Fourth

So this is a little late, but I wanted to tell the story of my Independence Day weekend. We had some houseguests coming in for a long weekend, so Wednesday was full of preparations for their arrival. The guests were family: my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece... we all shared the apartment that weekend. They arrived just a shade past midnight and after getting all the luggage inside, we were promptly off to our respective beds - me in my usual sleeping spot, and they scattered about the couches and air mattress.

Thursday:
After a not-so-quick stop at Dunkin Donuts, we headed off to Six Flags Great America, for a day of thrilling rides! The first ride was a carousel, the second was bumper cars. This was not a very thrilling start, by my niece and nephew are 3 and 6, respectively, so this was a great start in their sparkly little eyes! The real adventure started with some spinny rides followed by some roller coasters. If you've ever been to a themed amusement park, you know that these are really the only two types of rides that exist, or matter to the thrill-seeker. Steve even convinced me to ride the log flume, which I was trying to be adamant about not doing... I hate wet rides. I did it and got soaked, but the look on Jackie's face when I saw her picture they took on the drop-off was absolutely worth walking around in wet socks for an hour or so. I could tell we were wearing out the pack because as the sun started to set on our day, Nathan and I were the only two riding rides anymore, and in fact, Bella had taken a little power nap while we were all on the wooden roller coaster. Jackie was a trooper though and did ride their version of the Scrambler as the day was winding down. I'm sure I'm leaving out a host of details, but those are the highlights.
After we left, we had dinner at Superdawg for the ultimate Chicago-style hot dog eating experience. It was delicious as always. I think the adults enjoyed it more than the kids, which is a shocker, but it is not your run-of-the-mill hot dog (it IS a SUPER DAWG, after all), so I get it...

Friday:
We got up and ate breakfast, slowly. We had a big day planned of going out to LegoLand and Medieval Times in Schaumburg. First, we picked up an authentic "cornhole" set for Steve, which is just a fun way of saying the lawn game known as "bags". I then treated him to a Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich for lunch at Roma's - probably one of the best beefs in Chicago and only steps from my place! LegoLand was first on the sight-seeing agenda. We headed out to LegoLand Discovery Center and spent a few hours exploring and playing... I couldn't resist jumping in on the playing... in fact, I even won a contest building a knight out of Legos....a contest in which I was the sole participant, but a win is a win. I was so absorbed in my own entertainment that I hardly noticed what my niece and nephew were up to. I got the picture once I looked through the photos.
Medieval Times was next, for a "night of eating and sport the likes of which we'd never forget" (that's a quote from "Cable Guy" starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick). This actually didn't disappoint. The 6-course meal was surprisingly delicious and the show was very cool. I think the kids really got into, so that was fun, but it was almost like going to a sporting event (since they give you a knight in the "tournament" for whom to root) so I had a good time cheering and booing and celebrating when my knight made it to the final battle, only to boo and hiss as he lost to the other guy who was seemingly knocked out but bounced back to dominate my guy, the Green Knight (the sworn enemy of the kingdom, I'll have you know).
This was a good time and mainly ended our night, except for Steve and I who though it would be a good idea to go play night gold with LED-lit balls and glow sticks at a course by my house at 11pm. I was so tired I shot like crap, but it was still a fun and safe way to spend a Friday evening.

Saturday:
The plan was to go down to the Lincoln Park Zoo, but since we didn't get down there at like 8am for parking, which is what you almost have to do, we had no shot at parking 2 vehicles and enjoying any fun in Lincoln park, so we left and went out to Glenview to the Kohl's Children's Museum, after a quick lunch at Potbelly... This place actually turned out to be very fun and educational. I think the kids enjoyed it and I know I had fun. After painting a dog paw-print "tattoo" on Kristen's arm, my nephew wanted his face painted like a tiger, so I did, much to his chagrin. His exact expression after he saw his face in the mirror was, "Aww man!". It was funny. I didn't take it personally considering I was using crayons dipped in water and a face as my media, and I actually thought it looked very convincing.
After this place we had to head home to get ready for our BBQ. Kristen's family came over - Jaime, Dan, Liz, and Andy - for some entertainment provided by the kiddos, and some of the adults when we were forced to play charades! Since it was my house, I was the grill master, which turned out to be quite an undertaking when I put too much meat on the grill at once and exhausted the coals, causing the food to take FOREVER to cook. I think this gave everyone ample time to shoot the breeze, though, so it worked out. After some beers, desserts, and aforementioned entertainment, we wrapped this party up and that was that.

Sunday:
The fam left but the party wasn't over. We met some friends in Wrigleyville after the Cubs' spectacular loss to Cincinnati, and proceeded to carry on until late into the evening. This of course was after hopping around to three different bars. I had a 24oz Corona that was so huge it almost took me two hands to lift the bottle.

Anyway, that weekend was fun, memorable, and exhausting! Can't wait for the next batch of visitors and for the next holiday weekend that affords me some more time away from the office!