Chicago

Last weekend we took a super fun trip to Chicago to watch this girl play basketball...

That picture is actually from a week before the trip on senior night.  I can't believe the end of the season and Jaime's career is so close.  We have been supporting the Hawkeyes at almost every home game this year and decided to head to Chicago for the Big Ten Women's tournament.  We got to see the Hawkeyes play two games in Chicago and one little person in our family also enjoyed these...

Other loves for Aria at the Hawkeye games were Herky, the instruments, Morgan, Samantha, and Bethany!  It made her wide-eyed with excitement!

This is Jaime's boyfriend's nephew.  I'm not sure who liked who more...

And, there is always a good picture with Daddy!

Aside from the potty story (see below) we had fun the whole weekend!  We swam...

Our hotel was perfect.  It was a suite where there was a living room with a pull-out sofa, a bathroom between, and then the bedroom.  That way, Aria slept sort of in a separate room from us.  There was no door to close, but she couldn't see us, either.  It certainly makes sleep happen much more quickly.

We also checked out the DuPage Children's Museum.  It was practically empty when we went, which was awesome!

This was the part of the museum that kept her interest the longest, building a really, really, really big house!

And on the last day we went to Shedd Aquarium.

The fun penguin play area!

Surprisingly, my favorite was the beluga whales.  The white one is the mom and the gray one is the baby.  They were pretty awesome!

Aria enjoyed the shark ray!

This is a live shark in utero.  Or sort of.  I don't remember exactly what the little thing said about this, but basically a shark lays it's "egg" on the side of rocks or coral and then it grows like this.  You could see it moving around in there...very cool!

Aria thought it was hilarious that this fish was stuck to the glass.

Aria talks a lot about this spider crab.  It was  cool and creepy looking.

We also went to the aquatic show at Shedd, but I must say I was a little disappointed.  There was way too much talking and not enough animals doing tricks, in my opinion.  There were whales, dolphins, and penguins in the show.  It was fun when we got to see the animals, but the sea lion show at the zoo in St. Louis that we saw last summer blew it out of the water...hee hee.

I also splurged and bought Aria a shirt that says, "Daddy, can I have a penguin?"  It is even pink, but I couldn't resist since we like penguins so much around here.  It was a fun little get away and it is so awesome to do more and more with Aria.  She is so flexible (except for in public restrooms) and is a trooper when travelling.