The Bean

Chicago has a sculpture in Millennium Park that is sometimes called "The Bean." Maggie and Andy really liked The Bean and so before we went home, Andy had to get pictures of their sculpture.

Maggie posing by "The Bean."

Look at her walking all by herself! Yeah!

Water Fountains

Millennium Park has a very neat water fountain that Maggie enjoyed playing in. When we found out that we missed the dancers, we decided to play in the water instead. We all walked hand-in-hand for awhile and then Maggie found that she could splash in the water. She enjoyed crawling in it and getting all wet.

As we reflect on last year's trip, Maggie would have never have considered this type of play. We are so happy to have a "normal" child who wants to get wet. It's even more exciting to see her walking with support (though she can walk all by herself again). We love moving forward and watching her develop into a beautiful young girl.

Andy was a great sport and got down on his hands and knees too.

Though this picture is very dark, I love the look of joy on her face as she is splashing water.

All done and very wet!

Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo & Shedd Aquarium

We visited the Lincoln Park Zoo, as we did last year. It's a nice zoo that is free, which is ever better! We didn't spend a long time there as it was very hot, but we enjoyed it. Maggie's highlights were probably the sea lions (we enjoyed the air conditioning as well) and the monkeys.

The zoo had a great exhibit of monkeys that Maggie enjoyed.

Though I only post pictures of family here, this picture is actually for Uncle Steve. Columbus zoo doesn't have zebras, but we found them in Chicago!

One of the challenges of the weekend was naps. The freedom of a king size bed and the schedule were our opponents. After refusing to nap, Maggie was left looking like this for our supper one evening. But on the upside for her, she got to go swimming in the hotel pool rather than take a nap.

At Shedd aquarium, we got to watch a 4-D film on penguins. Maggie enjoyed wearing the glasses before the show, but was done once it started. Maggie's favorite thing about the aquarium was the "whales jumping."

Chicago's Millennium Park

One of Maggie's favorite things was watching the dancers in Millennium Park. The last night we were there, the dancers were dancing, but unfortunately, we got there too late. It was a disappointment as that is all Maggie was talking about, but she recovered quickly.

Andy loves the city of Chicago and it's landscape. There are many pictures of the beauty of Chicago's skyscrapers as we were staying in the heart of Chicago. Unfortunately, I don't share nearly in the excitement that Andy has and so I am not posting them on the blog. My photography eye catches the beauty in my family, so this is what you will see most often.

Once again, eating an ice cream cone.

Dancing with the dancers.

A new interest of Maggie's is photography. Much of our camera is loaded with her photos (thank goodness for digital cameras). Here she is grabbing for the camera because she wants to take pictures of the dancers.

Silly faces with Daddy.

Last year, I carried Maggie almost the entire trip. This year, Maggie wanted to push her stroller and walk. It was a nice change, though a bit slow at times. She built up a lot of strength walking the streets of Chicago.

Chicago's Hot Doug's

We went to Hot Doug's first on our trip to Chicago. We went there last year and really enjoyed the exotic hot dogs. This year, we waited almost 2 hours for a hot dog. Maggie did excellent waiting in line outside for that long, especially after not having a nap and waking up very early to drive there.

Though we went to Hot Doug's for the unique hot dogs, the cheese fries were the hit for Maggie.

Peek-a-boo!

A happy little girl. Maggie loves to eat out at restaurants. Too bad our budget doesn't allow.

Columbus Zoo

I am going a bit out of order, but wanted to post pictures of our trip to the Columbus Zoo several weeks ago. Maggie loves animals and the morning we went, we had to wake her up. We told her we were going to the zoo and she jumped up in bed and started naming animals we would see (though we were both a bit disappointed we didn't see giraffes or zebras).

The penguins were a highlight to the zoo trip.

It was a bit challenging to get a picture of the penguins, Andy & Maggie looking at the camera all at once.

Maggie's uncle Steve, aunt Alyssa & Ian came along with us (along with Grandpa & Grandma Bixler). Maggie also was sporting the bandages during that trip with her blister and cast.

The highlight for Maggie was probably riding the carousel.

Grandma Bixler was able to hold Maggie through the aquariums. She was quite the lug to hold though, I'm sure.

How to get Maggie to smile (or at least look at the camera)? Tell her to have her stickers say cheese at the camera.

And one of our most favorite foods this summer is the ice cream cone. It does tend to melt all over her before it all gets into her mouth.

Chicago

Andy finished his internship on Friday and started his post-doc position today at Wright State. We decided for the long weekend (it's the first vacation day he has had in a year) that we would go back to Chicago. We had such a great time last year that we wanted to enjoy the big city feel once again, especially since Chicago has so much to offer in terms of entertainment.

I will be posting pictures, but I wanted to post this video of Maggie at Shedd Aquarium. The excitement she exhibited during the show, as well as throughout our entire vacation, warms our heart. We both continued to think during our trip how 6 months ago we weren't sure we'd ever be able to do anything like this with Maggie ever again. We've come a long way and we're not ever going to stop.