Chicago Botanic Gardens

It's my goal to do at least 2 "go somewhere" fun things a month (not including the bi-weekly trip to Sams Club and the grocery store) and in that spirit, this past week we decided to visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens. It's not exactly easy finding places to take your 3 month old twins where people won't mind the possibility of a lot of crying, nursing, and where I don't mind showing off my spit-up upon attire. The botanic gardens are the perfect adventure for us for several reasons: outside babies can cry all they want and no one gets mad, there are plenty of secluded benches for nursing, it gives us a chance to get a little exercise, there are lots of pretty colors for the babies to look at, and the best part is....drum roll... it's FREE! woo-hoo! That is, for military anyway. So off we went with sandwiches in hand and babies snug in their blankies.

Camden all snug with his daddy

co in the snap and go. we decided to switch off who rode in the stroller and who was carried. The one getting carried gets a great view and extra snuggling

Sleepy Cohen. Wonder what he's dreaming about...

What a cutie!

I want a vegetable garden just like this! It's fantastic! These boxes let in the sun but can be closed to keep the plants out of the elements. The bottom is open to the soil.

These huge vegetables were all around the vegetable garden, there was one pumpkin as big as 2 men!

beautiful vegetable garden! can't wait to have my own like this one day...

They have a bonsai display with 20 specimens, some over 50 years old. these things are amazing the way they are grown and shaped to look like full grown trees! I wish Trevor could have been there with me to see them.

Forest, or bonsai?

I spy with my little eye...Find Cameron and Camden in these two photos!

cameron decided to take the babies on their first "off-roading" adventure

Don't you love my luscious lips! mwah!

I know this guy does...

Gettin' ready to eat some yummy milks for lunch

I see the boob, I see it!

Is it my turn yet mom?

A really cool cactus in a really warm greenhouse.

Love the eyebrows. Can't wait to see what he can do with them when he's older

Cannabalism?

PEEK-A-BOO! I see you!

There was a cute little water feature in the hallway so I decided to sit a bit with Co before going back out into the cold

There was a flower show going on at the time-the pink one and the white one are my top picks. I would love waking up to a vase of these freshly picked every morning!

Cool prickly brain looking thingie

Public Museum

A week before we went to the zoo, we tried to go to the zoo but ended up going to the Public Museum of Kenosha instead because of bad weather. We've been there once before when the babies were in my tummy but didn't get to finish seeing all the exhibits so we decided to give it another go. Little did we know that if it was hard to see everything when I was PREGNANT, it is near IMPOSIBBLE to see everything with two hungry babies needing attention!

Daddy loves to make funny faces at the camera!

haha there is a baby under there but I bet you can't tell!

I'm making a weird face...not sure whats going on there. camden is sure a cutie though!

Luckily we found a nice sunny spot upstairs where I could nurse (I think it was a total of 4 times, which occupied more than 50% of our two hours in the museum). As it turned out, the art display they had was kinda weird, so I didn't mind sitting and nursing most of the time; there was such a great view out the windows of the lake and the sailboats on it.

this is what Cameron did while I nursed. Cameron + baby + more than 5 minutes = sleep

I'm so glad I found this car seat carrier on craigslist for $20 bucks, woot! so much easier than getting them out of their car seats and putting them into a stroller when they're sleepy

camden's whats goin' on face

I think there were also exhibits on Renaissance art studios and some stuff on Kenosha in the past, but I just saw lots of babies, go figure!

Cohen: My sleeping angel of chub

First Trip to the Zoo

So we were feeling adventurous a few weeks ago and decided to explore Racine, a little city north of here. Ok so we weren't feeling as adventurous as we really just couldn't afford the gas to spend the day in Chicago...but we do love exploring! When I found out there was a zoo OF COURSE we HAD to go! (If you know anything about me you know I LOVE zoos! I even used to work at one  & it was the best job of my life...besides being a mom that is! I digress...so we went to the zoo in Racine.

the zoo is right on the beach! guess if the animals escape they better know how to swim!

I guess it's about 35 minutes or so away, but it's such a nice drive through the countryside to get there it doesn't seem like a burden (unless the babies are crying...that was on the way HOME luckily). Once we got inside Cohen started crying to eat, of course! I thought I had found a secluded spot to nurse in a little building but it seems like once I got the cover on and the baby latched everybody in the whole zoo suddenly entered! Talk about awkward! Luckily there was a tank of fish I could stare at and pretend I wasn't nursing my baby under this little cover with 15 complete strangers standing all around me staring in my direction (the fish tank was a good distraction for me, but unfortunately it was pretty much the only thing to look at in the building, and since I was right in front of it, they were all looking at me)!

After that whole ordeal things went a bit more smoothly (if you don't count the 2 other feedings and 2 diaper changes thrown in, lol) and we got to see a few animals.

Cohen in front of the exhibit of his fellow Gorillas

Notice the capacity for complex facial movements

the depressed penguins :(

The "easily ridable cows" (no that is not the scientific name). so dubbed by Cameron, as they have "big horns to grab onto so you don't fall off".

I admit I was pretty disappointed with the selection. It seems they had some cooler ones, but they were rebuilding some of the exhibits. We were, however, very much entertained by the meerkats (all 5 of them). Not natures finest specimens, but very enjoyable to watch in this instance. There was one little meerkitty who was standing watch who decided to be lazy and fell asleep at his post. It was pretty hilarious actually as he started to slide down the hill.

Before he fell asleep, vigilantly standing guard! who knows when some passerby might threaten to destroy his clans peace by throwing a piece of trash in the exhibit!

The main exhibit, however, appeared not the be the animals, but US! I guess the sight of a man carrying two babies in a front pack is unquestionably an interest since EVERY person we passed awwed and oohed and told us how cute it was!

I think we should have started charging people to stop and look at the cuteness!

standing up straight, a fine specimen of manhood!

camden

cohen (and the hairy chest)

US!

Time for more photos

So I thought I would put a few more photos on here (you can't have too many pics of babies!) to show how these guys are growing! 

Aunt Wendy made this fun blanket! We also love a good nightie

I think Cohen was surprised by something? Camden is chill

This is my FAVORITE face Cohen1 You are adorable! I adore you!

What's going on over there?

I don't know why I have so many shots of Cameron sleeping while holding the babies. Maybe because he's always sleeping?

Its almost like he knows how cute he is

Cohen is getting to be a CHUB! I can't believe they have doubled in size already1

Classic Cohen face

Camden hanging out in the swing. He looks like he has a really fat belly in this pic...must have just eaten

Does it say anything in the baby handbook about machine washability?

what I see every day and I love it

My sweet pie guys

These are my favorite outfits. They just barely started fitting into their 0-3 month shorts (now that it's starting to cool off of course!) so they can finally wear them!