Career exploration at the Shedd Aquarium

After some initial super frustrating snafus with actually getting everyone INTO the aquarium, the three boys (and three parents) took a “deep dive into the day of an aquarist—the animal care staff that work with animals ranging from fishes to reptiles to birds—and learned more about this profession.” They all seemed to have fun!

This is what dogsitting looks like.

Anna and David went to New York so we got their two dogs—Olive’s bestie, Honey, and Kai. Unfortunately you can’t hear Kai barking like an asshole at everything—we had to keep the front door shut or he barked like a madman at every little thing. He even nosed the side curtains out of the way in order to look and bark. And all his barking made both other dogs bark. Good times! At least Olive was kept busy playing with Honey… Honey is so good with her.

A family adventure to the Milwaukee zoo!

Tom took some time off (the days he previously asked for for the family vacation that I screwed up) and we decided to go to the zoo!

The Lego dinosaur exhibit! (For an extra $3pp of course!)

This was life size! It was like 5′ long!

Also life size!

If you look closely in the foreground you’ll see a bloody stump of a leg.

Cool Lego ferns in stone.

It was really hard to get me and the dino in the same lighting to see us both, so here are two versions.

Katie could fit inside one dino footprint.

Dino family!

Katie always wants to get her face painted so we finally agreed.

So then we offered it to Owen but he opted for a tattoo!

So while the kids were getting this done, we decided to grab a snack—so Tom walked to get himself a beer and some loaded fries for us to share. Well, then we came upon more food, so the kids had to make a decision because they were sharing it.

And then we walked some more and HOLY SHIT BEER ON TAP?! Then Tom had to make a decision. 😂

He opted for the Coconut Porter and got me an adult root beer float.

And it was right next door to Ooz, and now the kids wanted food, so… Katie got mac and cheese, Owen got BBQ pork mac and cheese, and we all shared some cheese curds.

Wording gets me.

Full of cheese…

And then we walked past a caricature booth and I decided we had to do it. Tom and I had one done probably 20 years ago and I’ve been wanting to do one with the kids but it’s expensive (like $15 per head). But we decided since we were splurging, why not?

So Tom and I sat down and we obviously couldn’t see what she was doing but she was drawing away. So 15 minutes later when it was time to switch to the kids and we saw what she was drawing…we both looked at each other like (pardon the language but it’s fully deserved) WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! (I’ve photoshopped it a bit to make sure you can see her drawings.)

On what planet is that a caricature?! Was she serious? Were we on candid camera? Were we being punked? That thing was hideous. So Tom and I were talking quietly about what we were going to do and I said I was definitely NOT paying for it, but of course it would be awkward to say something. We let her go a few more minutes but then I just told her to stop because that was NOT a caricature and it was NOT what we wanted and we would NOT be paying for it. She was kind of surprised and tried to tell us that it would look different after she put color on it. Sorry, no. We figure maybe she was a face painter (the booth did both) but we were just aghast that she thought what she was doing was fine.

This was the sample hanging up. A real caricature.

So that was a huge waste of time and a big disappointment because I had really wanted one. There were other booths that we had passed but didn’t want to go back and find one. And I am still debating emailing them to let them know about her pathetic attempt.

The zebras cracked me up. They had a huge enclosure but they were waiting at the door—so we guessed that’s how they got fed. I thought they looked like Maggie or the cats waiting for us to feed them. We probably watched them for five minutes and they just stood there waiting.

There’s always money in the banana stand! (Confused?)

And then we let the kids play in the farm area playground and then we were on our way home. We did see animals but they didn’t do anything exciting so no pictures. 😄

Len Christmas in July, Year 5

And the meat festival begins…Of course Timmy brought a ton of his amazing brats…but this year he added smoked brisket to the menu! HOLY WAH!

And no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you…that’s a Gummy Bear brat. With real gummy bears in it. It wasn’t bad…just a sweet taste. I thought Katie would love it because she LOVES gummy bears but nope. Silly kid.

And the annual kid comparison! After last year when Owen was taller, Nick pulled ahead (which he should, as he’s almost 14).

Owen and Nick 2018

2017:

Owen and Nick 2017

The kids goofing around while I was getting the camera set up.

My test shot to make sure the settings were okay, and I loved it so much I kept it. It’s also fun to see how we can all pull it together for the real photo!

Nick and Owen…conspiring? Planning? Who knows.

Gramma created a project for the kids—money frozen in a block! They had to figure out how to get to it! (It didn’t take them long!)

Oh yeah! We also gained a dog for an hour or so. Mom didn’t recognize him and Tom called the number on his tag and it was animal control…?!? He was good and just hung out with us—got a few pets and belly rubs (Maggie pretty much ignored him). After awhile a young girl came looking for him—and we found out she was visiting someone in the neighborhood.

Overall it was a perfectly gorgeous day—not too hot and not too cold, lots of good food (too much, actually, but we’re Lens so it’s expected), and great visiting with family and watching the cousins play!

Camp Cadillac

We spent the day in Cadillac with Tom’s extended family at a local campground where the kids enjoyed meeting new friends and playing in the pool.

Katie liked the animals. (Yes there were animals there. She especially liked the goats.)

Maggie didn’t bark once all day…until she got in front of the goats. At which point she thought she was ferocious.

After some visiting I just amused myself. There might have been margaritas involved.

Daddy’s Day Off, Part 2

I completely spaced on it being school break time (duh, that’s why Owen was able to go!) and the aquarium was a nightmare. I have never seen that many people there…and we skipped about 70% of the stuff because we didn’t want to wait or push through the hordes to get to the displays. Ugh. We’ve been super spoiled the past few times we’ve gone and it was (for all purposes) empty.

On the escalator to another level.

Another escalator!

The frog displays were very busy. I didn’t get many pics.

Trying for a desktop wallpaper. 

And one my favorites…jellyfish!

More attempts at computer wallpaper!

We had planned on having lunch beforehand at our favorite, Capital Grille, except we were there too early and they weren’t open…so we planned to do it after. But…as we were walking through the last part of the aquarium, we looked out across the water and saw Family Meal, a Bryan Voltaggio (Top Chef contestant) restaurant. I actually remembered I had a coupon for there, so we decided to try it.

We started with chicken pot pie fritters (delish!), Tom ordered biscuits and gravy (I might have been tempted except it came with over easy eggs on it which didn’t sound good to me), Rob got meatloaf, and I ordered fried chicken and this is the dish it came in. 🙂 It was yummy but a little expensive for what it was…but I’m glad we went.

And then this happened on the way home.

Geese up close!

Another nice day, another trip to the playground. But we also went down to the water today because she heard another kid talking about the pond and she wanted to go, too! 🙂

Throwing rocks and twigs in—a favorite activity.

  
  

And then as we were standing there, a bunch of Canadian geese flew in and landed in front of us!

Be sure to listen for this in the last section:
Mom, they’re so cute! Maybe I could be a mermaid and go in the water with them!

And then a few artsy pictures of the boats. 🙂

   
    

Same zoo, different grandparents!

Now that Katie was older and would hopefully enjoy it more and maybe even remember it, we wanted to go to the zoo like we did last year. Gramma Jean and Grandpa David had gone earlier with Doug, Marie, Gabrielle, and Robert, so we took Grannie Lin and Papa!

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Shortly after she started pulling the wagon…she fell…

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And scraped both knees in the process. 🙁 Thankfully it was over quickly and she was back to herself.

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She loved the bunnies in the house!

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Last year’s jump picture:

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And last year’s family picture in front of the same sign (I almost wore that same outfit again accidentally!):

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Upon walking up and seeing ALL the birds, Owen says: That looks like a big bird party.
Grannie: What are they talking about?
Owen: Birdseed.

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Owen’s wingspan:

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The kids were SO excited to ride on the train. Unfortunately, the train before us ran off the tracks so they were trying to get it fixed and we ended up having to wait almost another hour. We had debated getting our money back, but the kids would have been devastated…so we did our shopping first. 🙂

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Last year’s mask:

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Probably the cutest Katie picture of the whole trip:

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Aaaand, zonked out within minutes of getting in the car.

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Baltimore: food, fish, and fun!

Level 8 of the parking garage across from the aquarium. Owen was pretending to swim like a turtle when I snapped this!

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On the drive here, I saw that there was a Capital Grille very close by—a restaurant we both miss from Troy—so we decided to eat lunch there! We stopped at Panera first to get the kids a bagel, and then it was a few doors down for our fancy lunch!

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The kids enjoyed the bread basket, Tom had a lobster and crab burger with truffle fries (which Katie ate most of), and I had scallops with wild mushroom risotto and a side of lobster bisque (and the obligatory food porn shot with the single lobster piece for mom):

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And then on to the aquarium! (We actually bought a family membership because tickets for today alone would have been about $100 and if we want to go again within the next year—which we will!—it would be even more because Katie will be over the “free” admission age—and we got a discounted membership for $155. It also gives us discounts on parking and gift shop purchases.)

The kids spent the whole time running from exhibit to exhibit like crazy people. Pretty much all Owen said the entire time was “COME HERE! LOOK AT THIS! OH WOW! MOM! DAD! COME HERE! DID YOU SEE THAT? LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE! COME HERE! OH MY GOSH! LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE!” Katie was a little less vocal but enjoyed everything but LOVED all the turtles and the penguins and puffers.

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The octopus actually looked fake but was definitely real!

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Super cool looking star fish! I just want to squish him!

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This was the view from about the third story. That turtle was HUGE—probably 6-7′ long. The guide told us she was only 16 years old!

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Heading up into the Amazon Rainforest: “It’s raining! It’s raining!” (They had misters at the very top of the escalator so it did feel like it was raining!”)

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Owen loved all the escalators!

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Then it was time for the 4D Spongebob movie ($5 extra per person of course!). We couldn’t take pictures during it, but it was AWESOME. I hadn’t been to a 4D movie since Honey I Shrunk the Kids at Disney probably 20 years ago! This production had bubbles, rumbling, lightning, wind, snow, and jellyfish tickling our legs! 🙂 OWEN LOVED IT…but was confused when it was over so soon because he only knows movies to be LONG.

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And then my favorite exhibit—jellyfish!

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Owen had a bit of a meltdown after our trip through the gift shop because everything he wanted was either too expensive or stuff we just didn’t want to get (he just didn’t need MORE cars or stuffed animals or a $30 T-shirt or cheap plastic toys). We offered a handful of different items (books, a Lego-ish type shark to build, etc.) that he could get but he didn’t want any of them and was just in a total snit about it. We explained he didn’t need to get a surprise every time we went anywhere and we did have limits on what he could get, and if we was going to act this way after a big day full of special things, then we just wouldn’t do stuff like this anymore. By the time we walked back to the car he apologized. 🙂

Katie was out before we exited the parking garage:

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On the way home we both decided we didn’t want to cook dinner, so we were going out to eat. The place we wanted to try at the mall had an 1:30 wait—NO THANKS!—so we went to a 4-star Yelp sushi place across the street where we were the only patrons! The kids made do with rice but balked at the shrimp and veggie tempura we got them (who doesn’t like deep fried anything?!). Owen made a puppet out of the bag from the chocolate we bought earlier:

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And then after a whirlwind day…we finally headed home.