Hoefer Family Vacation

The Hoefer clan headed to the Chicago area this past weekend. The adults were outnumbered eight to nine. We left Iowa City Thursday evening and got to the hotel for some swimming and pizza from Gino's East. Our first night in the hotel was very tiring. Sylvia slept for a couple of hours before we came to bed and was then up from 10:00 until 2:00. After moving locations 4 or 5 times, she finally fell asleep on the floor next to our bed. Then, Erickson woke up at 3:00 and 5:00 to eat. It was an exhausting night but we still had energy for 6 Flags over Great America the next day.

Dan had Sylvia measured as we entered the park and she was tall enough to ride some of the bigger rides. We started the day off with a carousel ride. Gretchen and I rode three times with the boys while they ate. Sylvia loved all the rides. I took her on her first roller coaster, The Little Dipper. At one point she said she didn't like it but by the end she thought it was fun. Dan could see her face as we came down the first hill and said she had a funny look on her face. I also took her on the log ride which I thought twice about as we bumped around and headed up the big hill. We also took her on the Raging River. She wasn't too sure about the water rides but I talked to her all the way through them and I think she enjoyed them. (I'm using the Adventureland names since I can't remember what they were called at 6 Flags.) I still can't believe she's old enough and tall enough to go on all these rides. There are lots of great kids' rides at Great America

Saturday we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The traffic was horrible due to some flooding and the fact that we were in Chicago. It took us almost 3 hours to get to the museum after changing routes a few times and stopping to feed Eric and eat lunch. Although a lot of the museum is for older children, there are some really neat activities for younger children too. If we had not been so tired I would have taken more time to look at a map and focus on the preschool activities. Sylvia's favorite things at the museum were the airplane and the cow.

Hotel Pool
We changed our Sunday morning plans (after spending a large portion of Saturday in the car) and played in the pool. Sylvia is getting really good at swimming with a fun noodle. She snuck up on Grandma and got her all wet. Sylvia loves spending time with her cousins and has been talking about them a lot since we got home.


The Hotel
My sister-in-law, Becky, booked us some great hotel rooms. We took our monitor with so we could put the kiddos down at night and then play games in my parents' room. Eric recently found his feet and loved hanging out on the hotel bed like this.