Lake County Museum, Wauconda, Illinois

One of my MOM friends, Liz, along with her husband and kids, met us at the Lake County Museum in Wauconda. Her twin boys, Camden and Dean, were due the same month as mine.  Even though we've been interacting online since we were pregnant (over 4 years ago), it's the first time I've met her family and only the second time I've seen her in person. She came out to Vegas a couple years ago for our wild and crazy MOM getaway. It was really nice meeting her husband, twins and new baby, Milo.

This is a small museum with a gallery of Presidential photos that were very intriguing regardless of your political affiliations. It also holds a display explaining the history of the postcard as well as an archive holding, I believe, millions of postcards. The most interesting part for me was learning about Curt Teich, a German immigrant who came to America and started his own post card business. He took a train from Chicago and headed west, stopping to photograph each of the different towns along the way and sell his prints as postcards to the local shops. He sold packs of 1000 cards for $1. He sold $30,000 worth in just 90 days! The shops then sold those cards for 1 penny each and the cost to mail them in 1905? Just one more penny!

They found the playroom:

The museum is surrounded by lakes and nature trails which makes it extra fun when you explore outside after seeing the indoor exhibits.

The boys ended up throwing stones in the lake, of course. 

 Afterwards we enjoyed lunch at Lindy's Landing at a table ON the beach! So fun and perfect for the kids to play instead of having to sit thru the whole lunch.

Then it was time to say goodbye to their new friends, with hugs.

Twin MOMS Unite

Let me tell you a secret about being a twin mom. It's very, very fun...and it's very, very hard. We have special support needs because having two kids that are exactly the same age is COMPLETELY different than having one or two children of different ages. Not saying it's harder (though in many ways it is, while in some it's not) but it brings different challenges, so often it just feels easier to relate to someone who also lives this life. Luckily there are groups that are specifically for twin moms to support each other and I am was lucky enough to have two of them. One was my local group of twin moms in Vegas, the LV MOMS (Mothers Of Multiples). Unfortunately I didn't find them until about a year before we left. I wish I had joined them from the get-go because they are awesome! They organize moms only nights at least once a month, family events about as often and playgroups whenever needed. I have some really great friends from that group. *This is a local chapter of a national group for twin moms, so if you are one, I highly recommend finding your local chapter and joining!
Here's Asher and Journey with their twin friends at the club's Easter egg hunt. 

THEN I have this other group....we have been together for four years now. We began as a support group on Babycenter.com for women expecting twins in April of 2011. So all of our children were due the same month, even though their actual birthdays are spread apart by up to 4 months, but this means that we are all going thru roughly the same stages at the same time. We have gone thru pregnancy, birth, baby stages and potty training together. We have since transitioned our group to Facebook and have become a very active group who offers support for each other and a place to safely vent frustrations (I'm telling you, having twins can be very frustrating at times, especially when they are both 3 years old and not napping anymore!) There are roughly 50 moms from all over the US and Canada. We organized a trip to Vegas a couple years back and I was able to meet a handful of them in person. 5 moms - 11 kids + Vegas =  a crazy few days!

We had a fake bachelorette party and it *may* have ended Hangover style....

 But you know what they say, what happens here.... 

Another mom, Liese, lives in California so we have met up with her family multiple times when we were out there.

What does this have to do with our trip? Well, I'm trying to meet as many of my FB mom friends, and their twins, as I can while our adventures take us across the US. So when you see me mention a FB twin mom, you'll understand what I'm talking about.