around from one place to another, rather than waiting for the little kids to be done playing. Another area Aedan really enjoyed was the tubes with air and ping pong balls. In fact, when I told him we were going to the museum that day, he looked at me and said, "Balls?" He loves the ball area at the Cincinnati Museum Center, which is what he was thinking of when asking that question. I helped Aedan connect the tubes that you see in this video so that he could stick a ball in the bottom and have it go flying out the hole in the top. He did this over and over again. I think it was the activity he spent the most time on in the entire museum.

There was also an area with lots of different sized pinwheels and a fan that would blow to spin them around. Aedan liked taking the pinwheels out and sticking them in different places. Do you see his lower lip sticking out? That's because he is trying to blow the pinwheels himself, and he tried so hard to blow as hard as he could.

Samantha was interested in going to a woodworking area. We had to wait for a little while for a station to open up, and I brought Aedan in with us as well, but it was hard to help both of them at the same time. Eventually Grandpa saw us in the room, so I motioned for him to come in and help us out. Then, Grandpa helped Samantha saw some wood, hammer some nails, and use the screwdriver. Aedan desperately wanted to use the tools, but he kept trying to hit the nails with the hammer sideways which didn't work out so well. He just wasn't quite coordinated enough to hold the tools correctly, but it was fun for them to experience real tools in a safe and contained environment. What a fun idea for a children's museum!

They even had a small art room where the kids could do some watercolor painting. At this point it was getting close to lunchtime and I could see Samantha and Aedan losing energy, so we took a break to go down to the cafeteria to eat our packed lunch. Christy was kind enough to make sandwiches for all of us, as well as bring fruit, chips, and other snacks for the kids. We had a good lunch and were in better moods and ready for more play time afterwards.

We decided to check out the second floor that had lots of mathematical games using shapes and patterns, as well as this large triangular prism that kids could walk through. Aedan and Brielle found it to be interesting, especially since it was covered with mirrors on the inside.

They had a whole table of maga-tiles, so Samantha, Aedan, and I sat down to build with these for quite awhile. Samantha said that they have these at preschool and she likes playing with them quite a bit. I started building a house and then noticed that Samantha was copying me, building a house identical to mine. She thought our houses looked great together and wanted me to take a picture. It was so fun spending this time together being creative and building.

Aedan decided to just stack one square on top of another, making a tall tower. Then, he finished it off with a triangle at the top. I love to see how differently their brains work and how everyone can enjoy the same activity in different ways.

There was a large section on the Chinese culture on the second floor, including this area where a video played of a man practicing tai chi. I told Samantha that it looked he was doing kung fu, so then she had to go over and try it out, eventually saying that it wasn't really kung fu. So she had to show me what kung fu really looked like.

It was getting close to the time we needed to head out for the afternoon so that all the kids could get down for a good afternoon nap. We went back down to the first floor and most of the kids engaged in more quiet activities. Samantha found this wall of holes to fill with pegs, and she decided to make a pattern from the top all the way down.

Samantha called me over when she finished her pattern, and she was so proud of herself. It took her quite awhile to complete this. Toward the bottom she ran out of blue so then did a pattern of yellow and red instead. I love to see her focusing on a task like this and deciding how to play with it all on her own.

Brielle and Aedan played with tiles on a light board.

We played with legos on a light board as well.

Then, our last activity of the day was in a toddler area with musical instruments and books. It was fun to see all the little ones interacting with each other, even if Aedan was banging on the xylophone with all this strength.

Before we left the museum, the kids got pictures taken on the cow and then all the cousins sat together on the big pink chair. Aedan wasn't much in the mood for smiling since he was so tired from waking up at 5:40 a.m., so this is the best picture we could get.

Aedan couldn't wait to go to sleep that afternoon, and I ended up moving his pack and play into the big bedroom so that way I could hang out in the living room and be able to reach Samantha's room without having to bother Aedan. I was determined to get Samantha to nap that afternoon since we had plans for the joint birthday party that evening with my family and I knew bedtime would be later. I told Samantha that she would be able to stay up later and swim longer if she took a nap. Plus, I told her this was the only day I was going to make her nap since we were going to be out in the afternoon the next two days. I was going to lay with her to help her fall asleep, but she actually asked that I leave. I gave her a chance to fall asleep on her own but said that I would come back in if she wasn't laying quietly. However, within ten minutes or so I could hear her snoring over the monitor. I was so glad that she let herself sleep because it was going to allow us to have a much better night.

Daddy walked back from the train station since Aedan was still sleeping and I couldn't leave to go pick him up. A little after 5:00 I left to pick up Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza for dinner. Christy ordered a cake from a friend of hers who has a bakery business. My Grandma and Don bought balloons, plates, and napkins. We met in the breakfast seating area in the hotel, pushed some tables together, and got ready for our little birthday celebration. Aedan got an Elmo balloon, and Samantha got an Ariel balloon, which they both loved. The balloons provided plenty of entertainment as we got everything set up.

I love deep dish pizza, and Lou Malnati's is definitely my favorite. It's fun to have deep dish pizza at least once a year when we come up to visit. After everyone ate pizza, we decided to let the kids open presents before cutting into the cake. I had Samantha and Aedan sit next to each other with their balloons to get pictures of the birthday kids (even though it's not their birthdays yet).

It was fun for both Samantha and Aedan to open presents, making sure neither of them felt left out. They got some great gifts, and I am very thankful for how thoughtful my family was in blessing them with these kind and generous presents. Samantha got a new Ariel bathing suit, cover-up, nightgown, Frozen watch, sparkly sandals, Frozen flip flops, Fancy Nancy book set, the Tangled movie, and lots of new clothes for spring/summer, including many cute dresses that made Samantha very happy. Aedan got a new Cars bathing suit, construction pajama set, a whale Puddle Jumper floatie, two pairs of shoes, a Veggie Tales book and two movies, and lots of new clothes for spring/summer. Here are some pictures during present time.

After looking at all the presents and getting all the paper thrown away, we decided to have cake. We went with a water theme since we planned to go swimming, so Christy's friend was kind enough to make us a water cake with a mermaid and some fish on it. It turned out really well, and Samantha thought it looked really neat. Although, she did make a comment about how Ariel's "bibs" are supposed to be purple and not pink. (We still love the she calls them bibs, so we are not going to correct her on that one.) She wanted a piece of Ariel's head for her piece of cake. The cake even has raspberries in the middle which Aedan really loved.

After enjoying our cake and cleaning up after ourselves, we went back upstairs to get in our swimsuits. Samantha was excited to wear her new bathing suit and cover-up, and Aedan couldn't wait to put on his floatie just like Samantha. Even though it was getting late, we had to follow through on our promise to go swimming together. Samantha LOVES to swim. She loves to pretend she's a mermaid and that we are either her sister or King Triton. She loves to jump off the edge and make big splashes. Aedan's floatie didn't quite hold him up well enough to let him go around on his own, but it certainly helped him become more independent and not have to be held by us the whole time. He enjoyed walking up and down the stairs as well as climbing onto the edge of the pool and then counting, "1-2-3" and jumping into my arms. He even was kicking his feet out behind him while swimming around in the water. It's great to see him become more comfortable in the water.

It had been a long, full day, and it was already late, so after swimming for awhile we called it a night and went back upstairs to rinse the kids off and get them in bed. On Friday we had plans to go to the Museum of Science and Industry downtown. Our Cincinnati Museum Center pass can get us in there for free, so all we had to pay was gas to get there and parking. Aunt Christy offered to drive so that way we could fit all the car seats in her SUV, and it worked out pretty well with Samantha in the back, Brielle and Aedan in the middle, and Christy and I in the front. Samantha was super excited about sitting in the way back of the car, and Brielle and Aedan enjoyed being able to see each other. Aedan had a snack cup of Fruit Loops and was sharing them with Brielle as we drove. It was pretty cute. Ben was able to come with us in the car rather than take the train, and he even went to the museum with us for a couple hours before going off to his conference. It was fun having Daddy tag along for awhile.

The museum was pretty busy that day and at times the crowds were a bit overwhelming. Our kids did a better job of sleeping that morning and at least made it to 6:45, but that was after being up past their bedtime the night before, so they were tired and it was starting to impact their moods a little bit. However, we had a great time exploring the museum. We even found this area more geared to younger children where they could play with and interact with many hands-on things.

We made our way around the lower level, looking at the circus area, the farm equipment, sitting in a tractor, and looking at the fairy house.

We stopped to eat lunch in the cafeteria before Ben had to take a taxi to the conference hotel, and then Christy and I were left on our own with the kids which made it a little more difficult, especially since Aedan was pretty tired and fussy that day. If you've ever been to the Museum of Science and Industry, you know how big it is, and most of it is geared towards older children or adults, so a lot of the rooms we just kind of walked through and didn't spend too much time in. One of our favorite spots was watching the little baby chicks so we stayed here for quite some time.

We even got to see a chick trying to break free from its eggshell which was pretty cool to watch. Although Samantha did make a comment that she felt sorry for the baby because it didn't have a mother.

We looked at the weather exhibit where Samantha was fascinated by watching the simulation of the tsunami waves, the model train exhibit, walked through the old town streets, and then made our way to the balcony where they have the displays of the inside of the human body. Samantha also found this part interesting. I pointed out many different body systems to her and explained to her how they worked, to the best of my knowledge. It's fun now that she's getting older and can enjoy more higher thinking exhibits. It's fun to be able to teach her new things and to spark her curiosity for learning. I feel like she's getting to the age where she would enjoy going to a museum without Aedan so that she can spend as much time as she wants in one area. Our last stop was the giant plane they had hanging from the ceiling, so all the kids pretended to be passengers on the plane.

We had talked about getting ice cream in the old town area, but the line was super long and I knew no one had patience for that, so before leaving for the day, we stopped by Starbucks so that Christy and I could get coffee, plus we got the kids a little dirt pudding cup for a snack.

Then, we hit the road with three tired kids on our hands. Aedan was happy to get in his car seat with his paci and fell asleep almost instantly. Samantha took a little longer, but I told her it would make her feel a lot better if she could just take a little nap, so I was glad when I looked back and she was asleep as well. Brielle took a little longer to fall asleep, but a nice quiet car gave Christy and I a chance to talk, which was nice. I'm glad we chose to all ride together.

Samantha slept most of the way back, and Aedan slept until we stopped to pick up Daddy from the train station. We then went back to Aunt Christy's house to let the kids play for awhile before Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt came over for dinner. We ordered food from Portillo's and just brought it back to eat at the apartment so that the kids could have more freedom in playing. After short naps for all, the kids were fading fast and we wanted to get them to bed at a decent time, so we left to go back to the hotel before 8:00.

Ben was done with his work for the conference, so on Saturday we had plans for a mini-reunion with my cousins up in McHenry. We didn't plan on meeting there until 11:00, so since we had extra time in the morning, we decided to go swimming as a family after breakfast. Our kids woke up at about the same time, 6:45, and we tried to get Aedan to go back to sleep but our attempts did not work, making for a tired little boy that morning. We drove to McHenry with Aunt Christy and Uncle Matthew again since they had enough space for everyone, and Aedan actually ended up falling asleep in the car on the way there because he was just so tired from not sleeping enough over the past few days and already being pretty active for most of the morning. I was glad he could get rest and be in a better mood to play. It was really good to see some of my extended family, like Aunt Diane, Melissa and her three kids, and Brad, Lynn, and their two boys. My other cousins were busy that day and couldn't come, but it was really good to connect with Melissa and Brad again. I really enjoyed sitting and talking with Melissa, watching Samantha and Katherine play Barbies together. We had sandwiches, chips, fruit, vegetables, and cookies for lunch, and then we had more time to visit and let the kids play. Samantha also really enjoyed Nolan, and for awhile Samantha, Katherine, and Nolan were all playing puppies together. Here they are watching some little show on an iPhone.

After lunch we attempted to lay Aedan down for a nap in an upstairs bedroom, but since he had fallen asleep in the car, I think that ruined his chance of napping that afternoon. We left him in the room for awhile, but we don't think he napped at all. While Brielle and Aedan were in bed, the older kids went outside to play. They decided to play a baseball game and even set up chairs along the hill as part of the cheering section. You can't tell which one is Samantha, but she was very excitedly cheering everyone on. When it was her turn to hit, she actually made contact on her first attempt and was able to run the bases. It was so fun to see her playing with my cousin's kids like this. I wish we all could see each other more often so that our kids could get to know their kids more. 

Since Samantha only napped for a little while in the car the previous day, stayed up later than she should have every night, and skipped any chance of a nap on Saturday, she was losing it by the middle of the afternoon. Even though we were all having fun catching up with each other, we decided to head out around 5:00 so that we could get back for dinnertime. Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt met us for dinner at a restaurant near our hotel called Sweet Tomatoes because fresh, quick food sounded good to me. Samantha and Aedan were pretty spacey and didn't eat too well because they were so tired. However, no kid will turn down ice cream, so here are all the kids enjoying their ice cream that evening.

The lack of sleep had definitely caught up with them at this point, so the kids started getting slap happy and making silly faces for Aunt Christy.

By the time we got the kids into bed on Saturday night, I think Ben and I were just as tired as the kids were so we weren't too far behind them. No matter what kind of sleep deficit our kids are operating under, they always wake up at the same time every day, pretty much without fail. So since we were up early again on Sunday morning and church didn't start until 11:00, we decided to make one last trip to the swimming pool. The water was much warmer than the previous day and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was a fun way to end our trip to Chicago. After swimming we all took showers/baths and got our car packed up and checked out of the hotel. Here are the kids riding out on the cart that morning. 

Going to an 11:00 service is always difficult for our kids, especially when we are on trips because their schedules are all out of whack and they don't sleep as much or as well as they do at home. In fact, Aedan even woke up crying several times during the night, making him extra tired on Sunday morning. When we picked Samantha up after church, the teachers said that Samantha was spacey and she couldn't tell Ben anything she had learned there whereas at OBF she can always retell us the whole Bible story they learned. When I picked up Aedan, he was standing next to one of the teachers crying with tears streaming down his face and a very red face. I asked the teacher if he'd been crying most of the time, and she said, "Well yeah, on and off, most of the time." That wasn't a very reassuring thing to say. I got him and we left the room, but it took quite some time to get him to calm down and stop crying. He didn't want me to put him down. In fact, we had to go back into the room to get his coat, and as soon as we walked into the room he started crying again, grabbing onto me, and saying "No, no, no..." probably because he was afraid I was going to leave him there again. Apparently it was a fairly traumatic experience for him at church that morning, and I felt bad that he got so upset.

From church we went back to Christy and Matthew's place for lunch. They made eggs and pancakes for us, as well as Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Matt. Ben and I had the leftover Lou Malnati's pizza because there was no way we were going to let that go to waste. After we let the kids play for awhile, we finally got on the road at 4:00 Ohio time which was much later than we would have liked. The kids did pretty well in the car. Samantha slept for about an hour, and Aedan slept for just under two hours. Then, we let them watch a movie on the portable DVD player. We stopped at a Wendy's to pick up dinner and go the bathroom, but we just ate the food in the car so that we could continue to drive. As it was, we didn't get home until 9:15, and then we still had to get the car unpacked and the kids' rooms set up enough to get them to sleep. We were all exhausted and glad to be back home in our own beds. Going to Chicago was a lot of fun. We got to spend good time with family and got to do fun things every day, but now it was time to get settled back into our routine and get caught up on sleep.

On Monday morning Ben discovered his car wouldn't start, so after dropping Samantha off at preschool, we dropped him off on campus before Aedan and I did our grocery shopping and headed back home to start on our mounds of laundry and catching up from being gone for several days. We were all tired from our time in Chicago, we were all playing catch up, and even though Samantha was tired, she didn't nap that afternoon which was frustrating to me. Ben was behind on grading from being gone and not working much, so he stayed up very late trying to get caught up. It will take us a few days to get things back under control, but it was fun to be able to travel to Chicago together on a mostly free trip. With Samantha entering kindergarten next year and going to school full time, we won't have the liberty to pick up and leave for an extended weekend like this because we won't want her to miss that much school. So, it's nice to take advantage of this while we can. :)

(Blog about April 5-11, 2016)