Mystery Field Trip

Derek took a couple days off this week, mostly to hunt....  but also to do a little day trip.  We woke the boys up super early and told them we were going on a field trip. 

Cooper had all kinds of guesses about what fun thing we might have planned. Bass Pro Shop, Bicycle Safety Town, a playground, Ethan's house...

And when we pulled into the parking garage (that I didn't take a picture of) he recognized it as the one we parked in when we visited the Children's Museum in Bloomington on Memorial Day. He was only disappointed for a couple minutes when we told him that's not where we were headed and that it wasn't even open yet.  Mostly because we walked inside...

And told them we were going on a ride.

...a ride that required tracks!

Then we heard the whistle and the train pulled in.

These super excited boys found their seats on the AmTrak train.

 And we settled in for a two and half hour ride.

Then we arrived at our destination: Chicago!  Where the boys were amazed at the tall buildings.  Cooper said, "We must live in a town, because this is a city!".  Ha.

Our next adventure was the city bus.

Which the boys also thought lots of fun.

(And I handled just fine, thanks, Angie.)

When we got off we were near Lake Michigan, so we asked someone to take our picture.

And then we walked up to Shedd Aquarium...  our field trip destination!

...more to come.  I narrowed the day's photos down to 86 from over 300, but it's going to take a couple posts.  Bear with me?