Weekend in Chicago Part 2 of 2: Family Day

We had a very action packed day on Saturday with Jake, Joscelynn and Jonah. Our day started out much like Friday, with letting the boys take their morning naps before we headed out. They had planned for us to go down to Lincoln Park and visit the Nature Museum and Zoo. Lincoln Park is their old neighborhood, so they picked us out a delicious little place to have lunch, Aloha Grill, that serves traditional Hawaiian plate lunches...Mmmm!

We were able to get into the Nature Museum for free because it is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It was a fun place for 2 little boys to explore while it was damp outside.

Since it was a "nature museum", there were a lot of fun creatures to check out.

There was even an indoor play place...

...and of course the slide was a HUGE hit!

Our last stop in the museum was the butterfly garden. I have only been to three butterfly gardens in my life, but this one was hands down the best one!

While we were in the museum the weather cleared up and we actually got to see the sun! It was perfect fall weather and we took advantage of it by checking out a little bit of the zoo.

Of course the monkeys were the boys favorite part...the real ones and the ones made of bronze!

Jake didn't want the little boys to out do him, so he decided to have his picture taken with the the monkey too.

The gorillas were huge and a little intimidating! Jake wanted to see how he compared in size.

After our fun day out, we went back to their house and relaxed for awhile while Jake made dinner. Karter and Jonah liked playing/climbing on daddy/Uncle Kristoffer.

Kristoffer had gotten some carving kits from work and we thought it would be fun to carve up some pumpkins with Jake and Jos. So after the boys were in bed we got down to business.

Kristoffer was all business the whole time!

I had to carve quickly to ensure that Team Gray finished first. Who know that carving pumpkins could be turned into a contest!

The pumpkins turned out really cool (ours is on the left and theirs is on the right), and was the perfect ending to a great day.

On Sunday I thought we were just going to go to church and out to lunch before heading home, so I didn't bother bringing my camera along. Bad choice! Jake didn't tell us before heading out that our restaurant was going to be right across the street from Harpo Studio...as in where The Oprah Winfrey Show is taped! Kristoffer and I were surprised at the neighborhood the studio was in and wished we had our camera to document it.

We had the best time in Chicago and loved spending time with our favorite Tomaw's! Thank you so much Jake & Joscelynn for your hospitality and we can't wait to see you soon.