Stanley takes flight!

Well, Stanley had a pretty exciting week. He went on his first plane trip, and it was really fun! He tried dancing on the wing, but we told him that was a no-no! We went to Illinois to visit Jeff's family. They live near Chicago, which is the biggest city in Illinois. It's called the Windy City, and it can get pretty windy there.

Here's a photo of Stanley with the flight attendants on one of our flights! They were excited to meet Stanley.






On the way to Illinois we stopped in Denver's airport. We were hoping to see the beautiful Rocky Mountains, but it was getting dark when we arrived, so we didn't get to see them. But we did see an incredible sunset which I wish I could've gotten a picture of to show you. The sky at the top was the colors of a summer peach - russet red and golden orange - and got bluer and bluer until it was a deep indigo at the bottom. Amazing!



In the Denver airport we did some playing around. We met former astronaut John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr. (well, OK, we saw a statue of him, but still it was cool!).



We almost got to ride on a Harley, too, but we had to catch our next plane.





In the Chicago airport we got to see a Brachiosaurus skeleton replica. The real skeleton is in the Chicago Field Museum which is a great place. Have any of you been there? You can see some of the Field Museum's online exhibits by clicking HERE.



When Stanley stood next to that dinosaur at the airport, would you believe he was not even as tall as his/her ankle bone?!? That dino was enormous! It looks like like a "she" to me and that she was a pretty nice dinosaur, don't you think? If dinosaurs lived now do you think people would have them as pets? I guess they'd eat a lot, so maybe not.



The weather in Illinois was really warm - I think it was warm in Mason last weekend, too, wasn't it? It was so warm we got to ride with the top down on the convertible. Stanley thought that was super cool! Of course he put on his seatbelt a soon as he got in the car!



And then on the way home we looked out the window and saw the ground across a lot of the country covered with SNOW! I guess winter's coming after all. I was kind of enjoying the sun myself!

We're back in Oregon now, and looking forward to more adventures here. I think this weekend we'll go look for pretty fall leaves.

Have a great week at school. WORK hard and learn lots!