Friday I kicked off my "day off" by rolling out of bed and leaving the house at 5:25am to round at the hospital before David's dentist appointment. Nothing more enjoyable on your day off than working followed by the dentist. We were a little apprehensive about the dentist because their office (recommended to us by David's plastic surgeon) doesn't allow parents to go back with the kids for their appointments. We weren't sure how this would go, but he did great. He cried at first when they took him back, but a few minutes later they came to get me so that I could peek in on him, and he was calm and cooperating with his cleaning. His teeth got a clean bill of health: no cavities and, much to our surprise, the tooth at his cleft is finally coming in. After surviving the dentist and ridiculous traffic there and back (I can thank the stimulus package and "shovel ready" roadwork projects for that--who knew bolstering the economy would mean I would never get to drive more than 8 mph for the entire summer?), we took the el downtown and took Millennium Park by storm.
Yesterday I worked in the morning while David and Kevin went to the farmer's market. He was not as enthusiastic about his donut as he was last year, but I'm sure with practice he'll return to his old form. We went downtown in the afternoon to check out the newly renovated oceanarium at the Shedd Aquarium. David spent 90 seconds watching the animals, 5 minutes enjoying the hand wash stations at the interactive exhibit and the rest of his timing runing up and down and up and down the 1284 stairs at the oceanarium. Afterwards, we had dinner by Buckingham fountain before taking the choo choo back home.
David helping with dinner and enjoying Buckingham fountain
Today we made it to the early church service. David managed to keep it together through most of the sermon and then began chanting "outside outside outside!" which is where he and I spent most of the remainder of the service. We came home and packed a picnic lunch and headed for Starved Rock state park in lovely Utica, IL (population 1000). It is about an hour and a half drive. The park is on the Illinois River. We enjoyed our lunch and did some hiking. The climb up Starved Rock is very short and paved. It was amusing to hear all the people huffing and puffing about how hard it was to walk up. Then on our way down we passed a woman on crutches and an elderly couple pulling an oxygen tank behind them, neither of whom seemed to be having any trouble with the climb. Before we left, we enjoyed some soft serve ice cream at the visitor's center, which David was not very amenable to sharing. He was sound asleep about 5 minutes into the drive home. Overall, a very nice weekend.
Pictures from atop Starved Rock
No comments:
Post a Comment