The end of the school year finally came for 3/4 of the folks in our household this month. (The other 1/4 of us still has to work) The girls had their "field" day to celebrate the end of the year, so, of course, it rained. It didn't matter though since everything was set up inside. We started with the treasure hunt and the face painting. Ellen was able to win a cookie pack in the cake walk. The hit of the day was the inflatable moon walk thingy. Ellen really enjoyed it, and Phoebe had a lot of fun jumping around in it too.
Some other things we did this month were to take in a puppet show at the library, Phoebe started her art class at the rec center, Phoebe and Ellen started ballet/tap class, and, oh yeah, we flew to Illinois for 9 days. It was our typical relaxing roll through Illinois from north to south. The girls did great on the plane even with the layovers. Ellen was my buddy, and Phoebe was Jada's. We started the week in Elgin where we got to meet my newest nephew and see his baptism. We got to see my brother and sister-in-law in their new home. We got to see my parents and sister too. We were only disappointed that we couldn't see my aunts, uncle, and cousins. We stayed in a hotel that offered suites so we didn't have to try to find a floor to sleep on. We put the girls in the hide-a-bed in the front room. It's the first time they've slept in the same bed together. We were concerned, and frustrated with them the first night as they played more than slept, but the excitement from the trip finally wore off. The next 2 nights were much better as they fell asleep much more quickly. After the 2 days in Elgin, we drove into Chicago to see my friend Matt and visit the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. The day came off without a hitch. We made it into the city just fine. Matt arrived at the museum shortly after we did. We got in at an earlier time to the exhibit than we had purchased. We saw Sue, the largest complete Tyranasaurus skeleton found so far. The only thing we didn't get to do was see the Evolution exhibit which was too full for us to go in. The King Tut exhibit was interesting, and Ellen seemed to enjoy it. Phoebe didn't like how dark it was, but she was mostly good. After the museum we strolled around the beautiful museum campus at the lakefront past Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. We also found a fun little park on the northeast corner of Soldier Field where we hung out until it was time to drive south for my sister's home in Bloomington (because she wanted to be close to Normal) before ending the long day in Pekin at my parent's house.
We actually had a pretty relaxing stay in Pekin. Up in the attic where we all slept, they had a tent setup with an air mattress that Phoebe was excited to sleep in. Ellen slept in the regular bed. They fell asleep pretty quickly that night even though they were in yet another new place. The weather was pretty good. Jada and I went for a long walk on the first morning. I took her around the park and up to the old high school. Then in the afternoon we all went to the water park. Ellen and I went down the slide a few times together. Phoebe got spooked by a slide in the very shallow end and wasn't much fun after that. On Wednesday we headed north to visit a friend I've known since 1st grade. She has 2 daughters roughly the same age as Ellen and Phoebe, so the kids played while we chatted. On Thursday morning, there was a big thunderstorm with hail and heavy rain that lasted about 30 minutes right as everyone was getting up. Jada and I sat with the girls so they wouldn't be scared. We went to the park in the afternoon, and we played on the playground and paddle boats. Aunty Mandy joined us in Pekin for our biennial trip to Avanti's restaurant. Then the next morning we set off south again, this time for Collinsville.
In Collinsville we had a nice family reunion that lasted all day. I got to see so many people that I just don't get to see very much any more. Aunts and uncles and cousins and their children. I took over watch for the kids to play outside. Ellen and Phoebe found the son and daughter of one of my cousins who also happen to be roughly their same age. They became fast friends. Ellen had played with the girl the last time we were back when she was just 3 years old, so she didn't really remember her.
We had to leave all too early to drive into St. Louis to our hotel for the weekend. We were getting up in the morning to go to St. Louis Zoo, my favorite zoo growing up. We couldn't get a suite this time, but we had 2 queen beds. The girls slept in the same room as we did. I remember that we did that when we traveled when I was a kid, but I wasn't sure how it would work out with the girls. They did really well. It took a while for them to settle down again, but they did finally fall asleep. The hotel had a great breakfast bar that allowed us to eat enough and make lunches for the day, and we took full advantage while watching some World Cup soccer. The zoo was fun. We found street parking and the general admission is free so we had a pretty cheap day. We just paid for the train. They have a really cool insect exhibit and a brand new penguin house which lets you stand right next to the tank. Some people were getting splashed because they were standing too close. There were puffins in there too. The zoo had lots of bears and some really nice exhibits. It seemed bigger than the Oregon Zoo, but that may because we're familiar with it. We didn't do the whole zoo. Just the river walk and monkeys. At the end of the day, we let the girls ride the carousel. Ellen chose a gorilla, and Phoebe chose a penguin. Jada was standing with Phoebe during the ride, and Phoebe was just sparkling she was having so much fun. So was Ellen. Jada said Phoebe told her during the ride, "everyone else is going up and down, but I'm floating". We finished up the day with a short nap, a quick dip in the (very cold) pool, and finally catching up with an old high school chum o' mine. The next morning we went back to the zoo since we had a little time to waste before we had to get to the airport. There was a children's area that we had missed the day before since we had gotten there too late. We didn't really miss much, so we went back to the Insectarium to see the butterflies. Ellen enjoyed identifying the butterflies from the card.
The flight home went pretty well. Just the last leg of the trip was delayed by 45 minutes out of LAX. So we got in later than we had wanted, but all in all, it was a good trip. Unfortunately, I had to go back to work the very next day. But that wasn't all. Nana and Bapa flew in on Tuesday, and Jada flew out on Thursday for a week. I was basically at the airport every other day that last week of June. Jada will be back in July, and then I'll post this. Hopefully a few of the hundreds of pictures I took will also get posted.
Coming up next month is what we've been training for all along on the bike...
Journal entry: 7/5/2006