What a busy day!!!

Today was a blank slate!! And, boy did we fill it up!! Being Saturday we had an entire day with the whole family.

Our first big decision of the day was to decide on either vising Millennium Park or going to the Lincoln Park zoo. Since the summer is quickly turning into a cool autumn we decided to go to the zoo while we could still stand to walk around. We met up with some friends and their kids. In all there were 6 kids under 2 1/2, three double strollers, a packed picnic lunch and lots of animals to see. The girls just loved the primate house and pretty much every other animal they saw.

We must have walked several miles back and forth seeing bears, penguins, giraffes, lions, and many more critters that leaped off the pages of the picture books we read to the girls at night. After eating a lunch of PB&J the girls wanted a ride on a kiddie train. We knew Evelyn would be all over that, but much to our surprise Erin didn't freak out at all. We were very impressed and proud of her. It seems like a silly thing to be so proud of, but there would have been NO way she would have done that just a few months ago. The zoo also has an old fashioned carousel which the girls really enjoyed. Again we were amazed at how much Erin enjoyed it. She wanted to sit on every animal she saw.

Our last stop at the zoo was the petting farm and Evelyn was fascinated by the cows. Erin liked the bees we could watch in the bee hive. By this time we were all so very tired from the fresh air and all of the walking. It seemed like we were all about to collapse yet we had to walk all the way back across the zoo to get to the car. The girls zonked out in the car which is a bit unusual since they never sleep in their car seats.


After a short snooze in the car we went to a park and even more energy was burned!! The park we went to was near our last house so we decided to drop in on our previous neighboors. Some were home but others were not. I guess that's what you risk when you drop in unannounced.

After catching up with some old friends we were off to dinner with Dave's aunt, uncle and cousin. I told you this was a cramed packed day.

Dave's relatives had a great time hanging with the kids and catching up with how much they have grown and changed. Since it was the all you can eat noodle extravaganza at the restaurant the girls went absolutely nuts on breadsticks and noodles - loving every minute of it.

That bottomless pasta bowl at the Olive Garden is awesome!!