I found it!

For some reason that's what Leo says every time we pull into the Urbana Free Library parking lot--"I found it!" As if it were missing and he were an intrepid explorer. We stopped at the library on our way out of town for the weekend. We left right after lunch on Saturday to go to Jeff's aunt and uncle's in Wilmette, IL. It was about a three hour drive. We had a great lasagna dinner and hung out in the evening.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early and braved the below-zero temps and windchills to make the 45 minute drive into downtown Chicago to go to the Shedd Aquarium. We got there right at 9am when they opened and met up with my friend Heather and her family. Heather and I went to library school together and she now runs a library not too far from Jeff's home town.

The boys seemed to have a really good time seeing all of the different fish and really enjoyed the dolphin show. We saw the whales but aren't sure if we spotted the baby whale or (probably) not. We also got to see the Komodo dragon [diet: anything it wants]. While the boys didn't have much opportunity to directly interact much, I think they liked each other. It was so good to see Heather again and finally meet Otto (and Jon)!

We had lunch together and Leo started to act like he wasn't feeling well--he got the chills and wouldn't eat his lunch. We looked around a little more and left for Jeff's aunt and uncle's in Barrington. He didn't nap much during the hour drive and by the time we got there he had a fever of over 102. We put him down to sleep some more and I went up to check on him after 45 minutes and he was chatting away to himself. He was still really warm, with bright red cheeks, but in a decent mood.

We went downstairs to join everyone and he had fun playing catch with Jeff's cousin David (who's a 7th grader) and watching Stuart Little. Leo even got brave enough to stand next to their big black lab Yogi while it was out of the crate. He said he wanted to pet the dog, but didn't get quite that brave. Maybe next time. After a fabulous dinner (which Leo didn't eat but behaved nicely during) the boys all played with the wooden train set and had a great time. Then we headed back to Wilmette to spend the night and got there just in time to hear the Packers lose the playoff game in overtime. Bummer!

By this morning Leo's fever was gone and he was in a good mood, although his appetite wasn't 100%. We left around 9:30am and were home by noon. There was much less traffic than there had been on the way up, but it was scary going at first because the salt and dusting of snow was making the windshield uncooperative--as soon as the wipers cleared it, it kept refreezing and we couldn't see well. Add in the glare of the sun and the first 30 minutes of the trip were a nail-biter. Leo really liked the big buildings and the highway though and said "whee" a few times as we'd follow a curve on I-94.

Pictures will be forthcoming. When we got to the aquarium our camera wasn't working so we had to buy a disposable one at the gift shop. We'll have to get it developed soon.