Rocky Arbor State Park Camping

Our first camping trip of the summer!  With the snow and ice today, I am really looking forward to our next camping trips.  Here we are eating and hanging out in the camper.

It was very mosquitoey (that's a word, right?), so the kids and I watched the fire from the camper.  Colin loooves the fire and stayed up a long time watching it.

We went to the Mackenzie Environmental Center and had a tour of their wildlife.  Everyone agreed the favorite animal that we saw were the wolves.

But by far the most favorite thing we did was net some pond life.  Kayla was talking about all that she found for a long time.  They were even the last ones to be done.  It brought back memories of when I did this in college!  Amazingly, I knew what most of the little critters were too.

Then it was off to Mt. Olympus!  As usual, Kayla wanted to ride on all the roller coasters while Colin kept to the easy rides.

We did manage to convince Colin to go on a kiddie roller coaster and while he looks really excited in this picture, he was absolutely terrified by the time he got off.  It was not the smoothest roller coaster even watching from the sidelines!

Kayla rode her own go-kart for the first time and did an amazing job!  Only 9 very short years left...

Back at the campground one last time.

Colin's Birthday and Early Summer Updates

Last day of school

Forgot to add this pic in from Chicago.  Gotta have a cute one of Mommy and Daddy!

Check out this awesome ninja turtle fruit platter!

Colin sure was excited to open those presents!

More presents!

Clown Nose!

We took the kids to see some spooky dinosaurs.  It took awhile for Colin to realize that they were not real.  But we still had fun.  Especially when it ends with bouncy slides and riding a baby dino!

I love how they both have a not-sure-if-I-trust-this-dino-behind-me look in these pics.

Colin playing soccer at a friend's birthday party.

Kayla's artwork

Spring Updates and Colin's Birthday

Last winter/spring, we signed Kayla up for additional swim lessons on the weekends at the middle school.  She was so happy to be swimming in the big pool!  This fall, she moved up to the next level where she is learning the various swim strokes and will even start on diving!

Having fun at daycare!

Here's the first of many birthday celebrations for Colin turning 4!  Now that it's almost his half birthday, he is already looking forward to turning 5...

Colin is taking after his daddy with how much he loves fires.  Here he is at the very last campfire at the trailer putting another log on the fire much to papa's dismay.

Kayla was Artist of the Month at daycare!

Daddy chaperoned Colin's field trip to Busy Barns!

At Daddy's work checking out the tractor

For Colin's birthday, we took the train downtown to Chicago and went to the zoo.  We explored the park across from our hotel and got to see lots of feet, Buckingham Fountain, and the bean!

The next day was our big adventure at Lincoln Park Zoo.  The day started out quite nice...

Of all the pictures we took of these two on the train, not one of them has Colin actually looking at the camera.  He was really excited about that train!

Unfortunately, we had to leave the zoo early because it started raining and then pouring!  We had a ways to walk back to the train station, so we found some shelter under a bridge.

Made it to the train!  A little wet, cold, and tired but still happy.