March Madness

To start off this eventful month, Aunt Mary sojourned at our place. We pretty much just laid around all week. There was cooking involved which resulted in some yummy food. We also had a little Tony Curtis/Jack Lemmon party with The Great Race and Some Like it Hot, I found out that I could still do a headstand, and Mary was introduced to Gob, Buster, Michael, and Lindsey.



Mary also did a lot of reading (on her own and to the kids), tickling, pretending, sleeping, and staring. Hmmm....yes, that is pretty much what everyone in Missouri does, so at least the experience was real.

Here is Mary being a car driving the kids to all sorts of random places.

When Friday came and Matt was done with finals, we actually got out of the house. We got about 1/4 mile out of the house before I was pulled over for speeding. Thankfully there was no ticket involved because that would not have been a happy start to our trip to Chicago.
When I was in school, March was my least favorite month. There weren't any holidays, and therefore, days off of school, and that was enough for me to dislike it. St. Patrick's day doesn't count because there is no candy, no vacation, and all you do is get pinched. I guess if you are in Chicago for St. Patty's then it is another story. This is the day to live for in that town.
Here is the Chicago River:

They also have a huge parade that we did not watch for want of time. However, we made sure that we got some awesome Chicago pizza at Giordano's. While we were waiting I snapped some pictures.
And the pizza...

The next day we hit up the aquarium. We didn't think it was worth the money, but at least we did it once in our lives. Plus Alex really like the stingrays and sharks.
Of course a boat is way cooler than some fish and turtles.



Watching the diver feeding the fish


After we were done there, we walked a couple miles along Lake Michigan over to the Children's Museum. This place was so awesome--we could have spent at least twice as long there.

Bekah in an ambluance

Alex driving the boat

They had so many cool water things to play with.

Alex didn't want to take his eyes off what he was doing for a picture.

Fishing

More water stuff



Looking for dinosaur bones.


Playing in a treehouse.


After all of that, we had to let Mary go at the Chicago airport. We had a really fun time with her and hope that she did too. Bekah was asleep when we dropped her off. About 3 hours after she woke up she randomly asks, "Where's Aunt Mary?"

The next day we hit up the zoo, which did not disappoint. Every animal we wanted to see was out in clear view, so it was a lot of fun. After the zoo, we drove up to the Phelps' house to catch up on the 3 years since we'd seen them last. We had a really good time talking with them, they fed us delicious food, and Alex and Bekah made instant friends. After reluctantly leaving from there, we heading south toward home. Matt drove the entire trip and barely stayed awake while we were all snoozing at 4am when we came into town. The best part was that when we got home we still had a whole week of spring break to look forward to.
We didn't do anything very significant for the break, but there is something that I should share because it is just too good to keep to myself.
Matt got Alex some bread or something at dinner. As he gave it to him he said, "Here you go, nugget." (He's always calling them random names) Alex says, "Nugget? Nugget? How about Lugget? Or Bugget? Or Rugget?" Then really loudly he yells, "Fugget!!!"
Say it out loud and you'll understand why I was dying laughing.