skip to main |
skip to sidebar
With unusually balmy weather and a free weekend we decided to take Paul camping for the very first time! The plan was to setup camp at a campsite near our home and then spend the afternoon and evening as a family. The boys were planning to sleep in the tent and the ladies headed home to sleep in our beds! The boys were close enough to the house that if there was any issue over night then they could easily head home. With temps projected to dip into the upper 40's, my thought was that Paul might get cold even with layers of pjs and blankets in the tent. But more on that later....
Tent was setup and the kids were thrilled!
Hanging out by the fire pit before the fire was lit.
Lillie had plenty of fun with a bottle of bubbles.
It was off for a hike to the playground.
Always happy on the swings!
My handsome boy!
Posing by the campsite sign.
Laughing at Paul in the tent.
Dinner.....hot dogs and chips....does it get better than that?!?
She was saying CHEESE while holding the chair in front of her face. Hilarious.
Clearly she had a terrible time at the campsite.
Paul took a spin around the campsite circle.
Time for s'mores! And the woodpile (or lack thereof) was quite the entertainment for the evening. Lots of piling, unpiling, pretending to chop the wood, etc, etc.
S'mores face!
Lillie and I were heading out around 8:00 (both kids got to stay up way past their normal bedtime) and I found Paul in the tent coloring with colored pencils (his new favorite activity).
So the boys got to bed around 10:00 and while they were cold, they made it through the night. However, the annoying neighbor camper decided to get up VERY early and start up his very loud diesel truck which of course woke Paul up and with the amount of light streaming in that was the end of that. They packed up the tent and decided to hit Dunkin' Donuts to bring home some yummy breakfast treats! The plan was foiled when Paul fell asleep in the car. So Daddy sat in the parking lot for over an hour and then headed home. Someone was a little tired today but he hung in there.
When I asked what his favorite part of camping was, Paul responded....making and eating s'mores and poking the fire with a stick. Spoken like a true boy.
Our last day in Chicago was spent being lazy at the hotel rather than rushing to try to do just ONE more touristy thing. So Paul and I hit the pool and Lillie hung out with daddy in the room.
Paul had lots of fun at the pool.
We hit the road and headed back to Gram and Pa's. So nice to have a stop over so we don't have to make the entire drive in one sitting.
Paul had fun building a pile of dirt....nothing better than playing in the dirt.
We headed back to reality on Wednesday and I headed back to work on Thursday. Groan. First day back to work after vacation is the worst. Glad we had time away but certainly wish that it wasn't quite so stressful. We won't be taking any major vacations for a while - we need to get this behavior stuff under control first. Instead we will work on smaller fun activities and enjoy our happy moments.
The middle section of our trip was spent with our good friend Zach and his parents. On Sunday we had a day pretty darn similar to our day together last year! We met at Oz Park and the kids got to play together for a while.
Friends together again!
Both boys are swinging fools!
Lots of smiles and snacks all day long!
JUMP!!!
Lunch at the original Pottbellies and Lillie got to know our friends a bit better.
Zach was SO nice and brought his scoot bike all decked out for Lillie. These are cool bikes without pedals that are supposed to really help kids learn to ride without training wheels once they are ready for a bike with pedals. SO sweet of him to think of her and she really enjoyed learning how to scoot!
Just hanging around.....
The boys wanted to get some face paint...check out what each one picked.
Lillie was entertained while the face painting was happening.
The end product....
Back to Oz Park for a while before we had to leave for the day.
Swinging is the best!
HUGS at the end of the day!
And here is the demise of the face painting....spent $16 (ugh) and it was done within 4 hours! This is when we got back to the hotel.
Blue eye shadow is in style, right?!?!
On Monday we decided to give Navy Pier another try......and the Tall Ship Windy crew was wonderful with their service recovery and provided us with 7 complimentary tickets after the fiasco of Saturday.
Check out our ship!
Daddy and Paul waiting in line....it was a spikey hair day for the little man and his attitude was far better than a mere two days before.
Beautiful day for a sail....and a gorgeous skyline.
The kids got to be captain and sail the ship. Zach brought a bag of adhesive mustaches so the boys had fun with facial hair!
Good looking group of guys!
The whole group of us.....
Having lots of fun.
Facial hair malfunction.
Looking good Zach.....
Telling secrets....
Waiting in line for the giant ferris wheel.
Another good group shot....amazing that everyone was looking at the camera!
Checking out the skyline views from the ferris wheel.
Fun on the carousel.
Group hug at the end of our time together....this is where Paul's attitude went downhill so you will notice he wasn't in the picture.
We parted ways and then Paul spotted the telescopes and wanted to play a little I Spy.
Love that girl.
We had so much fun with Zach and his parents. It is such a blessing to have them in our lives and to be able to spend time together...even if it is short and we have to drive a fair distance to make it happen. While I am disappointed that Paul was such a wreck for time with my sister, I am glad he pulled it together to have fun for this middle portion of the trip.
