Chicago Bucket List

Every time we see or think of something fun we'd like to do while we live in Chicago, we put it on our Chicago Bucket List. So far, this has just been a mental list, but a few weeks ago we wrote it down on a napkin at dinner, and now it will be On the Blog Official. So here goes:

- Stay at the Trump Tower, Chicago Hilton, and Peninsula hotels
- Go to a Bears game
- Go to a Tigers/White Sox game
- Dinner Cruise on Lake Michigan
- Frank Lloyd Wright Tour in Oak Park
- Lincoln Park Zoo
- Ice Skating at Millenium Park
- Field Museum
- Museum of Science and Industry
- Art Museum
- Eat at Ditka's and Haray Caray's
- Morton Arboretum
- Horse/Carriage ride downtown
- Go to Second City


Any suggestions???

Harbor Lights Triathlon

Last weekend Bryan did the Harbor Lights Triathlon up in Waukegan. There are no pictures of Ashlee, Hannah, and I spectating, but we were there cheering the whole way!

Here are Bryan and Aaron before the race:

Here goes Wave 2 into the water:

Here comes Bry out of the water. The nice part about this triathlon is that it's small enough that Ashlee and I can find the guys pretty easily at each point and they don't have any trouble spotting us cheering. Aaron had some trouble with his timing chip, so they weren't able to stay together very well this time, which was kind of sad, but we still got to see them both.

This picture shows Bryan asking, for the first of many times, "Where's Aaron?"

Starting the bike- Where's Aaron???

Ending the bike- Seriously, where is he???

Starting the run, still flying solo

Crossing the finish line- hurray!No worries, Aaron was close by the whole time!

One of the funniest things I have ever seen

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Odd Day

Have you celebrated Odd Day yet?

I know my mother will at least like this one!

http://www.oddday.net/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/wdaf-odd-day-050709,0,2886700.story

Day 1

Day 1- no accidents.
Night 1- no sleep.

Just kidding, we slept a little :)

A New Addition

It's been a long time (again) since I've blogged, so there is plenty to update on (again), but here is our most exciting new news:

Welcome Bailey!!!

Hannah Pace came over and loved giving Bailey kisses:

More pictures to come...

Best Weekend Ever

We just got home from the best weekend ever. We decided to take a random day off just to get away, so this Friday we headed up to Lake Geneva for the night. On the way there we stopped at the outlet mall in Kenosha, WI, of course, where we spent entirely too much money- but who really cares, the deals were fabulous! Plus, this is about the only time I can get Bryan to shop with me of his own free will. Something about outlet shopping works for him, so I'm happy to oblige.


In Lake Geneva we stayed at the Mill Creek Hotel, which was wonderful- and so much cheaper than everywhere else I looked! I was kind of amazed. We had a great time eating out, going to the movies, and playing on the lake. I would have been afraid, ok more afraid, of falling through the ice, but I figured if all these SUVs were safe then disaster was maybe unlikely.
There were plenty of ice fishers out in their little shanties, and also a big sailboat race on the other side of the lake. You can't see the boats very well in this picture, but they were just flying across the lake. Apparently boats go faster on skates/skis than they do in the water...I thought this was cool looking right at the edge- the ice looks like it got just slammed into the shore!Considering stepping out... Here he goes... I call this one, Boy on Lake:Fine, I'll try it too:As it turns out, ice actually IS slippery:Not surprisingly, Bryan stayed upright more than I did:

What a great weekend!

(Sidenote, remember when I used to wear contacts? Yea, those were the days. Due to being decently scared by my opthalmologist-friend Allison about all sorts of horrible things like cornea perforation, transplants and blindness, I agreed to not wear my contacts until my corneal ulcer has completely healed. But seriously, who exactly gets corneal ulcers?! I didn't even know it was possible to get an ulcer on your eyeball. Sigh...)

February Update

So, I clearly don't blog very often. But there has been a lot happening- February was a busy month! Here is a brief update.

First we had the Superbowl, and we were joined by the Paces, Flinns, and Felkels (who somehow missed the picture-taking, sorry guys!)

Next we had Vicki's babyshower, and yes, this part would be more interesting if there were actually pictures of Vicki in it. Oops. When she starts a blog, which I'm sure she will at some point as the soon-to-be mother of twins, I'll be sure to link to her.

After that, our lives changed forever when we found out The Chew Chew, our very favorite restaurant, finally re-opened again! We have been waiting a year and a half for that to happen, and I must confess we went twice on the first weekend. Flinns and Paces joined us for our second visit, and here we all are enjoying the wonderful food and atmosphere of The Chew Chew:

The highlight of February came in the middle of the month when we got to visit our newest niece- baby Nora Kathryn. We love her tons already. Maybe her mom and dad will let her come visit us someday and we will spoil her rotten. Carolyn liked sitting in this box, and when I asked her to smile for a picture for me she said, "yes, and then I will get a jellybean!" And now we all know how her mommy gets such cute pictures out of her! haha! She's a smart one, that Carolyn :) On our way home we got to stop by cousin Elena's 7th birthday party. Those not-so-little blondies are sure getting big fast!

Another major highlight of the month was having our dearest of dearest friends, the Coxes, come stay with us for the weekend. We had a great time just hanging out together, making pancakes (of course), and watching Ryan and Amber learn about all the new baby gear that will soon become part of their life. Ryan and Amber's little one is due to arrive in June, and he or she will then join the ranks of baby Abby and Hannah as one of our pseudo-nieces (or nephew). We are so excited for them!

Another new blogger

Welcome Cousin Lyndsey to the blogging world! Lyndsey is a traveling nurse, currently enjoying the wonderful February weather of Tucson, AZ. Ahhh, sunshine...

Baby it's cold outside!

This is the weather we woke up to this morning:This is what I have to look forward to when I get to work:This is where I'll be pretending I am all day today: Or maybe here:

Or even here:
In all fairness, remind me of this in the summer when we have gorgeous, wonderful weather and these other places hotter than blazes.