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We had a fun Halloween! We carved pumpkins (Quinn did his by himself for the first time!)

The boys and I rode on the MOMS Club float in the town Halloween Parade:

We even found a little dragon when we went trick or treating! Happy first Halloween, Colton!

More photos in the Fall 2012 album!

First days of school going backward in time:

2012 – Quinn third grade, Miles kindergarten

2011 – Quinn second grade, Miles preschool

2010 – Quinn first grade, Miles preschool

2009 – Quinn kindergarten

2008 – Quinn preschool

2007 – Quinn preschool

See more photos in the First Days of School Over the Years album!

While we miscalculated a bit and didn’t get to visit a big water park as planned (they’re all closed in the Chicago area by the third week of August – I assume because all the kids are going back to school there), we did visit Stingray Bay, the local pool, complete with water slides, diving boards, etc. It was breezy but we were determined to have a great time! Here the boys show of their interpretation of the olympic sport synchronized diving:

Miles warms up with Nana.

The boys took their scooters for a spin around the pond by Nana and Papa’s house. Afterward they stopped to feed the fish some cheerios. Who knew that fish liked cheerios?!?

The second week of our visit we also made the much anticipated trip to Six Flags Great America. Quinn has done some growing in the past year and was just tall enough to ride on ALL of the roller coasters! Because of that (and because Miles is SO tolerant and easy going), the day was almost entirely spent going on roller coasters, which certainly made me happy! Miles couldn’t go on the biggies, but he did wait in line with us and wait through while we did the parent swap on subsequent rides. Luckily we did find three roller coasters he could go on – one of which he went on twice! Quinn and I had a final ride count for the day was 1 water raft ride and 7 roller coasters!!! We all went on the raft ride, and most impressively, Eric only sat out for the final coaster ride that I took with the boys. A great day! Here they are waiting in the line for Superman – the only ride we waited more than 30ish minutes to get on:

The last night of our trip we went out for dinner with lots of family and had a great time. I took lots of photos that night (the kids were posing…well, mostly my nieces!) but I don’t have room to share them all here, but you can see the good ones by visiting the gallery!

More photos in the Chicago 2012 album! Good bye Chicago, see you next time!

One of the highlights of our trip was taking the boys to their first major league baseball game – Nana and Papa brought us all to Wrigley Field! This was also the first time the cousins have seen each other in 2 years, but luckily they hit it off quickly. Here are the kids at dinner before the game:

Go, Cubs, go!!!

Later in the week we went to a great theater in the round show of Sleeping Beauty, and then went to lunch with family. Here are the kids burning off some steam outside the restaurant:

We also visited a great local playground.

The first week of our trip was rounded up with a concert by Nana’s band! Here are the kids directing Stars and Stripes Forever:

Lots more to see in the Chicago 2012 album!

We arrived in Chicago the day after Eric’s birthday in August, so one of the first things we did was have cake!

The next day we visited the Volo Auto Museum with friends and had a great time checking out all the cars on display – everything from antique cars to classic cars to TV and movie cars! Yabba dabba doo!

Here are all the boys at the museum – too bad this was the best photo I managed!

Next up was a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry, where we took in some of their regular exhibits, like the huge model train set up…

…as well as the temporary Mythbusters exhibit, where we got to try our hands at building houses to withstand the pressure of being in a wind tunnel, try pulling a tablecloth out from under dishes, run through the rain, see a live show, and more! It was so much fun! Here’s Quinn trying the tablecloth trick:

And here’s Miles waiting for the show to start:

Lots more to see in the Chicago 2012 album!