Memorial Day getaway

Happy Memorial Day everyone! We decided to take the boys to Chicago this weekend for a little getaway. Since Patrick started his new job he's been working long hours and has had some late nights. I think both of the boys really miss him and we all loved spending the weekend together. We got to Chicago early Saturday afternoon and started our day at the Shedd Aquarium.
Henry was fascinated by the fish in the various tanks. One of his favorite things was watching this lobster crawl around this tank.
I carried William in the Snugli so he could see everything up close. He was mostly intrigued with all of the people there. (note to self: a Baby Bjorn would have been a very wise investment)
After leaving the aquarium we walked around by the lake and then decided to check into our hotel downtown. Due to an overbooking we ended up getting a "presidential suite". It was definitely more luxury than we planned - we had a kitchen, dining room, living room with a flat screen and a large bedroom. It worked out perfectly; Henry had lots of room to run around and play and we were able to put the boys to bed in the bedroom and still be awake without bothering them. It was a corner room with windows all around, so we had a nice view of the city--seen in the picture below. The boys slept great despite our hotel being located next to a very busy fire station. When we checked in Henry had only two questions for the concierge. 1., Where is the pool? and 2., How do I open this? Referring to the apple that he snatched from the decorative display at the entrance. Since he was so anxious to swim we decided to take the boys to the pool once we got settled into our room.

Henry loved the pool. He loved splashing. He loved being held and pulled around fast. He didn't love the water he accidentally gulped when his foot slipped on the stairs walking in; but he stayed in and kept on swimming until he was shivering.
The water was just a little bit too chilly for William to swim in, but he loved sitting on the side of the pool and splashing his feet. He was enthralled with the water; I couldn't get him to look up!
The boys took a bath to warm up when we got back to our room. Henry was first fascinated with the jets in the tub, but when one of them started spraying everywhere and I got a little bit frantic, he was terrified and wanted out!

On Sunday morning we got up early and Henry and I were at the pool by 7:00! He really loved swimming. Then we walked around downtown a bit and then went to Lincoln Park Zoo where we met Dan, Sara, Gabe and Caleb. It was so much fun spending the afternoon there with them.

There is a farm exhibit and guess who waited in line for 15 minutes to sit on a tractor? The cows were one of his favorite animals to see there. He did not want to leave the dairy barn.

Gabe and Henry rode the train together.
We had lunch together at the zoo.

Then it was off to see more animals. Gabe and Henry holding Uncle Dan's hands. Gabe climbed over this little chain link and pretended to be an animal at the zoo.

Dan told us about this polar bear exhibit where you stand at a large window and can watch the polar bears swim by. It's amazing to see them so close up and it's so fascinating to watch. There are two of them in there and they would swim the same path over and over again. They would come so close you could see their fur blowing in the water. After we'd stood there and watched for a few minutes I told Henry that we'd watch them swim by "one more time" and he asked me, "can we watch them a lot more times?" I think the polar bears might have tied with the cows for Henry's favorite animals at the zoo.
To sum up the way Henry felt about the weekend ---errr, mostly the hotel---his words as we were pulling into our driveway yesterday evening:

"No, I don't want to go to this house. I want to go to our new house with the pool."