The Kassel Family Project Life 365

…and so goes my day.  Cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping…  Welcome home to me.

We are on the road for home!  The truck is packed up and ready to go.  It was a fantastic vacation, but we are all ready to be home.

Today was an easy, relaxing day.  Andy left for the second day of his meeting at about 8 am.  The kids and I headed out about 9 am to Panera for breakfast and then onto Barnes and Noble for some book shopping.  We ended up staying at Barnes and Noble for story time at 11 am.  I am really glad that we did because the kids had a great time.  There was a special guest at story time, Corduroy.  The kids were so happy to see Corduroy and loved listening to his story.

After lunch at Giordano’s, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the Manor.  The kids played for a while, Laura worked on her homework for a while, and they read their new books while I updated this blog.  We talked about our trip and the kids both agreed that meeting Baby Jack was their favorite part of the trip.  We will have dinner tonight with Andy’s committee group and, hopefully, get the kids in bed somewhat early.  It’s home tomorrow!

We got up early and headed to the Museum of Science and Industry.  We arrived about 15 minutes before opening, purchased our tickets, and got in line for the 9:30 opening.  The kids (and Andy and I) were quite excited.  It is my favorite Chicago museum and absolutely worth every dime spent.  The only disappointment was that Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle was not on display because it was undergoing restoration.  We got to view it from behind a rope, but we could not go into the actual room.  Oh well…  Hopefully, next time!

We spent the day wandering through all the different exhibits.  John’s favorite exhibit was “The Great Train Story.”  Little man was in heaven with all the model trains!

One of my favorite parts of the museum was the Henry Crown Space Center.  I love looking at all the history of the space program.  The kids were also amazed with everything.  When we told them that they were looking at the actual command module from Apollo 8, John said, “Woah.  Just woah.”  We talked about the different space programs, ranging from the Gemini program to the Space Shuttle program.  We even discussed the possible Moon colony and travelling to Mars.  Fun times!

Laura’s favorite exhibit was “Science Storms.”  She had a great time experimenting with all the different interactive exhibits.  One of her favorites parts was the Tornado Vortex.  So neat!  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend quite as much time there as she would have liked because we had to head off for our tour of the U-505.

The last time I toured the actual inside of the first captured German U-boat was in high school.  This new exhibit, completed in the mid-2000s, is much improved!  The story and all the different pieces collected from inside the U-boat is so interesting.  Both the kids loved seeing the inside of the U-boat and they were amazed at the other parts of the exhibit.  I am so glad that we spent the extra money to go.

After our tour, we had to leave the museum quickly to get back to Sigma Chi Headquarters so that Andy could attend his meeting.  Before the meeting, John insisted on getting a picture with Daddy in front of Headquarters wearing their Sigma Chi t-shirts.  It’s my Sigma Chi and my Sigma Chi in Training!

Once Andy’s meeting got started, I took the kids out for an early dinner and then returned to the Manor and put them to bed.  Tomorrow should be an easy, quiet day.  Exactly what they need to start getting back onto their school schedule.

After saying goodbye to Uncle Scot and Aunt Sheila this morning, we headed to Evanston for the third leg of our vacation.  Andy has a meeting at Sigma Chi Headquarters starting tomorrow and we are staying at “The Manor” on the grounds of Sigma Chi Headquarters for the next three nights.  After checking in and dropping off our things, we headed to the train station to go to The Field Museum.  Despite being a cold and rainy trip, it was worth the experience.  As I suspected would be the case, John spent the day a bit bored, but Laura was in heaven!  Laura enjoyed everything with her favorite part being the Native American exhibit.  As I also suspected, John’s favorite part was seeing “Sue” for the first time.

My favorite part of The Field Museum is seeing the Tsavo Man-Eaters.  We told the story to Laura and John and both were fascinated by this pair of maneless lions.  Laura even asked if she could see the movie.  Of course, that may have to wait a bit.

It was a fun, busy time at The Field Museum even if our feet hurt from walking so much.

Up tomorrow is the Museum of Science and Industry.  I suspect that we will spend the day just trying to keep up with the kids!

We offered to babysit for Baby Jack this evening so that Ian and Amanda could have a dinner out.  Andy and I very much remember what the first couple of months was like with a newborn.  Eating at all is difficult…  Forget about eating at the same time.  You just learn to eat in shifts.  I was really surprised when they actually took us up on the offer.  Amanda had a tough time leaving, but she did leave and headed out to pick up Ian.  While they ate a tasty dinner of barbecue, we got some quality time with Jack that included Laura and John each getting to hold and feed him.  Jack didn’t nap much in the three hours that we were there, but I sure got lots of baby snuggles.  I think he was growth spurting though because he was a hungry boy.  I ended up feeding him eight ounces.  By the time that Ian and Amanda got home, Jack was a content, quiet baby.  I was so happy to be able to help out the new parents and get some baby snuggles at the same time.  I do have to admit that I was happy to give him back to his parents, though, because the “baby days ship” has sailed for me.  I am quite content with just babysitting.