Our Time in Chicago

As I returned home from Chicago last week, I now look ahead to the three weeks of summer still stretched out before us.
Still....s    t    r    e    t    c    h   e   d  out before US.

Returning to life here Tualatin required about a week of recalibration.
The kids were moody. They were used to daily magical adventures and ice cream; pair that with a steady steam of adoring family members, and you have some cranky, spoiled kids.
So we settled in. Got back to real life.
 Readjusted.

Reading with Aunt Penny

In Chicago, their days were spent swimming, riding on trains, playing at parks and even fishing with my Aunt Penny. Back to normal life is always an adjustment; the days aren't nearly as exciting when the focus isn't totally on having fun.

A perfect catch!

Being the oldest and the only girl, Evie got to have some special sleepovers with Aunt Penny and GG. She also got my mom's undivided attention most of the day. So, of course, leaving all this was very difficult for her. She sobbed on the way to the airport. My heart felt sad for her; but, I also knew that she needed to get back to not being the center of the universe.

One of the ways I suggested she process the last two weeks and remember all the good times is by making a Chicago memory book.

GG and Caleb love the train at Blackberry Farm!

We printed out some of the pictures and she wrote captions under each event.

Ready to board! 

Feeding Giraffes

 

We drove up to Racine, Wisconsin one day to meet extended family who live in Milwaukee. My aunt met us with her two granddaughters.
Racine is a charming little community, located right on Lake Michigan. Oddly, there is a little zoo nestled into a lakeside residential community. Some residents literally look out of their living room windows and see the giraffes and zebras roaming around.
A highlight of the zoo were the giraffes. Levi was absolutely thrilled to see them. He says giraffes are his favorite animal. To make this experience even more magical, he/we got the feed the giraffes leaves.

Another highlight was the parakeet aviary . Colorful parakeets zipped by our heads. Caleb thought it was thrilling that they might poop on us. 

Pools and waterparks were definitely a highlight for Evie. The Chicago suburbs have many many public pools that are very nice. They spent a lot of their week going down water slides and splashing around. Swimming with my mom was something Evie talked about all year.

Another highlight for Evie was taking care of my aunt's little dog Tinkerbell. My aunt had to go out of town for a few days while we were there, so my mom took in her little dog. Evie just adored her.

The perfect little size for cuddling

A highlight for James is a trip to a unique restaurant near my Grandma's house in Glen Ellyn. It's called 'Toots' and its located right next to the train station that runs to city. What makes Toots special is a model train runs through the tables and delivers the food. It makes a little "toot toot" when an order is up. James was in train heaven.

Toot toot! Train whistles!😜

Caleb's highlight had to have been the balconies off my parent's sun room in their house. Growing up in this house, these balconies weren't anything terribly special to me. But, for my children, they were incredibly fascinating.
Caleb quickly transformed them into a stage. With the echo of the glass room, he had himself a real platform for preforming. There were many nights sitting below watching him sing and dance his VBS songs. The applause and adoration from his family was his fuel. He loved every second of being a showmen.

My highlight (apart from our adventure in Amsterdam..) was showing my kids my parent's property, exploring the land, seeing it again how I saw it as a child. It was a completely magical place for me growing up. There are streams, a frog pond, forests, cornfields and trees to explore.

 Now, 30 years later, things naturally look very different. The pond is consumed by cattails and river weeds. The cornfields were a construction zone when we were there.

 The forests are so overgrown I don't think I could step foot into them. But, the magic of it still lives on in my heart, of summer days wandering around, entertaining myself with the stories in my mind. My days were filled with catching tadpoles, climbing trees and making mazes through the cornfields.
I grieve the fact that my kids are not growing up like this, with land in which to roam and magic to uncover. At least they get this when they visit the house I grew up in, and I hope that they remember it.


When our two weeks were up, we tried to collect all of our items scattered and hidden around my parent's house.

Getting back to normal life after being gone for two weeks, it took a few to day acclimate. We jumped right back in to our summer activities of playgrounds, pool dates, and seeing friends.
Evie started soccer practice. The boys and I picked blackberries from the trail path near our house and made a pie for my Father in Law's birthday!

We are back to life here in Tualatin; now we just need school to start.