december 18th

** lots of photos again **

Yesterday was one jammed packed day... but in a very good way, on our own terms.

Wednesday, on the way home from dance, the kids asked if they could play in the snow... it was too late that night but I told them they could in the morning. Well... they took me at my word and were suiting up to go outside at 8 am. They were still in their pajamas and hadn't eaten breakfast yet... but they were going out to play. They ended up playing out there until almost 11am!!

They called me out to show me something...

SNOWMAN CAVERN!

They thought it was funny because when you crawled inside it looked like the snowman was eating you.
After that they destroyed Snowman Cavern and started work on an igloo. They got a good start on it but got cold and hungry before they finished it.

They came in for a late breakfast and a hot shower, then we headed out to do a bit of local Christmas shopping. We walked around to a few of our favorite neighborhood stores before heading home.

Then we jumped on a bus to the Lincoln Park Conservatory...
We saw some beautiful orchids as we walked through the conservatory...
... but I didn't have time to take many photos because....
... the kids were in a rush to get to the Show Room to see the Winter Flower and Train Show...
Not only did they have trains but they had replicas of Chicago buildings made out of natural materials.

Here is the Art Institute...
The Shedd Aquarium...
The Water Tower...
The Chicago Theater...
We brought the point and shoot so the kids took a few photos as well...
The poinsettias were gorgeous... I had never seen some of these varieties...

Here I was trying to get a good (I would have settled for decent) photo of the two of them... instead Clara is trying to steal the p&s camera away from Alex... sigh...
We spent quite a bit of time in the Show Room. The security guard came in and talked with us a while, answering Alex's questions about the trains.

Next, we walked over to the zoo to see the ZooLights (on a night they were actually open!)...



That little black blob is Clara, staring longingly at the polar bear display...
We went to the Member's Lounge and the kids did some crafts and had hot cocoa and cider...
And we ended the night with a ride on the carousel...
I guess everyone was afraid of the storm last night because there was almost no one there. They were the only ones on the carousel, the only ones in the members lounge, the only ones at the craft tables in the primate house.... you get the picture. It was really nice.

We finally got home and ordered out Thai food for dinner. It was a really great day... so very tiring, but a really great day!