Seizing the (15-Hour) Day

Yesterday, for no good reason, we took the girls to Chicago. Decided to do it at 8:00 p.m. the night before, left at 7:00 a.m., returned just after 10:00 p.m., and crammed the Field Museum, lunch at Ed Debevic's, shopping, and obligatory photo-taking at Millennium Park into the fifteen hours.

Highlights:

Jemma was so pleased to find the black-capped chickadee, which she had just identified and observed on her field trip last week.

Playing with my phone while the two bladder-challenged members of the family hit a restroom.

A perfect location for frisbee-throwing just before we ate dinner and headed home.

***

My favorite conversations of the trip:

Me: Would you like to live here someday?
Annie: Maybe.
Me: I would. Maybe when I grow up, I'll live here.
Annie: You ARE grown-up!
Me: I know! But maybe when you and Jemma don't live with us anymore, Daddy and I will live here.
Annie: And Jemma and I will live here, too, so we can still see you.
Me: Sure. And we'll all meet for breakfast every Saturday morning.

*

Jemma: Why do those people have smoke-pipes? (This is apparently what she calls cigarettes.)
Me: I don't know. They smell bad, and they're really bad for you.
Jemma: I think smoke-pipes should be not allowed in the world.
Me: Me, too.

*

Jason: Wow! I loved playing frisbee in that huge field. That makes me want to play more frisbee! Actually, it makes me want to play Ultimate Frisbee. I've never played that before, but it's a combination of football and soccer and frisbee and it looks really cool! I should see if there's a league.

Me: (Silence)

*

Throw in a chance to hold baby Stella, the first peppermint mocha of the holiday season, warm sunshine, a quick duck into a gorgeous Tiffany-tiled building, skipping down sidewalks, and zooming home with be-jammied little blonde girls nodding over a movie, and I'd say it was a day well spent. Well-seized.