Domino phones

One morning, Lucy and Stella pulled two booster seats out of the back room and put them next to each other in the living room.  They took a seat and then each picked up one domino and had a conversation with each other like they were talking on the phone.  It was the cutest thing ever.  I'll let the pictures do the talking since I don't know what they were saying.

Young's Dairy Farm

This was Marc's last day with us, so for something fun to do we headed out to Young's Dairy Farm.   We started out by seeing all of the animals and tractors.  After that, we headed over to the game area.  Since it was the week of the 4th, their all-around passes were half-off so Jackson and Bennett got one and ended up playing mini-golf, going down this big slide thing, and doing the driving range (which they surprisingly liked and were good at).  We ate a packed lunch and then wrapped up the day by getting some of their homemade ice cream!

King's Island

The Rasmussen's drove up from Florida to visit us from June 29th- July 7th.  Unfortunately, Marc had to fly back after just a couple days to get back to school, but Michelle and the kids got to stay for a while and keep us company, which was so fun!!

The first day they got here happened to be the Saturday that Ryan's work had an activity at King's
Island, so they met us at the theme park and we hit up some rides with them (mostly kid rides in Snoopy Land).  It was great weather that day!  Not too hot, not cold at all, and it rained just a little bit here and there, which helped with the crowds.  Perfect!

 Checking out the dinosaur exhibit, where the dinosaurs move and make noise.  Lucy slept at the beginning of this and when she woke up halfway through, she was scared to death of the dinosaurs when they'd make noises.

 Ryan and Jackson are high fiving each other while Marc is soaring.  The kids behind Marc started copying him on the ride.  It was funny.

Even though she's not smiling, Lucy loved this little car ride and Bennet was the perfect person to ride it with.

Before:

 During (this thing was crazy high!!):

After:

In case you can't tell, this is Ryan and Michelle with Lucy and Stella peeking out the window.

We all finally convinced (bribed) Jackson to ride the big yellow roller coaster, and he liked it so much that he rode it twice in a row- here he is with Ryan.

She was a little tired at this point...

 

This was the saddest/funniest part of the day.  Stella and Lucy were begging to get on rides and loving the few they got to go on, so we passed this little ladybug ride and there was no line, so we hurried and just threw all 4 kids on.  It seemed cute and innocent and no one above a certain height could go on, so you know, we thought it was harmless.  Then, as the ride started, we quickly realized that it really whipped the kids around the corners (like a little kid version of the scrambler ride).  Jackson, Bennet, and Stella loved it, but it shocked the heck out of Lucy and the poor thing bawled the whole time and yelled for mama.  It was hilarious, yet broke my heart at the same time.  I felt really bad.

Here she is, already a little unsure of it.  And Stella's just biting the bar out of excitement. :)

 The ride barely started moving and she's already not doing so hot.

...and the first corner whip....

 Yep, she's done.  And the ride just started.  The one problem though was that Lucy was SO tired before she even got on the ride, which didn't help.  Also, Stella was still somewhat of a stranger to her at this point, and she doesn't do well with new people.  A minute after we took her off the ride, she was asking to go back on, so I'm sure it was just a combination of those things that made it so bad the first time.  Another funny part about this ride is that Jackson hated that we made him go on and then ended up declaring it as his second favorite ride. :)

We ended the day by grabbing some taco bell and then going home and getting everyone to bed.  It was a fun day!

Chicago

Ryan attended the annual SHRM conference this last week to get his final recertification credits for his SPHR and it just happened to be in Chicago this year.  Of course Lucy and I tagged along yet again because, well, why not?  I absolutely love Chicago and every time I go there I remind myself how much more I love that place!  I've decided it's definitely my favorite big city (of the ones I've been to).  That being said, of all the time I've spent there, it's only ever been in the summer, so I'm sure if I was there one winter, it would be a whole different story. :)

Anyway, we stayed in a Marriott right there in the middle of Chicago, just a block over from the Magnificent Mile.  It really was an awesome location for us during the day, but I now believe that downtown hotels, when traveling with kids, is not always your best option.  We had sirens blaring out of our window at all hours of the night, and they actually paved the intersection right outside of our window at 2am.  Oh well, we still had a blast!

We ate some Chicago hot dogs and a lot of chocolate cake and chocolate cake shakes and some ribs from Portillos, walked the Mag Mile a few times and along the waterfront in the city, visited Buckingham fountain, the bean statue (a.k.a. Cloud Gate), Millenium Park and Grant Park, and went to Navy Pier a couple of times.  So yeah, we had fun!

 This was Lucy's first carosel ride.  She begged to go on it, then was so serious and not loving it while riding, and then clung as tight as she could afterwards because she didn't want to get off.  Make up your mind, silly girl!

Family pic (kind of, not really) at the bean statue.  Lucy loved this place.

That's Buckingham Fountain in the background.  The big tall part only goes off for 10 or 15 minutes each hour, so we hit it at the right time.

I don't know what Lucy loved more, the fountains or hanging from the fence around it. :)  Probably the fence because she was mad when we kept telling her she couldn't actually go swim in the water.

The splash pad statue thing at Millenium Park:

 Lake Michigan in the background (one million times prettier than Lake Erie, that's for sure!), and Lucy was not happy to be taking this picture.

Lucy was totally over riding in her stroller by the end of each day and so Ryan sometimes carried her like this.  She thought it was hilarious when she would have to duck under low trees.

 There was a little space between this counter thing and the window (that is not the kind that opens, so don't worry) and Lucy loved to sit there and watch everyone way below her.  It kept her busy while I got things ready to go for the day.

 Ryan had his fair share of Chicago hot dogs while there, but I think he loved his ribs the most, since he took a picture of them.  It was a really, really good meal though!

And these are just a few of the things we love about Chicago.  The end.