Children's Discovery Museum

Last Friday, we drove to Bloomington and Normal, IL. We heard about the Children's Discovery Museum there from another family staying in our hotel. Let me tell you, we've been to a few children's museums across the country and this was by far the BEST one we've visited. The first impression started with a beautiful, three story building, in the downtown area of Normal, IL. Normal is a small college town that hosts Illinois State University. The next impression was walking through the front doors of this squeaky-clean building and asking the front desk if they offer a military discount. We have gotten military discounts at all children's museums we've been to (I believe), and they have graciously knocked off a dollar or two from our admission. This museum sent us in free! What wonderful, appreciative people they are.


A few different angles of the building from the outside:






What's a children's museum that doesn't have one of these?:


Jaxon likes watching his daddy's big hands make an impression from the other side.



What a cool way to measure height! We stood about a foot from this "scale" and it told us our height. It was very accurate too.



They even had some areas for Sissy to play!



Here's Jax in the pizza delivery truck.



At the pizza "restaurant" taking orders over the phone. Later, he would "make" some pizzas and put them in the delivery truck to be delivered.





Art Studio:

The third floor consisted of art activities from music to performance to creating. The painting center was my favorite and I dream of a day I can have a paint center for my children like this.

There were palates with primary colors in a tray. The kids helped themselves to the paint and went crazy painting the walls. Yes, you read that correctly. They painted the glass walls. Then there were spray bottles and squeegees for them to clean up the wall when they were finished. What a brilliant idea!

Dipping the brush in paint.



Daddy went to the other side of the glass to capture Jaxon's artwork.




Legos!



Hi Sis!



They had a craft room with everything you could imagine for creating crafts. Jaxon made a silly face with funny hair (made from two hand prints glued on top).





Farm:
There was a very neat interactive area in the farm section where the kids could learn about the process of farming.

Here Jax is putting the "feed" in a tube, that will transport it to a cattle feed.


Then he had to walk over to the cattle feed to open the chute and let the feed out. It was quite a process.





When we were finished at the museum (almost three hours later), we walked across the street and ate here:


Delicious hamburger for me. Yummy grilled cheese for Jax. Amazing Chicago-style hot dog for Jason.

Civil War Reenactment

A few weekends ago, we headed over to Galesburg, IL for a Civil War reenactment and rendezvous called, Heritage Days. The Civil War battle was a reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh. The rendezvous was basically, people dressed in pre-civil war period clothing and living according to those times. They had small communities set up throughout the park with their living spaces (tents or tepees) and different shops to "make their living". Apparently these re-enactors travel all over the world attending rendezvous and recreating Civil War battles. It was very entertaining for us and a great way to spend a Saturday.


Fried bread with ham and cheese. Yum-o! One of the "shops" was selling fried bread with a variety of garnishes. Jaxon had fried bread with cinnamon and sugar.



Tasting a piece of the fried bread for the first time. He wasn't quite sure what to think. It was very HOT, so we had to wait quite awhile for it to cool enough for him to taste it. In the end, he preferred licking the cinnamon and sugar off and handing the (now) soggy bread to me.



A little band from the St. Louis, MO area.



After checking out the campsites and shops at the rendezvous, we headed over to the Civil War side to see the soldiers. One of the Confederate soldiers saw Jason admiring the guns and came over to chat. He even let Jason and me hold the gun. I was amazed at how heavy they are, and to think about the way the soldiers carried them and how far they carried them. Wow! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I did ask this soldier a burning question I've had since we lived in the south; "How do re-enactors decide which side of the war to fight for?" He said a lot of them portray family members or an actual soldier they've studied.




Here's Jax posing by some Confederate soldiers' guns. I was just praying that he wouldn't back in to them and knock them down while I was taking the picture!




The Battle:

Here come the soldiers.



Ready for the battle to begin.


Sitting pretty while we wait for the battle.





The US Cavalry.



Talk about loud! The north had three of these cannons and they were going off throughout the entire battle.

Chi-Town

A few weeks ago, we headed up to Chicago for the weekend. There was an air show over the lake and we wanted to go check it out. It's just a 2 1/2 hour drive from here, so it's the perfect distance for a little getaway. Neither Jason nor I had ever driven to Chicago so that was a brand new experience for us. Typically, I (Megan) am the family driver on long-distance trips because I battle some pretty violent motion sickness. On this trip, I had Jason drive because I did not want to make an attempt at driving in the big city. The drive to Chicago was beautiful and we pulled into the city at night with the city lights aglow. Jaxon slept the entire way, and woke up just as we got into the city. He looked out his window and straight up at the tall buildings and said, "Wow!" This was his first experience in a big city and his reaction was absolutely priceless.




THE HOTEL:

After a horrible experience with Priceline.com, we booked a room through hotwire and ended up at the James Hotel. I often wonder what the staff at such a nice hotel thinks when a family such as ours pulls up in the 1998 Toyota Camry carrying a Reebok duffel bag from Jason's college days over our shoulder... "Here comes another family that booked a four-star hotel at a two-star price."

Anyway, the hotel staff treated us like royalty during our entire stay. As I mentioned before, neither of us had ever driven to Chicago and had always used city transportation (the El, city bus or taxi), so we had never even thought about the parking situation before now. We pulled right up to our hotel and a valet was waiting to park our car. I mean what's $50 a day anyway?!? The cool thing about valet was, they would bring our car up anytime we wanted. And we used this service daily. Valet, can we get our strollers out of our car? Valet, can we get our car to put our strollers back in? Valet, I think we left a sippy cup of milk in our car that we need to get out ASAP.


I couldn't resist these pictures of our hotel room. The bathroom sinks were sitting on a marble countertop and the shower tile was made of slate. My favorite part of staying in nice hotels, is the free bathroom products provided. Of course, the more you pay for a room, the nicer the product. The James happens to provide their guests with products made by Kiehl's. Oh sweet luxury!



Beautifully made bed on a platform bed frame. Feels as amazing as it looks. However, watch the platform frame when you get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. It will leave an indention and bruise on your shin. Jason and I can both speak from experience on this one. They tended our room twice a day. In the morning they cleaned and at night they had a turn-down service, which included little chocolates on our pillow.



One of the doormen enjoyed Jaxon a lot and when we got to our room that night, he had placed a pair of Paul Frank monkey PJ's in our room for Jaxon. They were a size 3T, which is still a bit big, but Jax insisted on wearing his monkey PJ's that night.


Here's Jaxon the first night. He was so amazed by the city noises and city lights. He stood in the windowsill for quite awhile, counting "Ninny Cars" (police cars) and Austin's fire trucks.


Here was our view the next morning from our room on the 14th floor.





LINCOLN PARK ZOO:

Our first morning in Chicago (Friday), we found a cute place to grab some breakfast, then we headed up the Magnificent Mile for a little shopping. We shopped a few stores and checked out the Water Tower Mall (where I introduced Dakota to American Girl Dolls and told her all about my dreams for her playing with them some day). Then we hailed a cab and headed up to Lincoln Park. The zoo in Lincoln Park is free to everyone and we were extremely impressed with it. It was very clean, had a lot of shade, and there were some great exhibits to see.


Jaxon's first taxi ride. I mean, who throws their two year old in a taxi, on their daddy's lap? Parenting at its best.


Dakota and I were waiting at the top of a hill while Jaxon and his daddy watched the sea lions swim. I just had to capture this moment of Daddy and son hanging out together.



I asked them to look at the camera and say, "Cheese." Jaxon thought he also needed to lift his shirt. Oh well.



These pictures just make me so happy, sorry I put so many of them on here! Nah, I'm not sorry about that!



Can't remember the name of these monkeys, but I thought they were so cute all cuddled up, taking a nap on the tree branch.



This "rhinanocurus" (as Jax calls it) was just standing there posing for pictures. It's such a cool-looking animal.



Jax and I outside the zoo. We were starting to hear airplanes overhead, which meant one thing: practice for the next day's air show had begun. We decided it was time to leave the zoo and go find a spot to watch the practice. Nevermind that we would be watching the entire show the next day.



Daddy and his kiddos watching the air show practice. There was another picture with Jaxon's eyes open, but I thought this captures his personality!



Mama and her kiddos.







CHICAGO AIR AND WATER SHOW:






The Blue Angels: (need I say more?)






We had a little spot right on Lake Michigan where we set up camp to watch the show. This was our first air show that was completely over water. We didn't get to see any ground shows or take-offs and landings. It was really quite beautiful to watch the airplanes glide over the water. I begged Jason to rent us a boat for the weekend, so we could watch the show from the water. But he said something about a few thousand dollars we didn't have or something like that.



Sis was very content watching from her stroller. She was parked perfectly in some shade and had the best seat of any of us.


She even fell asleep for part of it.



A beautiful C-17 did a few fly-overs. Never could make out the tail wing to see where it was from.



Tried taking a picture with my son and the skyscraper buildings in the background, but as you can see, he is completely distracted by the fire truck driving by.


There we go.

A nice couple stopped and asked if we wanted a family picture together. Love this - except that Dakota is not in it. She was sleeping away in her stroller and I didn't want to wake her.



Three Black Hawks hovering over the lake.






CHICAGO PIZZA:

Although my husband is not a huge pizza fan, he agreed to pizza one night for dinner, so I could get my fix. I love me some Chicago-style pizza! I was so hungry, that I dove right in and didn't even take time to snap pictures of the deliciousness. Big regret. But the pizza was amazing. You can always go their website to view some delicious pictures or order yourself one (they ship anywhere in the US). Ugh, now I'm really hungry for pizza. Good thing I always keep some in my freezer!



Giordano's Famous Chicago Style Pizza:

Waiting on a table. It was a 45 minute wait at 5:00PM. Can you imagine the wait come 6:00 or 7:00? They have you order your pizza as soon as you get there, so it's ready the minute you sit down to a table!


Me and my sweet girl.