Kohl's Children's Museum

So if you're ever in Chicago with little kids, you need to visit this children's museum. Ethan could have stayed there for weeks and not gotten bored. He "shopped" in the tiny sized grocery store (just about the cutest thing I've ever seen), made subs at the tiny Potbelly's store, raced through a maze, saw himself on TV, raced lego cars, played in Clifford's (the big red dog) town, and drenched himself in all the water activities. I'm sure I'm leaving out a ton of other things, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Egg Hunt in the Snow

DC has had a very mild winter (for which I am very grateful since we park on the street which is a huge nightmare with snow) but we've been hearing from family in Utah, Chicago, and Ohio who have been hammered over and over by huge snowstorms. So we were sad to see that most of the snow had melted by the time we got to Cleveland and again in Chicago. I was excited however when Chicago got over 6 inches of snow while we were there (my parents were less excited).
Their ward has a tradition of doing an Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter- rain or shine- or in this case- snow covered. So we dressed Ethan up in what little winter gear we had and let him at it. He was happy to grab eggs off the top of the snow but once those were taken, he was less happy digging in the snow to find the eggs. Oh well! At least the pictures are great!

Half-way to Chicago

Because Isaac was born at Christmas, we didn't get to travel and see our families much. So for Spring Break we decided we'd visit my parents in Chicago and since Ethan's now 2 and we didn't want to pay for 3 plane tickets, we decided to drive. And miraculously, my older brother Dave lives in Cleveland which is exactly halfway between DC and Chicago and 6 1/2 hours is just about the perfect amount of driving for a day (at least with a 2 year old and a 3 month old). So we stopped at their house both coming and going and had the best time. Ethan loved having 3 older boy cousins to run around with (he especially loved the pillow fights)

and Claire seemed very interested in Baby Isaac. We only wish we lived closer! We're trying to convince them that the legal market in Ogallala, Nebraska is booming so we'll have a halfway stop between Salt Lake and Chicago when we graduate. Thanks Dave and Nikki! We love your family!

Joyschool

I just have to give a shout-out to all the great moms who teach with me. It's been such a blessing in my life (and Ethan's as well) to be able to do Joyschool. Ethan is in heaven! He has the social interaction that he craves and is learning a little on the side too. I love getting to teach again as well as having a little time just with Isaac (I had forgotten how easy it was to shop with an infant who isn't asking for something every 5 seconds and grabbing things off every store shelf).
Last week we were learning about "discovering" and I got to teach magic tricks. Let's just say I'm no David Copperfield but the kids sure thought I was. Ches was so cute and would say "Abakadaba" every time I waved my wand. Mark was determined to figure out how every trick worked, and Elise was the perfect audience. Sadly, Ethan missed the magic becuause Taylor had to take him to the doctor for an ear infection but he loved walking in the house and finding all his friends there.
On a funny note, Taylor took Ethan to a hockey game this week with some Law School friends. He told me that the first few times someone got slammed into the glass or started a fight, Ethan got really wide-eyed and Taylor could hear him mumbling "we never hit, or kick, or push". Yeah for Joyschool! Maybe the lessons really are sinking in!
And in case anyone was wondering, it's not a good idea to let 2 and 3 year olds fingerpaint unless you're ready for lots of clean-up.

Baltimore Aquarium

We love being in DC because there are so many museums and they're all free (yes thank you for paying your taxes) but the one thing that's missing is a decent aquarium. So Friday the boys and I carpooled up to Baltimore with our good friends the Gilbert's to visit the Baltimore Aquarium.

It's an amazing aquarium. Ethan loved the fish and spent most of the time running from one tank to another. He was most impressed by the "Nemo" and "Dory" fish he found as well as the poison dart frogs that were jumping around. At first he was really freaked out and wouldn't go near the tanks when there were big fish from the Amazon, etc. I had to spend a while convincing him that there was glass to keep the fish inside and they couldn't get him. After that he was fine and in fact decided he thought it was fun to jump at the glass and startle the fish. Fun! Isaac enjoyed the trip by riding in a bjorn. We got to the stingray and turtle exhibit just in time to watch a diver feed them. Ethan was very impressed and kept yelling "diver" like he thought he needed to warn someone(I think his only experience with divers is again from "Finding Nemo" where it's a bad diver who steals Nemo. I particularly loved the shark exhibit because you walk down ramps and the sharks are in a circular tank surrounding you and swimming past you the whole time. It's very dark and eerie of course!

Everyone's favorite part of all was the dolphin show. They did all the normal tricks and none of us got splashed so it was a success!