Long Weekend in Chicago

Eric had a meeting scheduled in Chicago the last Friday in September, and when I found out about this, I jumped at the opportunity to go with him and make it a weekend getaway for us! We've been together before, but it was 5+ years ago. We LOVED it then, so we were both excited to get back and explore the city.

We headed out Thursday afternoon, and we got there just in time to enjoy an hour-long cab ride during rush hour to our hotel downtown. :/ We were hungry and ready for dinner, so we walked just a few blocks to a place called Lou Malnati's to get some pizza. Eric of course went with the Chicago style deep dish, and I had thin crust. It was so yummy!

 

Friday morning Eric had his meeting and I enjoyed some shopping and lunch on my own. We met up mid-afternoon to do some sight seeing. We started out on the double decker bus that does the loop with a tour guide. Definitely a good decision that we did that first because it helped us get our bearings as to where things were and what we wanted to see. We also had a hilarious tour guide that made it a fun little trip. That evening we found a fun little pub called Public House. Great food and tons of beers on tap, which made my hubby really happy. :)

Some pictures of the city from our bus. 

Clark Street Bridge

Amazing building! The shape of the balconies make the shape of the building ever changing as you drive underneath it

Chicago Tribune Building

View of the city from the south

Saturday we got up early and headed out for a run. The weather was amazing the whole weekend, and especially nice in the mornings. Our hotel was in a great location right on the river, so we were easily able to walk down to Millennium Park for a quick look at The Bean sans crowd and then over to the lake shore for the most enjoyable 4 mile run I've ever taken. Perfect weather and awesome views!

Crazy view from underneath

After we got cleaned up, we headed out to see more sights. 

First stop, the Skydeck at Willis (Sears) Tower.

Quite a view of the city and the lake.

I was nervous and shaking when I stepped out onto the Skydeck, trying not to look down. I actually had to crawl off of it, HA!

Now I'm not even scared of heights, but this was definitely unsettling. The only thing between us and the street is 1 inch of plexiglass and 103 floors! :-/

From there, more exploring. We walked around downtown a lot, and then did the trolley ride of the north side of Chicago where we saw Wrigley Field, Lincoln Park, and Briar Street Theater, where the Blue Man Group first started. We also went a speed boat tour down the river and learned about a lot of the buildings and history of the city, then they took us for a fun joy ride out on the lake. 

Interesting jean sculpture

 

 Tons of these guys at Millenium Park. We thought they were so fun and cute we couldn't restist taking pictures with them.

The Bean, mid-afternoon. A much different sight than earlier that day!

Can you find us? It's like playing Where's Waldo with that many people around!

Amphitheater at Millennium Park

Just a little windy....

 I had to steal Eric's hat to protect my hair from all that wind and water :)

 Sunday we took the trolley to the south side where we saw lots of neat parks, the whole University of Chicago campus, President Obama's residence, and lots of other interesting landmarks. 

On the trolley!

Amazing shot of Buckingham Fountain

 

 They were filming Transformers 4 the whole weekend, and we kept stumbling upon areas where they were shooting. This time, they had the streets shut down near Millennium Park, and had stunt men driving the cars up and down the streets. It was pretty interesting to watch. The orange car parked on the left and the black car driving, we think, are different variations of "Bumblebee"

 Fun digital screen fountains.....

....that also happen to spit water out at you!

Such a beautiful city!!

We had such a great trip. I can safely say that Chicago is by far my favorite big city I've traveled to! I love it so much, and I can't wait to go back!!

Happy Birthday to ..... Me?!

I've had this blog for nearly 5 years now, and I don't think I've ever dedicated a blog post to my own birthday. Hmmmmm. Not really sure why that is because I always have wonderful birthdays. My family and friends definitely go out of their way to do special things for me each year without fail, but I've for some reason never felt it blogworthy. Next year is the big 3-0, and I'm quite certain I'll ignore it and pretend it never happened, so this year I'm taking the opportunity to break the mold and post about myself for a change. :)

My birthday was Thursday the 12th. It was a pretty normal as far as days are concerned. It started off with a long run (well, I use the term 'long' loosely.... long for me - 3 miles!). It was surprisingly cool and breezy and I watched the sun come up, so it was actually really nice! I came back home to kids that were dressed and eating breakfast. Carter's lunch was made, and he was all ready for school. He carpooled with Carson, so I didn't even have to take him! Definitely a nice break! And I got a free chicken biscuit from Chick Fil A, so I enjoyed that before heading out to run errands with Ella. My errands were at the mall, so after finishing those, I took a little bit of time to shop for myself. Then we headed to ride the carousel. We went around two times and she loved it, as I knew she would. Then we headed home for lunch. Carter was home a little while later, and we all napped. :) Later we all went out to dinner at one of our favorite Mexican food restaurant. Eric had picked up a yummy cake from Market Street, so we had that at home waiting on us after dinner.

The two highlights of my day, right here.

 Seeing her eyes light up at the sight of the carousel and the sheer joy she experienced from something so simple, obviously a highlight. 

And this needs no explanation either. My sweet boy.... love him to pieces. (And, Ella at the end.... "CAKE!!" while doing a happy dance.... yep, sums it up nicely.)

On Friday, Eric and I had a nice afternoon to ourselves. We enjoyed lunch, a little bit of shopping, and saw a movie. Then we headed to Arlington to the Ranger game. Big game for them, and they weren't able to pull it out, so that was disappointing. But still a fun day with my hubby. :)

We had great seats! 

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to send me a text or a facebook message to wish me happy birthday. And thanks to my family for the spending money and gift cards. Definitely looking forward to a shopping trip! Love you all! And here's to my last year in my 20s! :)

Tiny Gymnast

So Ella has been doing a lot of this lately...... 

Anytime she finds a bar that is just above her head, she hangs like a monkey, and swings back and forth. I found her like that in my closet one day..... she had discovered that gap in clothing and decided to use it as a monkey bar. Cracked me up!! She also loves doing flips with our help. My friend Amy, who has Lucy that's 2, suggested we do a little gymnastics class together with the girls, and I thought it would be perfect for her, given her interest lately. So they started their "Tumble Bugs" class this past week. Ella liked certain parts of it, and wasn't so fond of others (including her teacher Ms. Betsy, helping her do anything). Overall, I know she had fun, and I think she'll warm up more to the other things she didn't like too much in the coming weeks. Here are some pictures of her in class....

Getting ready to run and jump into the foam pit.

Not too crazy about this part.... needed a little help from Ms. Betsy.

 Ella and Lucy sitting waiting their turn. I mean, how cute is that?!

 She enjoyed jumping on the trampoline!! 

Carter's First Day of Pre-K

Yesterday Carter started pre-k! He switched schools this year, so we have anxiously been awaiting his first day at his new school with his new teachers and new friends. He met his teacher beforehand, and we've been going to the church where the school is for several months, so he was pretty comfortable with his new surroundings, and I felt confident he'd do great. When I dropped him off, he really didn't seem too nervous about it, mostly just excited!

Here are a few pictures I snapped before heading out for his first day of pre-k!

So big, so handsome!

 And a few with baby sis, who was very excited for her brother, too!

 (I think she's secretly just happy he'll be out of her face for most of the day, 3 days a week!)

 

I figured he'd have a great first day, and he did! Today, he got a little teary eyed when it was time for me to say goodbye at the door, but his teachers assured me he got over that pretty quickly and ended up having another great day! Also, a sweet friend that lives very close by is going to school the same days, so we've decided to carpool! Carter is excited to get to ride with Carson two days a week! This morning was my turn, and it was quite a process. Since we don't have a carpool line, that means getting out and walking everyone (including Ella) inside, checking them in, and getting them and their bags to the right place. Lots going on.... 3 seatbelts to buckle and unbuckle, bags to carry and just wrangling of children in general. BUT, tomorrow is Lindsay's turn, and I'll happily be sitting at home most likely enjoying a cup of coffee while he's off to school. :) 

Lots of loudness and giggles in the car today, that's for sure!

 
Fingers crossed that tomorrow goes well to finish off a great first week! We are so impressed with his new school so far, and are looking forward to a wonderful year! The very last one before kindergarten. ;(

Ella at 22 months

I have really been needing to do a post for Ella to keep track of all the funny things she's up to lately. I haven't done an update on her since 18 months, so here we go. :)

• She has so many funny phrases I hear her say constantly, including "Awww man!" which is probably my favorite. She's never afraid to show her dismay. Also if something seems wrong with Carter or anyone else, she'll ask "What happened? You ok?" Anytime she's playing out of my sight, she'll constantly check in with me by yelling for me, "Mommy, doing?" I'll answer her with something like "cooking!" and she'll say, "oh, ok!!" as if to say, "just checking, thanks!" So funny.
• She recognizes me in my work out clothes and asks me if I'm going to "cer-size"... she even loves to attempt push ups and sit ups with me.
• Her favorite playtime activities would be having a tea party, and cooking in her kitchen. She opens and closes the oven and says "ready now!" She is also such a little mommy and loves to play with her babies. She gets them a lovey when they're tired, does "diaper changes", snuggles and rocks them, puts them down for night night. She takes it very seriously :) She recently got a little barbie doll, and she brushes her hair and makes sure she has her purse and shoes on. And she loves to take pretend trips to Target to go grocery shopping! I love watching her pretend play..... she does it  more than Carter ever has! 
• She is in love with horses right now. She still talks about the horse races we went to last month, and just always seems to be drawn to them.
• Her favorite movie is Dispicable Me...... still loves the minions. She immitates them and it's hilarious! Her favorite shows are Bubble Guppies and Dora.
• She always sings songs with us. She knows most of the words and tunes to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, You are My Sunshine, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Loves Me, and Rocky Top (yes, seriously... you know that's all Eric). Also, her favorite songs on the radio are Cups and Wake Me Up (which we discovered has a horse in the music video, so it's at the top of her list now).
• She loves to dance to any kind of music. spinning and twirling, and generally just running in circles. I can't wait to put her in her first dance class!! She's going to love it!
• Now regularly speaks in 4-5 word phrases/sentences. She and Carter have their own little conversations together. It's so cute, I love it! 
• She has a very distinct and high pitched squeal she likes to shock us all with anytime Carter does something she dislikes, pesters her or even just walks in the direction of a toy she is interested in. He doesn't have to do much at all to solicit a very loud, piercing scream from her! I wonder who she got that from? :/
• She is generally pretty well behaved and listens pretty good. She hasn't started testing us too much, but I'm sure that isn't far off. She does like to throw a good fit occasionally, usually over something she wants but isn't getting, but we can all handle a little of that. :) She's a good girl, and we love having her as a part of our family. Can't believe she'll be TWO in just a couple short months. 

And I have to add a few recent cell phone pictures of our little lady

Just taking a moment to relax at breakfast

 Her favorite part of bath time --- doing silly hair!

 Playing at Chickfila

 All tuckered out

 Kisses for Mommy!