Skeletons take over Chicago

If you look closely at all the pictures you will see that they are full of skeletons, vampires and other ghouls who have taken over Chicago.

Perhaps it would be safer if we stayed in Shaumburg instead of going in to Chicago?

Oh well, too late, here comes our taxi.  Look out Chicago, we are on our way.
Love AJ Pickle

Loving Lego Land

To all our Lego loving friends out there, you MUST go to Lego Land - it is AWESOME.

Now anyone that knows our family knows that 

WE LOVE LEGO 

so a visit to Legoland was top of our to-do list when we were planning a holiday.  

We are so glad that we did.

As well as meeting so many famous folk who were immortalised in Lego and exploring the Lego Jungle, there was heaps of other super cool things to do, including rides!  

Lego Movie Madness

One of the first things we did was watch a couple of movies in 4D - yep you heard us right 4D.  Not only did the characters jump off the screen, we could feel what the characters were feeling too.  If it rained on the characters, it rained on us, it even snowed on the characters and us too!  It was uber cool (and because we were first in line to the Lego Land cinema, we got to choose the first movie we watched.

Then we joined in on a master class (or 2) of Lego building.

Learning from a Lego Expert

Visited the factory to see how Lego is made.  We found out that there are 76 different colour Lego bricks and teleported some of the bricks we made to the moon!

With the Crazy Professor in the Lego Factory

There was even a play area, like in an indoor play centre with nets, slides and crazy things to climb on but we were much more interested in playing with some of the 4 million Lego!

You know, we haven't really seen much of the Chicago area, but we are pretty sure that if Lego Land Discovery Centre is anything to go by we could live here!
Love AJ and Milla

Apparently jet lag is when you are in living in one part of the world but your body thinks it lives in another and so it doesn't know if it should be awake or asleep.  I felt jet lagged for the first time ever this morning.  Of course I was super tired yesterday after all the travel we did so I was able to fall asleep at proper bed time, around 8 or so the problem was waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep.  I ended up watching some really trashy TV until mum woke up at 4.30 and declared that Jerry Springer really isn't a kids show and sent me back to bed!

AJ was a bed hog so I didn't want to get back into our bed, so I curled up on the couch for another hour or so of sleep but that was it.  AJ was still asleep and mum was starting to get grumpy, I think she was getting jet lagged too.  I was too wide awake to stay in bed so I went for breakfast with dad.  (Note to self:  Just because all the American folk I know love waffles, it doesn't mean they are nice!)

Mum and AJ were still sleeping when we went back to our room so Dad and I went for a walk to let them get some more sleep, I really didn't like the thought of spending the day with grumpy folks!  We also figured we could explore a bit and pick up some fruit to snack on as we were out, as well as trying to find a pre-paid data sim for the iPad so we can go geocaching.  We had no luck with the data sim - apparently you need to have a US credit card AND mailing address to get one but we did find some fruit.  We stocked up on bananas to munch on cos they were only 60c a pound!  (Sure I don't really know what a pound is, but they sounded pretty darn cheap and were delicious.)

I am pretty sure that if we didn't wake mum and AJ when we made it back to the hotel, they would have slept the day away.  Instead we rushed them downstairs for breakfast so that we could go out and explore for the day.

I just hope that after waking up so early today that I will have the energy to keep going all day long.  Next stop, a swim before walking to Legoland.

Love Princess George

When I Grow Up...

When I was a little kid, I used to tell everyone that I wanted to be a pilot, well actually I wanted to be a fighter pilot, just like Maverick in Top Gun.  For some reason I changed my mind and thought I might do something else instead, I just can't remember what.

Anyway, I am thinking that maybe I will be a pilot.  You see on the way from LAX to Chicago today, Jim and Jim, the pilots on the plane I was flying on, invited me into the cockpit to see where they worked.

AJ the Pilot

How cool is all this stuff!  I think that I could get used to jetting about the world!
Love AJ Pickle

Waiting and Waiting Some More

I woke up super early this morning, I was too tired to sleep, I had things to do and places to see and I wasn't going to school!  Once I was ready I had to sit around and wait for the taxi to take us to the airport.

Filling in time

We were early and managed to beat the rush and it didn't take long for us to be through customs and at the gate waiting for our plane.  Of course there was a slight delay so the wait was even longer.
Luckily I am easily entertained!

The flight from Melbourne to LA was long, really long but at least I managed to sleep a few hours this time  round!  I am pretty sure AJ only fell asleep as the plane was getting ready to descend into LA.

Ready for Take-Off

At LAX, we had to clear customs and recheck our luggage and wait some more.  I rested for a little bit but I was still too excited to sleep.  Instead I rested, thinking about how we could possibly be in LA, in a completely different country and it was really a few hours before we had even left Melbourne!

Waiting some more...

Finally we boarded the American Airlines flight for O'Hare.

Having flown 15 hours already and then waiting at LAX for another 4 hours, the 3 1/2 hour flight to Chicago was so quick, it was like it was over in the blink of an eye, or just one movie!

Of course, being in Chicago, we had one more wait, this time for a taxi to take us to hour hotel.

The Last Wait for the Day

Finally after what feels like a billion hours, the waiting is over and we are on holidays.  We have had a swim and some dinner and now it is time to get some real sleep before we go exploring tomorrow.

Let the adventure begin,

Love Princess George

A New Place to Play

Some things may never change.  Mum is still dragging us along to work with her whenever she gets the chance.

At least now when we get dragged to Flemington there there is a new super cool playground for us to explore at Debneys Park!

There are so many cool things to play on, a climbing net, giant sider web, dizzy sticks, a ginormous flying fox and places to ride bikes, skateboards and scooters.  I haven't had a chance to go on the flying fox yet, there are always about 4 billion other kids waiting to have a go on it.  Maybe next time I am there I will get a turn on it too.
Love AJ Pickle

Weekend Work

It is the weekend so that should mean that we get to spend the day relaxing and having fun right? I wish! Sure I went to ice skating this morning and had heaps of fun but when I got home I had to work, work, work. Mum had decided that my room was a mess and it needed to be cleaned. Why? I really don't know. It is my room and it is way cleaner than her room but I had to spend my day inside cleaning and it took forever.

With all of the things I got rid of - 3 garbage bags full of stuff to be donated to Vinnies and another 4 big bags of rubbish you would think that my room would be empty right? Wrong. It is still full of stuff. The best thing is, now I can actually find where my stuff is, just don't tell mum other wise she will say 'I told you so!'

Love Princess George