snOMG day

No ice here, but lots of snow. We may have had 18", but the drifts are 3 feet high. The kids had a great time playing in it Wednesday.

Everything is getting back to normal now... the kids should be back at school Friday.

A Downtown Chi-town Adventure

For Wednesday our adventures took us to downtown Chicago. First we were treated to breakfast at a friends office for submitting some of Meg and Zach's artwork. Then while we waited for the Sears (Willis) Tower Skydeck to open we explored the life of money at the Chicago Fed visitors center. We then shot up 103 floors to the top of Chicago and once the fog cleared we had a beautiful view of city. The highlight for the kids was the "Ledge", 4 glass boxes that extend off the tower more the 4 feet. None of these kids have a fear of heights.

After the tower we did lunch in the old Marshal Fields building and bought Mohawk hats at the Christkindlemarket.

Skiing at Cascade

Saturday morning the kids did ski lessons while Chris and Elizabeth enjoyed some time on the slopes. After their lessons the kids went up the chair lift with Chris and skiied down the big hill. It was a green of course. Video should be coming soon...

Lets Go Skiing

On the last day of 2009 me and the kids went skiing here is the video of hte adventure

Sledding

We got a lot of snow last week so Sunday seemed like the perfect day to take the kids sledding. After sledding we kept warm at home playing games and doing our usually Sunday reading night. It was a nice, relaxing Sunday... just what we needed.

Bending Towards the Light

We were lucky enough to get to sing in the Bending Towards the Light Jazz Nativity at St. Luke's Lutheran downtown. It was a beautiful concert and we loved that Grandma and Grandpa McLean, the Buskers, and the Mitchells all came to see the show. After the show we had dinner at Wishbone, which was a treat.

Christmas Program

Last night was the St. Cletus Christmas Program. All of the kids did a great job and looked adorable.

Silver Bells

This weekend we accepted that Christmas was coming, and soon...

Friday night the kids saw Santa at the St. Cletus Christmas Party.

Saturday, after swimming and birthday parties, we watched the Tree Lighting in downtown La Grange with friends.

Sunday morning after celebrating St. Nick's Day we got up bright and early to buy our tree and started decorating the house. The outside decorations look great under the light snowfall we had last night.

Off to the Zoo! The Movie

Back at the beginning of February we took advantage of a warm winter day to visit the zoo (check the pictures out here). It was a great time because the animals were so active.

We Meg and dad took some video that day and finally this weekend we got around to putting the video together. Dad trimmed down the clips and then Meg sat in the producers chair and made the. I think she did a great job.

A Perfect Winter Day at the Zoo

We took advanteage of the warm weather this weekend to take a trip to the zoo. The animals were really active, none more then the polar bears which were playing a thrwoing ice into their pool. Meg and Zach both were armed with cameras so stay tuned we will try and add some more pictures and video later this week!

Learning to Ice Skate

Zach is doing a great job learning to skate. He's still doesn't like going to hockey, but he's looking better. Now Meg would like to take figure skating. What have I started? Enjoy the video to the left and then checkout the pictures!

Sorry about the lack of posts, we've been pretty busy lately. 

Maybe Tuesday we can take some pictures of play practice.

Winter Hike at Waterfall Glen

We had a nice weekend. Saturday Zach's class had another birthday party. Sunday we took a trip to Barnes and Noble so the kids could pick out a book. Monday we hiked the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve. The waterfall was almost completely frozen, but there were a few spots where you could see the water still running. The creek was frozen over so we could walk out over the waterfall. It was a neat experience. We look forward to going back once everything starts to thaw.

More Snow!!!

It seems like the snow just doesn't end here. These pictures are from last weekend. Meg and Dad built the beginnings of a snow fort. That afternoon we braved the weather to head down to Orland Park for a birthday party at Pump it Up. Sunday Zach had hockey again, this time it went much better.

St. Nick's Day Fun

Saturday morning the kids were excited to wake up and open their presents from St. Nick.

Grandma Chris came to visit us that morning as well. While Chris and the kids went to a birthday party at Safariland Grandma took Elizabeth to Arlington Heights for the Bending towards the Light Jazz Nativity concert. This is the third year Elizabeth has sung with the group.

We met up afterwards to go to a Christmas Walk party in LaGrange. We braved the cold for a horse drawn wagon ride, but quickly headed back to our friend's house to warm up.

It was a busy but fun day.

Breakfast with the Bunny

Friday morning we met some of Meg's friends at the Arboretum to have breakfast with the Easter Bunny. The kids enjoyed seeing the bunny hopping down the trail as he approached the Ginkgo Room.

After breakfast we took the kids on a couple trails. There was a fresh layer of snow over everything. It really was beautiful, and the kids had a great time.

Geocaching Again

This weeked we got back into geocaching. The kids and Chris found a small one before church Saturday night, then Sunday morning we all put on our gettin' muddy shoes and headed into Bemis Woods. While searching we saw a few deer and lots of animal tracks in the mud. There were a few spots with standing water so we had to climb on logs to get by. Once we got to the location of the cache, Meg and Zach searched around and finally found it under a pile of bark. We wrote our names in the log book and Zach exchanged his parachute guy for a slinky. Meg chose to keep the parachute guy.

In the end it was a very enjoyable walk in the woods and the kids (and Mom and Dad) had a great time outside on a beautiful day.

Visitors from Indy

We are happy to say that Jack and the Beanstalk closed this weekend. Grandma and Grandpa McLean came up to see the show. We had a great time at the show and enjoyed teaching them how to play Wii Bowling. All of the kids were sad that the show ended. We will be happy to get our evenings back. Next weekend will be a fun one, filled with some much needed R&R.

Zach, Doggy Doc

This weekend we headed over to the Hammel Family zoo to escape the cold (-22 with wind chill yikes!). Meg and Zach had a great time playing dress up. Meg was a doctor working hard on a young horse. Zach after saving a dog's life went back to working the phones as the Zoo Director.

We spent most of the rest of the weekend indoors. so on Sunday night we had our neighbors over to play a little Wii bowling.

Christmas Whirlwind

We had another whirlwind Christmas. The kids had fun coming to work the morning of Christmas Eve. Then we headed down to Indy. Meg and Zach loved seeing their cousins and Grandma and Grandpa McLean. We got back to Grandma Chris’ house around 9pm that night. While Chris and the kids slept we went to Midnight Mass.

Christmas morning the kids were excited. They got lots of presents and they were very happy. Overall, it was a good Christmas, but too short. We were back home by 5:30pm Christmas night. Luckily our favorite Mexican restaurant was open so we could get some dinner before collapsing on the couch.

An Early Christmas Visitor

Grandpa Goellner drove up from St. Louis this weekend to spend some holiday time with the kids. On Thursday he saw Meg perform in her schools holiday show (click here). For Friday Elizabeth took the day off to hang out. Then Saturday we all went to the arboretum to enjoy the last bits of snow before they melted. That night we did our weekly pizza and a movie ritual. This week we watched Star Wars Episode 1. Meg and Zach got into it but Zach did say that he didn't like the guy with horns on his head (Darth Maul).

Check back on Christmas for our pictures of the kids ripping through brightly colored paper!