Scintillate: A Date With Sue

It seems my parents have mapped out a plan to hit all the museums and other tourist attractions on each of their free days. Then we just have to pay for parking (or the train)! Two weeks ago, we visited the Art Institute of Chicago (I still can't believe I forgot to bring my camera on that field trip). Today, it was the Field Museum. As I've said before, visits to the museum are a hit or miss for me. I always find a way to enjoy myself one way or another, but the actual exhibits don't always get me real fired up. Today, I thought my excitement had peaked as soon as I walked through the lobby and snapped a picture of my favorite tyrannosaurus rex, Sue. Sue is always a welcome sight. Love her. She's the largest, most complete, best preserved t-rex ever discovered, or so they say. So I snapped a great picture of her (and some lady pushing a stroller) and I felt fantastic. I would have been fine doing a 180 and heading home from there. But, of course, we didn't. And that ended up being pretty okay with me. I had a good time, between admiring and/or grimacing at all the stuffed animals (the tapir is officially the ugliest creature ever) and getting lost with Jojo and Alyssa (who wasn't coping well, I should say) in the Egyptian tomb. Plus, we played a little game. Actually two games.
The first was a competition between Jojo and I, trying to get in as many pictures as possible. Isn't it sooo weird to think about how many photos you're in? There were cameras all over the place there, not to mention all of the other public places i've been to in my life. It dawned on me today that I am in pictures taken by hundreds of people I don't know! I'm the backgound of course, but I'm still there! Just like that lady with the stroller, standing next to Sue! What a bizarre thing to consider.
The second game was this: take updated pictures at all the places we had been at before. We visited the Field Museum nearly four years ago (can't believe it's been that long) in May of 2009. We were here for Peter's graduation. Now, coming back, we saw a lot of the same things. It was really nice to be there, since it was sort of familiar. SO, we took lots of pictures! A lot of things have changed, needless to say (and yet I still say it), in the past four years. Genet wasn't even part of the family then! Michael had a girlfriend. I had braces. People were still confusing Jojo with mom whenever he answered the phone. Alyssa didn't have many teeth. And we certainly didn't know then that we would be living here now! So, here are some pictures from 2009 and even more from 2013...I'm sure you can tell the difference.