Chicago!

About a week ago I went to Chicago to see Nicole and the to Peoria to see Carrie. Nicole drove down from her internship in Wisconsin to join me in Chicago for the weekend. I liked visiting Chicago, but have to say I am reminded how much I don't want to live in a big city with humidity. It makes me really appreciate Utah (climate, quality of life, no traffic, cleanliness, etc).

Our first stop was of course FOOD! We went to the world famous "Giordano's" for a Chicago Stuffed Crust Pizza. I have to say I was very, very impressed with how good this pizza was. It seriously lived up to the hype! Don't worry I was awake even though I appear asleep in the picture!


With our full belly's it was time to walk off that pizza so we spent the rest of the evening walking around downtown Chicago. We stopped at the "Bean" and the Buckingham Fountain. After all that walking we were of course hungry again so we stopped in for some cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. SO TASTY!




After a good night's rest we jumped on the "L" with the rest of the parentless children of Chicago (which made me so sad) and made our trek downtown (we were staying near the airport for cheapness). Luckily the weather was warm, but not too hot (mid 70's). It definitely was muggy though! My hair was forced to be curly the whole trip!

We spent most of our day on Saturday at the Navy Pier. We went for a sail on a Pirate ship which was nice to be out on the Lake, but the "windy city" was not so windy for the sale boat. I did get to help the crew pull up the sail though and I have to say it was VERY heavy and much harder than I thought it would be!



After hanging out at the Navy Pier we went to Garrett Popcorn that we heard had the best popcorn. Let's just say Nicole and I devoured a large bag of caramel popcorn in about 30 min and then we went back to buy more! It was THAT good!

Later that evening we had tickets to see the broadway play Mary Poppins. I was excited to see a happy play and figured I knew the story, but I was so surprised at how good it really was. With Aunt Mary as my aunt I have seen Mary Poppins more than the average adult, but I LOVED the play. It was with the original broadway cast and I have to say that "Bert" stole the show. He would have given Dick Van Dyke a run for his money! I was also very impressed with the set and how the "magic" of Mary Poppins still existed. Mary Poppins flew, paintings came to life and best of all Bert tap danced on the ceiling.....seriously that takes some major skill! If you have a chance to see this play it is worth seeing, plus the songs will be in your head for days and you will be cheery! I'd see it again!

Please notice how Nicole has a SCARF on in this picture :) Yes it is July!


On Sunday after church I made my way down to Peoria, Illinois to visit Carrie who moved there a little over a year ago. It was fun to see her family and her new baby girl, Audrey (6 weeks old). Although I don't have too many pictures we basically hung out, chatted, took a very long nap one day, fed Audrey (man that girl can EAT!). We also went to a local play, "Once upon a mattress" which was cute, the wildlife park, and the county fair. Carrie really has a fun neighborhood and it was just fun to be there and see her life. I MISS her! Here are some pictures of me, Carrie, Caleb and Audrey.

4th of July!

The 4th of July is my FAVORITE holiday. This year I went up to Logan to spend the weekend with Amber, Scott, Ashley and Andrew. I had a great time! Here is a recap of what we did.

The first stop was the pool. I actually made it to the pool before I made it to the McAllister's house :) It was a warm and beautiful day. I even convinced Ashley to float on a noodle and "blow bubbles" which she did with her mouth (not her nose).



That night we went to see the Cache Valley fireworks show (yes on July 3rd). It was a beautiful evening and the rain held off which was good because Ashley was VERY concerned that it might rain and we would have to leave!



Also planned for the weekend was painting the kitchen and the front room. We decided to let Ashley start off the painting....she then took a nap so we could finish :)

For the 4th of July we went the the "Cruise In" parade where they basically shut down the Main street of Logan for a parade of cars where people drive their rebuilt cars up and down the street for 2.5 hours. I seriously laughed so hard at how popular this was. Here are some pictures.....

These are the types of cars you would see. For some reason Amber was obsessed with getting a picture of the "Back to the Future" car.



Also one reason I love going to Logan is that the McAllisters grill all the time and AWESOME food. We had shishkabobs, chicken on a can (soda can), BBQ'd pizza, Pasookies......they seriously cook so much GREAT food, but of course keep all their recipes to themselves. Amber also made me run 6 miles with her since she is training for a half marathon. Well I wish I had been training like the last 2 years because it would have made for a much more enjoyable run. I've only been casually running 3-4 miles a 1-2 times a week this year. Needless to say only one of us ran the whole time.....and it wasn't me. I guess training does help!

Anyways it was a GREAT weekend!