The End

Last Friday, Caterpillar made another offer to the Union in Joliet... And it was accepted!

Ryan will be home FOR GOOD this Friday. He's been gone four months, and now it is all over. Hallelujah.

Since it will all be over soon (I can't believe I'm really saying that; it's still in pencil in my calendar), we thought we'd take advantage of one last time at his "free" hotel outside Chicago.

On Saturday and Sunday, we swam, ate pizza, and walked along the canal. On Monday, and we headed to Navy Pier and the Chicago Children's Museum.

I think everyone's favorite part was the dinosaur dig. The bones were cast from a dinosaur that was discovered by a University of Chicago professor in 1997. The entire skeleton was located in the lobby, but these artificial pieces were buried in tire-mulch to be uncovered. It was fun.

Brennan and Collin also loved the Chicago Fire exhibit, and it was all we could do to get them to move to the next area.

Of course, the water table was a hit.

I love Navy Pier. I love walking along and watching all the people. I love all the accents from people from around the world. I love seeing the gargantuan yachts on the lake. This trip, I loved the PERFECT weather - 70s with a cool breeze. There were intermittent showers, but we missed them all perfectly. It was a great morning.

We also decided to do the Ferris wheel this time. We'd never done it before, and Collin started begging as soon as we got there.

Unfortunately, I forgot how afraid of heights I get, and it was miserable for me. I had a death grip on the side bars, while lecturing Ryan to hold the kids still and stop standing and rocking the car. So stupid.

The best part was when Collin said, "It's okay, Mom. We are almost back down." He was in heaven. Glad he didn't inherit that part of my chicken-personality.

Brennan has had a terrible coughing, snotty cold, so he was less than enthusiastic, but he's a pretty easy-going guy.

Here we are as we headed off the pier and back to the car. You can see they were done.

Go free hotels. Go Navy Pier. Go Union contracts. Hooray for our Daddy's Homecoming!

Worth Every Penny

Ryan's absence has taught me that one of the best things in life is...

paying others to do things for you.

He came home over the weekend, and we did this -

Bike ride with half way picnic...

 

 

...and lots of playing in the park.

While the dry wall hangers did this -

Before stairwell

After stairwell

Before entryway

After entryway

Before bonus room

After bonus room

Before bedroom

After bedroom

Eight hours, and it was done. And we didn't lift a finger.

(Clarification: These pictures are slightly misleading. They hung all the dry wall in one day, but I forgot to take pictures before the finishing work began. The taping and mudding you see in these pictures took a week.)

Now that's the kind of life I'd like to lead... if we had unlimited funds, of course.

Here's to paying people to do our work!

PS: The mowers are doing the yard while I type this blog. I could get used to this...