Me in Place

For forever I’ve wanted to take the kids on an adventure with Uncle Roger – it finally happened last weekend, when we went to the Illinois Train Museum. Other than the heat, it was an enjoyable experience. Made more enjoyable by the fact that I got a family one day pass, so it was free. I enjoy free. It puts less pressure on the rating-of-the-experience.

Trains everywhere. Train enthusiasts everywhere.

They had a five-car-long train set up so you could see the different compartments people would have traveled in. Here’s SuperBoy in a bunk.

Ever seen this sign before? Bet you have.

We rode on an electric bus, an electric train/trolley/something (sorry, I’m not a train enthusiast) and a Zephyr. The rides consisted of going forward two miles, then back two miles, then switch tracks…and end.

We also stopped at an exotic pet shop – just for the adventure of it. But it’s going out of business, and there weren’t many exotic pets. Except this guy. He was exotic. And hungry.

After that, we met up with Aunt Sally for dinner at Nick’s pizza. All in all, a great adventure day!

No summer is complete without a visit to a fair! We ended up at the neighboring county’s fair this year and met up with my sis-in-law and her three kids.

Highlights included:

-My 11yo daughter getting overwhelmed by the heat, almost fainting and blacking out in the washroom, whereupon another mother took over the situation and called the medics and started taking my daughter away to sit down. Somehow in emergencies I always end up in the back trying to reach my kids…must improve on that. Anyway, she recovered, but not before a trip to the nurse’s station where I was given a ten minute lecture on what to feed my children. Sigh. I turned to the sane medic and asked him where the bad mom’s purgatory room was. That’s where I felt like the nurse was going to send me next.

-SuperBoy chose his one game as the throw the balls at the clowns and get a prize. He hit two and missed the third. He was duly dejected. Every other sibling and cousin won animals. The game guy said I could bring him back and he’d give me two games for the price of one. So I finally took SuperBoy back. He got too tense and missed them all. I guess it was a life lesson, but I hate life lessons.

Good times were had and the cows behinds were especially pretty this year. (Right? Isn’t it weird that we walk up and down buildings looking at animal rears? I could just stay home and do that.)

#2 on my Summer List of Things to Do was to go to Six Flags Great America. We have an older, roller coaster lovin’ daughter who throws up when it gets too hot, and two hesitant riders and a mom and dad prone to dizziness and headaches. Let’s go!

We met friends there and had a hot, dizzy, really fun day. SuperBoy did his best to be brave and went on easier kid rides, but also tried the Whizzer and the Viper. 11 yo daughter went on the Raging Bull and Viper, Demon, Whizzer, etc. and did really well. And 9yo went on what she wanted to go on.

Tips (things I didn’t know before we went):
-There really is no way around it, you’re going to pay a ton for food. Figure on about $10 per person for a meal. Unless you want to tote a cooler along in your car (which I am set against, so…) They do have vouchers you can buy online for a meal for 4 – which our friends did and I might do if we ever go back again. This way, you don’t wait so long in line and the food was plenty.
-There are kiddie rides for toddlers….middle kid rides for younger kids….easier coasters (Whizzer, Demon (4 loops, but shorter), Viper (goes up and down with hills) – Whizzer is the best try it out coaster. There are even two easier coasters, if they’re still hesitant about any bigger ones.) Raging Bull, SuperMan and Batman are the bigger favorites. The Dark Knight – I wanted to like this one, and maybe it’s just that I’m getting old, but this one jerked my neck around so badly…not good. It’s in the dark, and you speed down a short length, then it jolts you on an abrupt turn, over and over again. Not scary, but not good for middle-aged necks!
-We didn’t realize it til we got there, but the Hurrican Harbor waterpark is connected right with Great America. So, you pay for the ticket for one, you get the other park too. Not sure you’d have time to do everything in one day, but you could try!
-Look online at their site for ticket deals. We got ours 2 for 1 since we went on a Thursday. Around here, there’s also a kid’s reading program through schools where you can get a free kid ticket (homeschoolers can do it too).

(please note the manner in which i am writing this. it’s called facetious. )

Here’s my kids, doing what is expected – rubbing Lincoln’s nose for good luck, which I explained to them means nothing, but we still did it for fun.:

Here’s me, being fun-facetious. My kids gasped in pretend horror, “But mom, that will bring bad luck!”

“There’s no such thing as bad or good luck, children.”

Not ten minutes later, a pickup runs a red light and does this to my van. Yeah, I’ll never hear the end of that from my kids. And mommy has some explaining to do about good/bad luck and how they aren’t true.

(Further explanation – we were all okay, thankfully. Only bruises and muscle pain for me. Kids were fine. Majorly freaked about losing our van – but they are okay. I have to give props to our insurance company, who has treated us fairly and quickly (Allstate). The major problem was being four hours away from home and being stranded on a street corner. A stranger offered to drive us to a rental place. The rental place wouldn’t rent us a car (Enterprise) to do a one-way and were terrible in customer service in helping us (Um, hello, four hours away from home, with three kids, luggage, etc…help us!). Eventually, they got someone to drive us to an airport rental office, where we rented from another rental company and drove home. Again, everyone is fine – just lost a van, which has now been replaced by a new-to-us van. And my kids can see the silver lining in the clouds – as it turns out, the only 2008 Honda Odyssey in the Chicagoland area that fit our criteria has a DVD player!!)

The next day we visited the Abraham Lincoln Museum (well worth the time) and the state capitol. The state capitol was recently refinished in some areas – so go see the gold leafing you bought! Mine’s in the hallway outside the senate chambers. Don’t touch. The governor’s parking spot was empty.

And that’s as political as this blog will ever get!

Except for this, this is cute. And political. Politically cute.

And we liked the Lincolns. Is that political?

This is my mom and my two girls standing in front of Charlie Parker’s – a diner destination in Springfield. You might as well! It was good food – we did not get the horseshoe, which is Springfield’s famous food (mainly because it sounded disgusting to me). But the lunch I did eat was yummy and recommended. (Yes, Guy has visited for his diner show.)

The kids and I joined my mother on her birthday trip to Springfield. We stopped at New Salem Village – which, if you visit at the end of February, is basically a reproduction village empty of people and open space for your kids to run around. Here they are enjoying:

Abe reads a story to SuperBoy

A volunteer who said, come here, children, get your picture taken.

A volunteer with few children relational skills, mind you.

Kids are reenacting a fight scene in front of Lincoln’s store. No, I don’t know why.

Kids ordering  lunch at what they called “the first hot dog stand ever!”

On the way to the hotel, I spotted a soda fountain at a pharmacy – and one knows never to pass up a chance to get a treat at a soda fountain! The lady working was really friendly and the soda fountain was new and actually really pretty.

Stained glass window over the fountain:

Here’s to our fifth year of our Christmas tradition of going downtown to see the lights and eat beignets at the Grand Lux Cafe!

On the list of 30 Things to Do in Chicagoland, is visiting the Hancock Observatory. I waited until I had all three kids with me and all three old enough to enjoy it and we went last week. I feel loyal to the Hancock Observatory because they didn’t sell out to some corporation and change their name on all of us. Thanks, John. I appreciate it.

The audio tour included in the admission fee involves headphones and a small device you enter numbers on to hear David Schwimmer explain what you’re looking at. Mine didn’t work and also, it is hard for a mom to listen to any sort of device when there are three kids trying to figure out how theirs work…so, the audio tour was missed by me, but it was okay, I knew what I was looking at after living in Chicagoland for forever!

SuperBoy listened intently and enjoyed the views. And, all in all, it was a great visit and fun to do. (By the way, they are having an ice rink at the Hancock building January til March of next year.)

Here’s installment three, from our reporter from Ireland, Carey!

We like macaroni and cheese as much as the next person. Actually, we discovered we loved it when we moved to Ireland and couldn’t get it.

We are not even picky about the brand – however, I personally think the shapes, for some reason, have a richer, cheesier taste. But the kids don’t care at all.

Over here, they do not have the boxed mac and cheese – it only comes in cans. And, as you can see, they call it “macaroni cheese” (but, hey, it’s made by a reputable company…shouldn’t they know better than to serve it in a can?)

But what is inside is not macaroni and cheese as we know it.

My Superhero son was brave enough to try and -while it is not the greatest shot- his face says it all ~YUCK!

I have even tried my hand at homemade mac n cheese and while we really do love it, nothing compares to that yellowy-orange powder! So when you are feeling low, be thankful you live in the land of readily available macaroni and cheese! Make a box and enjoy for me!

The only Disney park we had never visited was Hollywood Studios – this time, we decided to try it out.

Our favorite parts were

1. The Rock n Roller Coaster (as previously discussed).

2. The Jedi teaching the little Padawans to defeat Darth Vader. The man who was the Jedi was perfect – working with little spacey kids and ad libbing hilariously…

3. The street scenes were great – and since the crowds were sparse, it was fun to wander (but on the flip side, this park was really hard to navigate. It didn’t make sense.)

4. The Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground. Cute.

To be continued…