Over the last several weeks we’ve had the opportunity to do a little travel. Jessica took a quick overnight trip to Chicago for St. Patrick’s Day to see the river turned green with some of her friends from Soulcare – the seminary sponsored Bible study that ‘s she a part of. They had a great time!
She came back from that trip and suggested that we take the kids there sometime. Our spring break was coming a few weeks later so we made some plans. We took a few nights last week while the kids and I had Spring Break and Jessica took us back to Chicago…
After a three-hour wait we finally made it inside Shedd Aquarium. This is a picture of the kids waiting outside…
After our time Shedd we went to our hotel out by the airport and found a place for some Chicago-style pizza.
The next day, we decided to give the kids the experience of taking the train…so we rode the “L” from the airport into downtown. Here are the kids on their first train ride:
We spent the day exploring downtown Chicago…
Millenium Park:
Navy Pier:
Alex got to ride the Thomas Train at the pier:
And we took a water taxi ride on the (no longer green) Chicago River:
Alex had that monkey backpack on wherever we went. It had a tail with the handle on the end that we’d hang on to so we didn’t loose him!
We had supper at Ed Debevic’s and then rode the train back to our hotel.
Our final day, we decided to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. This is us at the HUGE model train display they have there. It was a good stop and a great trip:
We were home on Wednesday night and then Friday Jessica’s parent’s came down to spend Easter weekend with us. Saturday was a beautiful day so we decided to go the Meijer Gardens here in Grand Rapids.
Bethany and Alex with their Oma on the butterfly chair:
Meijer Gardens also has a large sculpture park. Here’s Zachary and Alex checking out the elephant:
Alex and I also spent some time watching the koi fish in the pond near the waterfall:
It was a great Spring Break week, capped off by a gorgeous Easter Sunday. Each of the kids got a new outside toy for the summer.
Alex got a new “Cars” bouncy ball:
Bethany got a ‘pogo ball’:
Zachary got a zip-ball game…This brings back memories for me. My grandparents had one of these in their basement as I used to play with it all the time as a kid. Here’s Opa and I trying it out:
It’s been a fun-filled last few weeks. In between all of this, I even got a fair bit of schoolwork done and I’m ready to start the final five weeks of the semester tomorrow!
