The chaos has settled...

We are now back into our routine after getting home from Chicago. The kids and I had a wonderful time! We remained busy every day, and somehow, the kids kept up and were on their best behavior. I was amazed.

We began our trip with a stop at the Morton Arboretum where we had lunch and let the kids run around for a while. A well deserved outing after getting up WAY to early and spending 3.5 hours on a plane...

On Tuesday, Bonnie (my dad's cousin) took us to a little community zoo near her home. It amazes me the amount of things that there are for kids to do throughout Chicagoland! Again the kids had a blast. They saw ducks, sheep, llamas, horses, cows, many different reptiles, a beautiful peacock, racoons, foxes, rabbits, and a bunch of birds of prey.

Then we headed off to meet up with Grandpa after a stop to visit my Great Aunt Mary.

(Doesn't she look GREAT for 94??)

We finally were able to see Grandma Millie on Wednesday - her 99th birthday. She too looks pretty good for her age. She did spend a few days in the hospital over the weekend, but was back to normal by the time we got there. The kids enjoyed playing with her walker (aka a jungle gym for a 2 & 3 year old) and cane. Grandma said that she was worried that she didn't have anything to entertain the children... Little did she know that there was plenty to keep the kids occupied right there in her apartment.

We took her out to Glenwood Oaks (her favorite restaurant) for supper, and she just loved it! She thought it was wonderful to get out, and it sure didn't hurt that we let everyone know that it was her birthday! We had a delicious meal, and topped it off with cake - but not before the entire restaurant sang Happy Birthday. They had live entertainment in the bar area, and our waitress told him about Gram's birthday, so he made the announcement, sang her a song, then broke into Happy Birthday, at which time everyone chimed in. It was really neat, and I know it sure made Gram feel special.
Thursday was spent with Grandpa and Bonnie at the Brookfield Zoo. We saw elephants, hippos, dolphins, monkeys, lemurs, and a hundred other things... The kids even got to pet a stingray, a shark, a snake, and a geko! Again, we had another great day.

(our tour guide)

Finally on Friday it was time to head home. We stopped in and visited with Grandma Millie again, and even took her to Wal-Mart... She loved being able to shop for her own things - it's the little things in life...

We had a wonderful visit with everyone, and look forward to returning for Grandma's 100th.