ugly fish and jellies

because i have been buried under this mound of laundry i have

 been slow to post the rest of our trip to chicago .. 

and since i am wanting to avoid the huge mess up i made at work i thought i would tell you about

all the ugly fish and jellies we saw at the shedd aquarium 

even though we froze and had to run with our heads tucked way down into our coats

making us look like crazy people we still had a great time .. 

chicago options exchange

on monday morning we awoke to 12 degree weather and snow flurries .. 

lucky for us we were going to meet Mr. Bittman at the CBOE .. the chicago board of options exchange .. kinda like the stock exchange but they trade options instead .. for a tour ..

the last few times we have been in chicago we have stopped by this building .. 

we got as far as the lobby ..

thankfully this year with a little help from an old friend we got a tour .. 

this is the trading floor .. 

they were more than nice .. come closer they kept saying ..

i think all the hollering made the kids nervous .. 

there was screaming and shouting and hand waving and hand signals ..

it was pretty exciting .. 

cash asked what this was .. 

a phone i said ..

its really big .. how would daddy get that into his pocket and 

where are the games ?

all the trading houses wear different colored jackets 

so not only is it noisy it is colorful .. 

thank you Mr. Bittman for a very fun morning !

the last of the superx ..

because i know that you want to see pics of the superx one more time ..

look .. ellie is upside down !

before the races start they introduce all the really good guys ..

it is a 30 minute production with fire and smoke and loud music ..

even if you don't like superx the opening ceremonies will suck you right in ..

i promise .. 

and yes there is usually a big pile up in the first turn ..

and just like in toronto last night ryan villopoto won ..

this means that he will be keeping his red number plate with the #1 for one more week !!

that's it for the superx

 .. the only superx we will see from now on is on tv !!

the card board box on michigan avenue ..

we got to chicago late afternoon on sunday .. 

the children's museum at the navy pier had an exhibit about reusing cardboard creatively ..

that sounded fun so we went ..

they had all kinds of card board .. all sizes  and shapes ..

the only limit was your imagination ..

so we turned the kids loose .. 

this is cash's robot ..

he still has no name so we just call him robot ..

so we made our card board goodies .. built a tower .. 

climbed thru a maze and played on the fire truck .. with robot i might add ..

now it is time to go back to the hotel ..

since it was cold and windy we thought we would take the trolley half way 

and then walk the rest of the way down michigan avenue and do a

 little window shopping as we head back  ..

as we are getting on the trolley cash says .. mom will hold robot .. he is to big to carry 

sure cash .. 

and so i carried robot ..

 all the way down michigan avenue ..

i windowed shopped with robot ..

tripped over the curb with robot and bumped into the nicest man with robot ..

when we finally made it back to the hotel cash told me that i could not carry robot anymore 

because now he was all banged up

i told cash robot better watch out or he will find himself recycled 

this is what ellie made .. it is a dog .. it is the size of her hand and it fits into a pocket .. 

and yes .. we brought robot home with us ..

he is sitting on top of the pool table .. 

we are in indy for the last stop on the jeff spielmann supercross tour .. 

we ate a little lunch and then headed over the the museum at the indianapolis motor speedway ...

they have all kinds of neat cars ..

these 2 cars belonged to John Zink .. 

he was a motorcycle rider ..

i grew up spending my weekends at Zink Ranch watching my dad ride enduros ..

we think that uncle greg needs one of these ..

we are getting ready to head over to the Lucas Oil Stadium ..

first a stop off at white castle for dinner ..

the sneak in ..

jeff is the best at what the kids call "the sneak in" ..

this means that you flash whatever credentials you might have ..

in this case our VIP passes from the Dallas superX .. and just keep walking ..

you NEVER stop so that they can either ask you your name or look closer at your credentials .. 

this is what jeff and cash did on friday morning during the move in ..

the day before the superX all the big rigs move into whatever space the pits will occupy for that race .. 

in st. louis they move into the basement of the Edward Jones Dome .. 

so they flashed their badges and this is where they ended up ..

on the track ..

evidently the "guard" came running after them saying that they needed to wear the orange vests ..

for safety reasons ..

she didn't want cash to be run over by a bulldozer ..

thank you !

see .. 

because cash is wearing his orange vest you can see him 

they walked all over ..

watched each of the big rigs back in ..

the rigs are each assigned a time ..

ryan villapoto and kawasaki come in at 9 am

chad reed comes in at 9:15 and so on ..

that way there is not a traffic jam ..

superX is highly organized ..

superX ..

today is superX day ..

tonight is superX night ..

before the main events started we went back to hotel for a "break" 

we watched the sunset and had an oreo ..

just the 3 of us ..

we left for st. louis yesterday after school .. 

ellie was feeling under the weather so she stayed behind with granny & grandpa ..

so it was just jeff ... cash and me ..

i was thinking that this would be fun .. a trip with just cash .. 

we could name all the trucks that we saw on the highway and drink dr pepper the whole way there ..

well ..

it seems that cash does without ellie about as well as jeff does without me ..

when i picked him up from school .. ellie stayed home .. and told him that ellie wasn't going with us ..

what .. he said .. well i don't want to go either then ..

oh no we are going and it is going to be super fun ..

we stopped at the candy factory .. to go to the bathroom .. that's what we told jeff ..

they have about any kind of candy you could possibly want .. 

we also found the kettle corn and the chocolate covered peanuts ..

and car bingo !!! 

cash beat me twice .. 

after i lost the second time i told him that it was to dark and we weren't going to play anymore 

we made it to st. louis .. 

it started to snow just after rolla, mo

we ate mexican for dinner ..

the weather is going to be snowy for today but saturday and sunday look better ..

supercross is tomorrow so jeff and cash are watching all the big trucks move  in 

i got to sleep in and watch tv ..