Shedd Aquarium and Grant Park

Today we went to Shedd Aquarium and took advantage of their free day!  There was lots to see.  This is perhaps our favorite photo op to get a great view of downtown Chicago.  We also went to Grant Park to saw Buckingham Fountain.  It's the Fountain shown in the opening of the TV show Married with Children.  It was incredibly impressive and a great backdrop to enjoy some lunch.  Grant Park is also the beginning and ending of the Chicago Marathon which they were gearing up for on 10.9.11.  There were signs and fences everywhere. 

The only pic. I took inside Shedd.

View looking North.

View looking west.

Mikey, Mommy and little Katie.

Mikey and I checking out the boats!

Buckingham Fountain

Me and Dad (aka Papa) in front of the Fountain.

Katie Mac and Me. (Don't worry, I'm not hurting her).

She is so cute!

Where's Mikey?  See him running off some steam?!

He loved swinging from the bike racks.

Another shot.

One more shot hanging!

Papa and Mikey telling the workers what to do.  Great supervision!





Brookfield Zoo with Nana and Papa

I think I'll let the pictures speak for itself for this blog.  In case you can't tell from the pics. there was tons to see and we had a ton of fun!

Mikey pointing at the dolphins, waiting for the dolphin show to begin.

Waiting with anticipation.

He loved watching the dolphins perform.

I think this was his favorite animal of the day.  The racoons were very active and talked a lot. 

At the petting zoo with the sheep behind them.

We were brushing the billy goats.  Mikey was so rough with them.

I was right there to lend assistance and to make sure Mikey didn't harass the animals.

Ah, another favorite.  The monkey exhibit!

Everyone wanted their pic next to the gorilla.

Had to hang on the tree branch before visiting the monkeys.
 Mikey whined when his arms got tired, but he didn't let go.

Comparing hand size.

Lots of ropes and branches to hang from.

Enjoying our picnic lunch we packed.

Practically swallowed up!

Pretty fish!

The Penguin exhibit.

Enjoying the grandkids.

Katie dressed for the occasion in her zebra onesie.

The big brown bear!

Our pic. near the polar bear.  Don't mind the spit up on my right shoulder.

We spent almost 30 mins. watching the brown bear swim in the water.

Mikey and I in the forefront.  The bear would swim laps alternating from doggie paddle to floating on his back.

Nana waching the bear swim with Mikey.

Drying off.

Silly girl!

The Polar bear was active too!

Mikey and I

Part of the swamp exhibit.

This animal is actually part of the giraffe family.  The zebra like stripes are for camo.

Another active animal.  The Giraffe about to drink from the water.

First there was one (see above pic.) then came two and now three.
They congragated right in front of us.

An optical illusion?  Look closely!

I like their reflection in the water.

Hop in the kangaroo pouch.

I hopped in too.  Why not!?

Tired after all that?  Yup!

Barkapalooza 2011

Most posts are about our kids, Mikey and Katie, however we do consider ourselves to have a 3rd child, Bailey (our dog).  She will be 5 this December and if it wasn't for her constant shedding, she'd be the perfect dog.  Each year we do something specific just for Bailey.  We took her to Barkapalooza 2010 (only a few months after we moved to Chicago) and vowed to take her to Barkapalooza 2011.  She had so much fun walking/running/pulling with all the other dogs and Mikey was talking up a storm.  He especially enjoyed the puppies.  We took him out of the stroller so he could get a closer look at the puppies and he wouldn't get back in the stroller, so he ended up walking the ENTIRE way around Lisle Community Park.  Impressive.

Here he is checking out the pups up close.

Cute pups!

During the walk.

He did great walking with Daddy and the Dog.

Lake Geneva

The last weekend that Daddy had off before going back to work, we decided to take a day trip to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.  It's a scenic 90 minute drive from where we live.  It was a picture perfect day to let the little munchkin run around.

Mikey with Lake Geneva behind him.

The boys enjoyed looking at the boats.

Katie slept the entire time.

Quick pic with our little guy.

Taking a rest from running around.

It's Potty Time!

We just recently purchased a potty.  Not just ANY potty but an Elmo Potty.  We want the potty to be as enticing as possible for our Mikey, who is almost 2 by the way.

We have begun potty training.  Most days he sits on the potty three times a day.  After nap time, while we get his bath ready and after he gets out of the bath.  (We decided to throw him on the potty after his bath, after watching him pee on himself within 2 minutes after getting out of the tub.)

He does a pretty good job and the potty speaks too.  He hits Elmo's hand and it will say "Way to Go", "You're growing up like Elmo", "Great Job!".

Mikey is ready to start potty training.

Pushing Elmo's hand.

First time on the potty.  "Humph, it's not so bad."