Warning: Good Weekends Require Long Posts

We had such a fun action packed weekend, starting with the arrival of Seth's cousin Danny on Wednesday afternoon.  Okay, so I have now noticed that everyone else calls him Dan but Seth and Sarah called him Danny as kids so that is how they introduced him to me and the kids and that is how he is now forever stuck in our heads.  Maybe he is just being nice, but he assured me that he doesn't mind.

We only met Danny for the first time over Christmas break at Sarah's house but now that he lives within driving distance he said he might make a trip to go to a ball game with us.  Remember folks, that for us, a 10 hour drive is "close by" since everyone else is 20-30 hours away.  Anyhow, Danny is a life long Red Sox fan so he wanted to watch them play in Chicago and built a little trip around the game.  So let's just do the play by play, shall we?

Wednesday
Danny arrived at our house at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  The kids had talked of nothing else for days and Alex immediately smothered him.  Alyssa took a day to warm up, only because she was pretending to be a tween but eventually they were BFF's.  Chloe pretended to be shy and hid under the bed for about 30 minutes but once she came out Danny never had a Chloe free moment for the rest of his visit.

Once Seth got home Danny treated us to Texas Roadhouse.  We tried to protest.  He was the one who drove 10 hours so we felt that we should be treating him, but those darn Loveridge's are the most forcibly generous people I have ever met.  Usually Seth can hang right in there with them, but we lost this battle.  After dinner Danny also watched the kids so that me and Seth could go out.  We went to Titanic for old time's sake (saw it 6 times when it first came out) but they did a really bad job with the 3D and it basically made everything look blurry except for whatever was closest to the camera.  I still love all things Titanic though so I enjoyed it and there was only one other guy in the whole theater besides us so it was almost a romantic private viewing.

Thursday
The big kids went to school, but we let Chloe skip so we could head up to Milwaukee and play.  We started out at National Bakery where we got a dozen donuts and a dozen cupcakes.  I am super dorky and I have a list of things to do in Milwaukee and Chicago that I am slowly making my way through and since the boys did not have specific plans I got to be in charge.  The donuts were okay but the cupcakes were super yum.

Since it was cold we opted for indoor entertainment and toured the Pabst Mansion, built in the 1890's by the Pabst family (yes, the beer people).  Remember that I am a dork, so I  love old buildings and old stories.  The guys thought the docent talked way too much and I think she talked a little bit too much but I did like to hear about the people who lived there and we all agreed that the house was spectacular.

They didn't allow pics in the house so we had to snap one outside to prove that we went somewhere.

Our next stop was a two minute detour to have a look at the Bronze Fonz. Although he didn't impress us much last time we saw him, we figured it was a good photo op since we had to drive right past him anyway.

Then we had to hustle home to beat the bus, but Chloe did talk us in to running through the Taco Bell drive through for a Dorito taco.

Thursday night Alex and Alyssa had their spring concert.  Me and Seth went but Danny had to check in to his hotel.  We convinced him to stay with us a couple nights but he did get a hotel for the other two nights.  He took Chloe while we were at the show. She got to go swimming and came home with evidence of Doritos on her jammies proclaiming that she had a great night.  Alex and Alyssa both sang and danced all through the show.  A far cry from Alyssa's first year when she stood facing her back to the audience.

Thursday night we put the monkeys to bed and enjoyed a late night of board games.  Always gotta do that at least once, right?

Friday
Friday morning started out with Chloe's ice skating test.  She passed the first level of toddler skating but still has no interest in signing up again which is fine with my checkbook me. After class we went home and rounded up the crowd (the kids skipped school) and headed down to Chicago.  We checked in to the Embassy Suites, where Danny sneakily paid for both rooms.

The view from our room. Valerie, are you thinking about the time we looked out our hotel window and spied on the people in the apartments across the way?  I did it again.

We bundled up and took a walk through the city and landed at Millennium Park.

The kids are cracking up in the next one because apparently Seth was standing somewhere under the Bean that was making his head all distorted.

All of us reflected in the Bean.  Please bless the Bean mutates your body and my hips are not really that wide.

Notice Chloe sticking her tongue out in all the pics.

After we played a little bit we headed back to the hotel to add a few more layers of clothing and make our way to the ball park where surprise, surprise Danny passed out the tickets he bought months ago and would not let us pay our way.  To show our gratitude, and because we don't like the White Sox, we rooted for the Red Sox.  The temperature bounced between 38-42 and it was windy (goes without saying?). It was full 60 degrees warmer than when we went to the Packers Superbowl celebration but we were still a bit chilly.  We each put a child and a blanket on our laps and drank LOTS of hot chocolate and managed to have a good time.  The Red Sox won 10-3 and by then the crowd was all but gone, but we stuck around for fireworks, and it was actually a really good show.

As we left, Alex said it was the best ball game ever and that he was the luckiest kid in the world.  Why, you ask?  Because while we were watching batting practice he was handed an official major league baseball, and he got fireworks AND it was giveaway night and we got White Sox luggage tags, which none of the rest of us wanted but which Alex will treasure.  Funny kid!  He was also highly amused because one of the beer vendors stopped in the middle of the aisle a couple times, pointed at me and screamed CHEESEHEAD!!!  Alex is still reenacting it every time he walks by me.

One of MANY hot chocolate runs.

Alex requested 100 pics of his ball but this one is to show where it says that it is an official major league ball.

Seth actually took the next one with his phone to send to Aunt Julie (Danny's mom) but in case she never got it I thought I'd post it here since she is my blogging buddy.

And Alex hung on Danny as much as the girls did but he will always love his momma best!  In fact, while he was sitting on my lap he leaned over and buried his face in my neck and then said "Ahhh, you smell like a beautiful woman".  I probably smelled like a hot dog, but I love that kid.

We got back to the hotel at about 11:00 and the kids crashed.  Since we apparently did not consume enough junk food at the game (don't worry, we actually did) Seth went to the store and bought cake and cookies for the rest of us to munch on late in to the night.

Saturday
Saturday morning came way too soon and of course the kids were dying to swim.  The kids were ready before we were, so Danny took them to breakfast while we got showered and dressed and then they were in the pool by the time we got to breakfast.  I forgot to bring a swim suit, and a hotel stay without a swim is a catastrophe to a child, so I was very grateful that Danny was prepared and willing to splash around with them.  Chloe didn't stay in too long but the other two tired him out requesting to be thrown around the pool.

Once they were all splashed out we had to figure out what to do next.  We had hoped to walk to Navy Pier for a little while but it was raining on an off and even colder and more windy than the day before.  We decided on the Museum of Science and Industry.

Money saving museum tip: I know this post is long but here is a tip for locals in case you care.  If you buy a museum membership, you can also use it at other museums around the country.  One of them is Discovery World in Milwaukee, which we have not yet been to BUT Discovery World charges $85 for a membership (would be $75 for my family to go for just one day).  The museums in Chicago charge $115 for a membership.  So...even though we haven't been to Discovery World we called them and bought the membership by phone and got a confirmation number to use to get in to MSI.  Saved ourselves $30 right off the bat and now we can go to lots and lots of museums, including The Field and Adler Planetarium, so if you live around here, it is a really good deal.

MSI was really crowded.  We wanted to go on board the submarine but all of the add on tours were sold out.  We stayed a few hours and then ventured on. I only got a few pictures of the kids on Saturday and then the camera went in to hibernation.

The gift store was supremely overpriced which is why I am always grateful for mold-a-rama machines.  We got a space shuttle.

And the U505 submarine.  We talked about WWII and my Grandpa King who flew in the war and now Alex wants to see a movie about his story and he told me it sounded so cool that he was pretty sure a museum somewhere must have made a movie about him.  I told him as much as I could but dad, if you are reading this can you send me more info on how many missions he flew and about his crash so I can make sure I am getting the details right?

Since Danny had not let us pay for anything but a few pastries here and there we decided that we would force Bob Chinn's upon him.  Of course he ordered scallops which are nowhere near as pricey as crab legs, but we tried, right?

Since the museum kind of crashed and burned we decided to see a movie before we went home.  The kids had been asking to see Chimpanzee and I actually like documentaries more than scripted movies (cause remember I am a dork) so I was game to go see it.  Alyssa loved it but the other two kids were a little bored.  I thought they could have written a better script for the narrator but the footage was amazing and I thought it was really interesting to watch and super cute.

After the movie we finally headed home where everyone was pretty tuckered out.

Sunday
After Sunday breakfast it was time to bid farewell to Danny.  All 3 kids hung all over him and chased him to his car for one last hug, and Alex even asked if he could come back again after work on Monday. He is certainly welcome back anytime.  We really enjoyed his company and were truly spoiled all weekend long.

Thanks again Danny!