Chicago 2009: Day 4

Tuesday September 8: We spent the morning debating on a visit to a children's museum. Before our trip I had found out that the children's museum at Navy Pier was closed for the week and had found another alternative near the city, Kohl Children's Museum. We were concerned, however, that it would be a bit "old" for Kai or just not something that he would get into. We were concerned about losing time and money. The museum indicates that it is appropriate for ages 1-8, but we were still wary. After successfully getting Kai down for an early nap, we decided we would give it a try. We arrived a little more than 2 hours before closing, anticipating that we wouldn't need much more time than that. We were wrong! Kai LOVED the museum and we could have easily spent another hour or more there enjoying the hands-on exhibits. The museum was a blast and receives 2 thumbs way up in our book. Kai was sad when we had to leave. But we'll definitely keep this museum on our things-to-do list, and I think we're going to try the museum in Denver at some point now, too. We liked it so much that we even considered a year-long membership. We didn't do it, but we were sure tempted!

The first exhibit you see when you walk in is the "Car care" exhibit. I had to chase Kai down and pull him back to the desk for Reid to pay the minute he saw the cars and the tracks.


Once we got beyond the car exhibit, we found a doll day care center, a play library (where Kai played the computer games!), a hands-on house, nature center, water room (a BIG hit!), a music room, a mini-grocery store, and much, much more. There was even an outside park exhibit with some playground equipment. We took a lot of pictures, but here are some of the highlights!

Kai got soaked in the water room! You'll see him dripping wet in
the rest of these pictures. I guess we should have put on one of the
aprons provided. Oh well--he had a great time and didn't seem to mind!

Just down the road from the museum is the Chicago temple. On our way back to Grammy and Papa's we made a quick stop. By this point Kai was a bit tired and hungry so we couldn't stay long. But we got a few good pictures. After the temple, we went out to eat and then headed back to the house to share our stories. It was a really fun day!


And here are some of my favorite videos from the day: