Shedd Aquarium

This weekend was our JDRF Walk weekend.  Last year my sister and her family came out on Friday and we went up on Sat to spend the weekend together in Schaumburg.  This year we did the same thing, only we went to Chicago on Sat instead of staying in the area of the walk.  It was a fun time, but I think we both agreed that next year we'll stay in the area of the walk, because the traffic in Chicago got a little crazy and, by the time we got back to the hotel, my kids and her kids were exhausted!

We got up to Chicago around lunchtime and we parked at Soldier Field, the Bears Stadium.  We saw this trailer parked outside and had to get our picture taken here.  Gotta represent!

We had gotten McDonalds, so we ate outside before heading over to the Aquarium.  I've never been there before, so it was really fun to see it.  The Stadium and the Aquarium are right on the lake, in this really beautiful area next to the Planetarium and the Field Museum.  You could see the Skyline behind it too, so it was really beautiful.

You can see what I mean in this picture.  See the skyline back there?  Just really cool!

When we walked up the Aquarium, we saw this fountain.  Kinda looked like Obama holding a fish.  I don't understand it, but whatever.

The first thing we saw once we got inside was this big, round aquarium.  We almost couldn't pull the kids away from it.  They thought it was so cool!

While Em and I were with the kids, the dads stood dutifully by with the strollers. :-)

They had aquariums filled with everything you can imagine.  There were sections for the Amazon, for river, for the Great Lakes.  There was so much to see and do!

Here's Livie and Uncle Jeff checking out something fun!

It was this little frog!  Livie, of course, loved the frogs!  I did too.  They were such bright colors and so tiny!

Livie's face in this picture cracked me up!!  I don't know if it was the size of the crab that made her look like this, but something "wowed" her!

The weather outside was getting pretty cloudy (there was a huge thunderstorm that passed through while we were inside).  But, you can still see the lake and the skyline here.  I loved it!

In the Polar area, there was a place to touch starfish.  They were really big starfish too!  Kendalyn was too nervous to do that, but my kids loved it!

I think my favorite part was watching the Beluga whales.  They were just beautiful!  I could sit there all day and watch them swim.

The penguins were really cute too.  They were communicating with each other and a couple even got into a fight, which was quite hilarious.

Near the penguins, there was an area for the kids to climb and penguin suits to put on.  I only got this picture of Kendalyn and Livie wearing them, but the other kids put them on too and played here for quite a long time.

This was the picture that was taken when we first walked in.  It cost me $30 to get, but I didn't care.  I loved that it had all of us in it!  Avery didn't want her picture taken, but that just makes it more fun, if you ask me. :-)