A Spontaneous Trip to the Field Museum

Welcome to the Field Museum!  Hope your brain doesn't turn to mush from looking at all the wonderful exhibits here!  This place is amazing!

First stop:  be greeted by Sue, The T Rex.  Isn't she a beauty?

Of course posing in front of Sue is an absolute must.  Even I get my picture taken!  (by the way, I'm wearing my very lovely Christmas gift from Mark- the turquoise head wrap.  It's lovely and warm and he got it from an etsy shop.  Love etsy!)

I think those ladies in the back are whispering and wondering where I got my pretty and warm head wrap.  LOL!

Then, be happily surprised to see your cousins!  Hooray for cousins!  (it wasn't actually a surprise to see them; we'd planned on doing this visit together.  However, it's Happy Time Anytime the cousins get together.)

Next stop: Underground Adventure!

Gregory is reading the signs.  The fourth sign is funny!  It says, "Hold onto valuables and small children to ensure simultaneous shrinking."

Here we are....Beth, Henry, Mark & Ava, Gregory, Annika and Lily.  Uncle Ray and (obviously) myself are MIA.  Look at the size of that grub!  Yikes!  We'd better watch out!

The girls playing in an empty cicada shell (or so I think that's what that is).

Let me just say this: the lighting is HORRIBLE in the museum.  It's nearly impossible to take great photos with my camera and abilities.

Read all about The Ancient Americas.  Or...more likely....rush through them so that children don't become bored.  Especially when the kids are tired and starting to get cranky.  Make a mental note to hire a babysitter for a day and come back without children so that you can actually read all the signs.  :-)  (and then remember that you do have the attention span of a ten-year old and that you're actually not all that bothered by the picked up speed.  Did I just say that?  At least I'm honest!)

Lily, Annika, Mark and I split off from the others to visit The Hall of Gems, The Hall of Jade and other various mineral exhibits.

Annika in front of her favorite rock: Peridot!  (it's her favorite because it's her birthstone.)

Lily and Annika enjoying the beautiful gems to be seen.

This is totally cool!  Mark and I were discussing (on the nearly four-hour drive to the museum) about the meteorite that came pretty close to us- we saw a flash of light and heard a big boom.  They have a tiny exhibit on the meteorite that landed in southwest Wisconsin.

 Pretty cool!

Love turquoise (the color) & teal!  Just had to take a photo of these lovely colored minerals.

One last look at Sue.  The Magnificent Sue!

We are now Field Museum Members!  Since our little weather hiccup (we'd bought tickets to see the museum on a previous date but the roads were impassable at that time) we learned that we could use the money we'd paid towards those tickets to an annual membership.  Honestly, an annual family membership is an awesome deal- we paid $50 for the four of us to go once....but the membership was only $100 (an extra $50).  So, just going twice in one year will have made this membership well worth the money.  I'm sure we'll be back several times this year- we've just barely scratched the surface of this magnificent museum!  Just don't freak out at the $19 per day parking price tag!