July 4th Weekend in Chicago/Naperville

We stayed in Chicago at Sunhee, Laird, Julian and Claire's new house, which was gorgeous. Ian loved playing with Julian, who was a great host. He let Ian sleep in his big bed (altruistic? Maybe. Or maybe he wanted to sleep in Mama & Papa's room!). Even better, he let Ian JUMP on his big bed. Julian made a rubber band rope and gave it Ian and Ian played with it for hours.

Ian loved the park:

From 2008-07-04 Ju...

And he rode in the back with Claire on the way to the Fourth of July BBQ at Damon and Jennifer's house:


And the two buddies passed out together on the way home from Vincent, Janie and Samantha's house on Saturday afternoon:


Ian and Julian have very similar temperaments and both love their books and numbers and letters. They rode in the backseat on the way out to Naperville and it was very hot that day. Apparently, the AC vents in the back weren't working, but neither boy complained. We arrived in Naperville with two extremely damp children.

At the end of the weekend, Ian didn't want to go home and Julian didn't want us to leave. Julian wanted to ride with us to the airport (Laird drove us), but with two car seats and our luggage, there was no room for Julian. I came out of the house to find a tearful Julian sitting forlornly on the patio. Between tragic sobs, he asked accusingly, "Why did you have to bring so much luggage?" I gave him a hug and Ian gave him a hug and we managed to get Julian to smile again:


I asked Ian if he had a good time with Julian and Claire and he said yes. I asked if he liked playing with Claire and he said no, he liked playing with Julian. Sorry, Claire! (But Claire likes Lia better anyway.)