Wednesday dawned cool and sunny with a brilliant blue sky and puffy white clouds. In the morning the girls and I did some errands and picked up some treats at Trader Joes for our picnic concert at M
illennium Park. Eric enjoyed the morning by putting the finishing touches on his work bench that his dad helped him get started in February for his birthday.
In the afternoon we headed to the pool for swimming lessons for Hannah and Abby. We have been blessed by Christine Kirshner, a student at Wheaton home for the summer. She is a lifeguard with the Park Ridge Park District. She and her family attend South Park Church. She volunteered to give the girls swim lessons for no charge. The girls have really improved and gained confidence since beginning lessons a few weeks ago.
One of the hig
hlights of our week took place Wednesday evening. We packed a picnic and headed into Chicago to Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park to listen to Tchaikovsky's 6th presented by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. Again, another free event, except for the parking. We enjoyed our turkey croissant sandwiches, salt & pepper potato chips, sparkling lemonade and chunky chocolate chip cookies sitting on our wedding quilt while enjoying the beautiful music. That is until the Chorus began to sing in Polish. Hannah enjoys classical music, just has not acquired a taste for opera music yet. When the chorus began to sing, she said, "that just ruins it." Abby discovered that she reads better and faster while listening to music.
After the concert we walked around Millennium Park looking at the Cloud Gate and letting the girls wade in the Crown Fountain. Around 9 we walked out to the lake to watch the fireworks shoot off the end of Navy Pier. The bugs were a little bothersome but worth it to watch the fireworks go off over Lake Michigan.
Thursday morning Eric took Abby to Skokie on a date to Putt-putt. They stopped at Dairy Queen on their way home to share a Root Beer Float. While they were gone Hannah and I rode our bikes to Uptown Park Ridge to check out the sidewalk days. No major purchase made, but it was fun to look around. We relaxed in the afternoon before driving into Chicago to the Art Institute, free on Thursday evenings :) It was raining on the way in so the drive took quite a while. Thankfully, eating some pb and j sandwiches and listening to The Mysterious Benedict Society help us endure the ride. We planned to walk to Garrett Popcorn after our visit to the Institute, but since it was raining, we decided we better get it before we went to the Institute. So Eric dropped me off and drove around the block while I picked up some Carmel Crisp and Cheese Popcorn mix to enjoy on our drive home.
We enjoyed our visit to the Institute. In one of the galleries each of us girls drew our interpretation of a Five Story Budhist Pagoda and Eric drew A Pair of Buddhist Monks. After this, Eric and Hannah headed to the Egyptian section while Abby and I spent some time in the Children's Section. Hannah's favorite painting was entitled Interrupted Reading by Camille Corot. Thankfully, the drive home went much quicker. Another day enjoying each other's company.
Friday promised to be a sunny and hot day, perfect to visit Mystic Waters, a water park in nearby Des Plaines. We spent the afternoon here enjoying the slides and lazy river. Abby even braved the long water slides. Way to go Abby, made her dad proud!
As the week began to wind down, Saturday was a relaxing day. After lunch we went to Half Price Books and exchanged some books which enabled us to each pick out a book to take back home. Eric picked out Portraits in Courage by JFK, I picked out an early American craft book, Hannah picked Falling Up by Shel Silverstein, and Abby picked out Molly Takes Flight . The girls had finished the reading program through Barnes and Noble so we went there next to pick out their free books. In the afternoon, Eric took the girls to the youth house to enjoy the Wii. I spent some relaxing moments in a comfy chair in the sunroom reading 1776.
Sunday we visited The Chapel in Libertyville. Since we were on vacation we decided to visit another church so Eric would officially be "off duty" for the morning. After attending the 11'oclock service we looked for a place to eat lunch and found An Egg Harbor Cafe in Lincolnshire. Eric and I have enjoyed going to the Egg Harbor in Arlington Heights so we decided to eat here. Eric and I had our usual Egg Harbor Chicken Salad sandwich, delicious. Abby got a rainbow pancake with m & m's and Hannah got a breakfast sandwich. We spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the pool. We ended the evening by eating pizza and finishing The Mysterious Benedict Society, 13 hours of story on 11 CD's. There were some surprises at the end.
All-in-all we experienced a great vacation in our own backyard.
illennium Park. Eric enjoyed the morning by putting the finishing touches on his work bench that his dad helped him get started in February for his birthday.In the afternoon we headed to the pool for swimming lessons for Hannah and Abby. We have been blessed by Christine Kirshner, a student at Wheaton home for the summer. She is a lifeguard with the Park Ridge Park District. She and her family attend South Park Church. She volunteered to give the girls swim lessons for no charge. The girls have really improved and gained confidence since beginning lessons a few weeks ago.
One of the hig
hlights of our week took place Wednesday evening. We packed a picnic and headed into Chicago to Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park to listen to Tchaikovsky's 6th presented by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. Again, another free event, except for the parking. We enjoyed our turkey croissant sandwiches, salt & pepper potato chips, sparkling lemonade and chunky chocolate chip cookies sitting on our wedding quilt while enjoying the beautiful music. That is until the Chorus began to sing in Polish. Hannah enjoys classical music, just has not acquired a taste for opera music yet. When the chorus began to sing, she said, "that just ruins it." Abby discovered that she reads better and faster while listening to music.
After the concert we walked around Millennium Park looking at the Cloud Gate and letting the girls wade in the Crown Fountain. Around 9 we walked out to the lake to watch the fireworks shoot off the end of Navy Pier. The bugs were a little bothersome but worth it to watch the fireworks go off over Lake Michigan.
Thursday morning Eric took Abby to Skokie on a date to Putt-putt. They stopped at Dairy Queen on their way home to share a Root Beer Float. While they were gone Hannah and I rode our bikes to Uptown Park Ridge to check out the sidewalk days. No major purchase made, but it was fun to look around. We relaxed in the afternoon before driving into Chicago to the Art Institute, free on Thursday evenings :) It was raining on the way in so the drive took quite a while. Thankfully, eating some pb and j sandwiches and listening to The Mysterious Benedict Society help us endure the ride. We planned to walk to Garrett Popcorn after our visit to the Institute, but since it was raining, we decided we better get it before we went to the Institute. So Eric dropped me off and drove around the block while I picked up some Carmel Crisp and Cheese Popcorn mix to enjoy on our drive home.
We enjoyed our visit to the Institute. In one of the galleries each of us girls drew our interpretation of a Five Story Budhist Pagoda and Eric drew A Pair of Buddhist Monks. After this, Eric and Hannah headed to the Egyptian section while Abby and I spent some time in the Children's Section. Hannah's favorite painting was entitled Interrupted Reading by Camille Corot. Thankfully, the drive home went much quicker. Another day enjoying each other's company.
Friday promised to be a sunny and hot day, perfect to visit Mystic Waters, a water park in nearby Des Plaines. We spent the afternoon here enjoying the slides and lazy river. Abby even braved the long water slides. Way to go Abby, made her dad proud!
As the week began to wind down, Saturday was a relaxing day. After lunch we went to Half Price Books and exchanged some books which enabled us to each pick out a book to take back home. Eric picked out Portraits in Courage by JFK, I picked out an early American craft book, Hannah picked Falling Up by Shel Silverstein, and Abby picked out Molly Takes Flight . The girls had finished the reading program through Barnes and Noble so we went there next to pick out their free books. In the afternoon, Eric took the girls to the youth house to enjoy the Wii. I spent some relaxing moments in a comfy chair in the sunroom reading 1776.
Sunday we visited The Chapel in Libertyville. Since we were on vacation we decided to visit another church so Eric would officially be "off duty" for the morning. After attending the 11'oclock service we looked for a place to eat lunch and found An Egg Harbor Cafe in Lincolnshire. Eric and I have enjoyed going to the Egg Harbor in Arlington Heights so we decided to eat here. Eric and I had our usual Egg Harbor Chicken Salad sandwich, delicious. Abby got a rainbow pancake with m & m's and Hannah got a breakfast sandwich. We spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the pool. We ended the evening by eating pizza and finishing The Mysterious Benedict Society, 13 hours of story on 11 CD's. There were some surprises at the end.
All-in-all we experienced a great vacation in our own backyard.
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