The next blue line train to WONDERLAND is now arriving

Children are exhausting.  A pair of four year old twins are downright comatosing.  It's a word, now - for reals.

The day began promptly at At Least An Hour Before I Usually Wake Up AM.  In laymen's terms, probably around 6:30 AM.  I don't even know if I have words for all this.  A great deal of time was spent running into and out of the tent in my room, zipping it up, unzipping it, trying to get in while it was zipped, trying to keep the Monster out (Daddy), running in and out, squealing, rolling around in blankets, and making Uncle David nervous about someone catching their hair in a zipper.

Then we got dressed and went to breakfast.

The Deluxe Town Diner was everything I recalled it being - I had pancakes and coffee, Chris had an omelet, the boys had bagels and juice.  We had to go back to the house once, prior to sitting down, to fetch the bag of kid-supplies, including emergency food-allergy medicine that we forgot at home.  Oops.  

Following breakfast, we came back to my place again and the boys immediately stripped down to their underwear and continued their earlier game.  We were planning on going to the aquarium.  

An hour or so later, after the boys and I had a parade through the apartment (Lucas, I think, ringing a bell the whole way, me playing guitar, and Nathan, I think, just dancing along), we finally got our act together, walked to the T in Porter, and took the Red, Green, and Blue lines to Aquarium.  Nathan was apprehensive about the trains, even while he loved them.  They are, after all, huge and loud.  

At the aquarium we spent a bunch of time looking at penguins, had lunch in the cafe (during which the boys ate none of their pizza), and then returned to walk around the giant ocean tank for a while.  Eventually, around 3:30, we left, and took the T back to my place.

My brother and I, upon arriving, promptly dozed on the couch while games-in-the-tent continued.

Dinner consisted of a trip to Christopher's, which turned out pretty well.  Except we forgot the supply bag again, this time just in the car.  I had some blackened cajun tofu - Chris had a veggie burger, the boys had grilled cheese and pizza.  And juice/milk.

Following that, we went home, and the boys promptly, promptly fell asleep at 7:30 PM.  Not a peep from them after that.  They were absolutely exhausted by the time we were leaving Christopher's, to the point where they could barely stand up.

And that, laddies and gentlewomen, is how you tire out some kids (and adults).

After they went to bed, Chris and I lay on the couches for 15 minutes staring at the ceiling, then watched Thank You For Smoking.  I'm not really sure what to think of that movie - the message was kinda confusing to me.  Well, at least, in my current state.  I'm not really sure what the takeaway was outside of, "Yeah, cigarettes are bad."  If that was it, the story was a very strange vehicle for it.