illumination

Since the five of us don't really do formal Thanksgiving anymore (preferring instead to spend that time outdoors somewhere together), we met up with Barb and Kevin and Johnny and Erin and the kids last night to catch up and check out Illumination, an interactive light and sound exhibit at the Morton Arboretum.

First, the positives. The lights were incredible! The kids had a wonderful time hugging trees, pushing buttons to make them dance, chasing each other around, giving each other piggyback rides, and just generally enjoying their time together. The displays were superlative. My favorite was probably the crystal promenade, in which chandeliers were hung from the trees, and ornament hill, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

Now, the not-so-positives. The kids had a wonderful time chasing each other around. Sounds pretty innocuous in theory, right? In practice it meant that every adult spent the entire time doing head counts in the dark, trying to make sure everyone stayed together, while the kids dashed off ahead or behind or off to the side. At one point, Max, Henry, and Lucy ran off together and we couldn't find them in the dark. Erin headed back down the trail while Mike headed up the trail, and eventually Mike found them and parked them all at a bench to wait for the rest of us, but it was kind of an alarming few minutes. It reminded me a LOT of the time young Max wandered away from us at a fireworks show -- all those people in the dark, and little kids lost. NIGHTMARE.

Once we finally impressed upon the children how important it was to STAY TOGETHER, things went much more smoothly. It was a little too cold for Richie and Jesse, so Johnny and Erin took them back to the visitor center to hang out, but Lucy opted to stay with us to finish the trail. Henry was a little frazzled, but honestly, I think that was to be expected given how late it was (with the time difference) and how overstimulating. But we all made it through, and had a pretty good time to boot. If we lived closer, I would seriously consider hiring a babysitter so Mike and I could walk through it alone, just to have a chance to absorb things at our own pace without having to be on high alert the whole time. Sadly, I don't think that's in the cards. Another time, I guess.