Gratitude Post 14 - A sweet ride

This would have been Saturday's post, if I had more time and access to the computer.

On Saturday, a group of us "double X chromosomes" traveled to Chicago to see the longest running Broadway Musical for the Windy City, "Wicked". I had seen the musical in 2007, and since the show is in its last 10 weeks of production at the Oriental Theatre, thought Erica would enjoy it. We took her friend Kathleen, Kathleen's sister and Kathleen's mother along.

This is where the gratitude comes in - depending upon traffic, it can take 3 hours to get up to Chi-Town's Theatre. 5 people in a cramped car just doesn't cut it. So we were all thankful we had the Tahoe to take us safely there and back. The girls stayed entertained with "in-flight" movies which allowed the two moms to relax and chat.

An added bonus is that it didn't cost us $120 in gas to drive there - our gas prices are below $1.80/gallon now, a price point I don't recall seeing in the past 3 years.

Overall, we had a great time at the show - I enjoyed it more this second time around and the girls enjoyed their first professional theatre experience. We even got to see the Christmas decorations at the Macy's (former Marshall Fields).


Wicked only runs until January 25, 2009. If you can get to the beautiful Oriental Theatre, you have a short time before it flies out of the Windy City.

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Museum of Science Field Trip

As we head into the final stretch for school, it seems there are more special activities for the kids.

Like Class field trips - For Erica, "The Big One" - a trip to Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, with her 5th grade class. As usual, parents were invited to chaperone the students, and this time I signed up (it is, after all, Erica's LAST field trip in elementary school, and I have NEVER attended a field trip with her). The students took a charter bus, and the parents were given the choice to ride the bus or drive separately with other parents. After some consideration, I decided to drive (nothing like spending 2+ hours in close quarters with 5th graders). I drove two other parents, and it was a good thing they were in the car with me, as the driving instructions we were given were wrong. (We were instructed to get off the Dan Ryan expressway at the 51st St. Exit - but said exit no longer exists!).

The last time I visited the Museum of Science and Industry was in 1986, as part of a winter tour I took in college. At that time, I recall not being overly impressed. Things have certainly changed, as the museum was huge and well appointed with interactive exhibits.
The highlight of the visit - the U-505 submarine exhibit. The exhibit walks you through the capture of the German U boat in 1944 during WWII.

Erica really liked the newborn chicks in the Hatchery.


On the steps of the Museum with her friends.



We'll have to go back during the summer and bring the rest of the family.

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Catching Up - September

Yes, I know this hasn't been updated for over two months, so I will play catch up.

September was very busy. In addition to getting acclimated with Hannah, Brian celebrated his 8th birthday - a sleepover party with six of his friends, here giving me their best Silly Pose (really, not too different from their Non-silly pose).



In order to wear them out, I took them rollerskating at Skateland for several hours. Not sure how effective it was, but they all did fall asleep around 11pm. I have now survived 3 sleepover parties - and the main difference between girls and boys is that when boy cry, they cry for a couple of minutes and then are OK. Not so much with girls. And at Brian's party, each boy had some sort of incident (mainly some physical altercation) that caused them to cry.

Scott and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a weekend trip to Chicago, where we attended the musical, Wicked. We stayed in the Hampton Inn, about 4 blocks from the Oriental Theatre.



We also walked around Millennium Park where the "Bean" sculpture resides. It is a fascinating piece of art. This is our reflection from belly of the Bean:



And I couldn't resist a self portrait from behind the lens of my camera:




More updates are coming shortly (I promise!!)

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