Chicago and St. Louis

I'm working a few weeks behind...surprise, surprise, right?? he he! Steve had the week off a couple of weeks ago and we took advantage of him being home and traveled all over the place during the week. We had lots of fun together! :) Our big trips of the week were to Chicago and St. Louis. We love doing spur of the moment trips and getting a good deal on hotwire.com or priceline.com. So, we packed up and right before we left, we got a hotel downtown Chicago at The Hotel Allegro. It was right next to the Cadillac Theater. Really nice hotel. I knew we would be walking all over the place, so it was the perfect time to get the stroller I had been wanting for a long time. We stopped at Buy Buy Baby on the way up to Chicago and got the Joovy Sit and Stand stroller. LOVE IT! Colin can sit/stand on the back platform and Cade sits up front. Greatest invention ever! I knew Colin would walk some of the way but he couldn't walk the miles we walked, so I am so happy we got it. There is a picture of them sitting in the stroller in the hotel because they are so happy to have it! :)

We walked to Navy Pier and went on the ferris wheel, notice no fear Cade, leaning over the edge and almost giving us a heart attack when I am trying to take their pictures!! They loved it and wanted to go again, and again! We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Great food! They even had face painting there and Colin got his face painted like Batman. Black paint is hard to get off if anyone wants to know! Because they were so good at dinner, they got to ride the Thomas train a couple of times too. Then, we headed back the many miles back to our hotel. We had lots of fun!

Funny story...at our hotel, Cade didn't want to go to bed. This was at 9:00. He was overtired and screamed for less than a minute. About 2 minutes later...knock on the door. Hotel management...we've had a complaint about a child screaming in your room, can you please hold it down in there? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? It is 9:00, not midnight, and it was less than a minute! So, I don't think we will be going back there any time soon! ha!

The next day, we got up and went to The Shedd Aquarium. I haven't been there forever, and knew the boys would love it. Just an FYI for anyone that goes there in the future. It was cheaper to buy the year long pass if you plan on going back in the same year. It was going to cost us around $70 to get in and the year long pass I purchased was $115...for the whole year! Plus, you get discounts on food, purchases, etc. there too. What a deal! So, we have to go back sometime this year to make it worth while, which I am sure we will do! :)

Colin and Cade loved the animals there. Penguins were a big hit! I don't know if you can see the fish behind the glass or not, but there is one of Cade with a huge whale staring right at him. Next time, I will have to remember to turn my flash off when I take pictures! Another stroller picture (can you tell we like it?) and a hilarious "chheeese" pic from Cade!

We got home from Chicago and made the split decision to go to St. Louis the next day to visit one of our favorite people, cousin Wade. He lives downtown STL and we love visiting him there. We went to the zoo and had lots of fun looking at the animals. It was hot, but not too hot like it usually is when we go down there. We even rode the train that goes through the zoo this time and had lots of fun riding through tunnels and seeing more of the zoo.

We went to lunch and then to the arch. We were going to go up but it was so crowded and such a long wait, we decided we just will have to go visit STL again...bummer! :) Wade and Colin were trying to climb the arch at Colin's request. :) We walked through the parks that had the All Star arches (notice we had to find the Cubs on the arch!) We even played in the water fountain too.

We headed home after the arch trip and Steve and Colin took off late evening to head to the Indy race with the guys in my family. Whew...long couple of days, lots of traveling...but so much fun!

Colin's Activities

All summer Colin had activities that kept us really busy. His schedule was swimming on Monday and then soccer. Tuesday and Thursdays were WeeBall and Wednesdays were soccer. Fridays were the Fun Run. Wow - he is one busy kid! But...he enjoyed every single moment of it and loved playing the sports.

Here Colin is at a soccer game. The games are quite interesting. Pretty much a pack of 4 year olds just running around together. Half the time the kids would be kicking the ball in the wrong direction and score for the opposite team. Colin played goalie quite often and he enjoyed it. He did good blocking the ball most times. Even saved a ball while someone (accidentally) kicked his knuckles. See, real hard core soccer here! :) We enjoyed watching him enjoy the game. When I played soccer, I pretty much just hung out by the goalie and did some gymnastics or picked flowers...yeah, my parents were real proud of me, I'm sure! :)

Here is Colin at WeeBall. WeeBall is the step before T-ball. There are no games, just practices that teach them the fundamentals of T-Ball so they can play next year. They made it a lot of fun for the kids. Below are some pics of them having water WeeBall. Instead of a ball, they did everything with water balloons. Remember, Colin doesn't like to get his clothes wet, so that was interesting! After awhile, he came around and was fine. The last day everyone wore their tshirts and took pics as well as ran competitions. Colin did awesome and won two first place ribbons and one second place ribbon. They were for hitting, running, and throwing. We are proud of Colin for doing so well. He definitely wants to play next summer.

And just because this is so funny to me...
I walked into Colin's room and this is what I find. Notice all the books on the floor behind him? Yeah, he designed his room to look like that he told me. Seriously? The underwear on the head is hilarious. The things they come up with. ha!

Cade wanting to be just like Colin...although, Colin said Cade did it first. Who knows! You can see the admiration for his older brother. So cute!