A last minute trip to the Shedd

A couple weeks ago Joel, Cecilia and I met Kristy, Brett and Luke at the Shedd Aquarium.  The whole trip started because I sent Kristy a text at 9pm and asked her to go to the Shedd with us in the morning.  I knew it was probably a long shot, but I was pleasantly surprised when she agreed to meet us there!  I wanted to take Joel somewhere he would have fun for his birthday, but it was too cold for the zoo, which was my original plan.

Mommy and the birthday boy!

Cecilia trying to escape the pouch while I help Joel touch starfish

Luke, Brett, Cecilia, and Joel

We have been driving to Chicago more than I like lately and it turns out that I can’t stand Chicago traffic.  It doesn’t matter what time of day we drive in there traffic is awful and makes me upset.  I turn into a very unpleasant, impatient person.  On a positive note I don’t have to drive there every day!

How did you get out of your stroller?  Help me!

Mom, stop taking pictures and just let me drive the submarine

Cowboy Joel playing in the submarine

Joel really liked seeing all the fish and he did a great job of staying close to the stroller as we walked around.  He was even brave enough to touch a starfish!  Cecilia enjoyed it as well, but she wanted to be roaming around and not sitting in her stroller.  I can’t chase two kids in opposite directions, so she was stuck.  When we went to see the whales my kids were more excited about the giant ball in the water that the whales play with.  The whales weren’t touching it at the time, but the kids thought it was cool.  They just kept say “ball, ball, I play!”  While I would say “look over there isn’t that whale neat?”  When we went to the underwater viewing they were much more excited about the whales, but probably because you couldn’t see the ball anymore.

Cecilia and Joel splashing in the water in the kid's area

Sharing a snack on the bench

Kristy and I took our kids (at the time it was only Vincent, Brett and Joel) to the Shedd Aquarium a couple years ago.  We had our picture taken when we were there.  It looked like this:

Joel, Kelli, Vincent, Kristy and Brett

Then we had our picture taken this year:

Cecilia, Joel, Kelli, Kristy, Brett, and Luke

                                                                                                                                          

When I brought this year’s picture home Brad said “why do I feel like I have seen that before?”  The answer is because I still have the picture on our fridge from 2 years ago!

Joel having fun looking at the fish

Brett watching Joel swing from a vine

Joel, Cecilia, and Mommy at the beginning of our day at the Shedd!