Memorial Day in Chicago

Last month I spent a few weeks working in Chicago. Chris and I took the opportunity to spend Memorial Day with Chris' sister's family. Caren and Craig are amazing hosts. They have a huge house and are always welcoming people over. It was such a fun weekend as we got to spend time with Abby & Audrey, our nieces, and met a handful of Caren and Craig's friends. We even had the good luck of getting together with Cinnamon and Andrew.

Highlights
• Taking Abby & Audrey to the Shedd Aquarium - We had so much fun. They were such troopers as we spent 4 hours at the aquarium, walked all around, and took the train back home. I especially enjoyed all the fun conversations we had about sea animals. Kids make us look at the world in a different way. Our nieces are awesome!
• Craig's cooking - Craig is an amazing cook and we ate like kings all weekend long. The first night was all seafood - oysters, shrimp, mussels! He also ordered a roast pig half. Yum.
• Sushi Mike at Tanoshii - I've visited the famed Sushi Mike once before with Cinnamon and Andrew. This time was extra special as we tasted numerous new & original dishes. The most special one was inspired by a recipe from Cinnamon's cookbook, Everything Cast-Iron Cooking. I know this was an honor for Cinnamon and I felt lucky to be there. The whole night was magical.
• Relaxing - Sometimes when visiting friends and family, we can get carried away with fitting too many things into a short amount of time. This trip everyone was very relaxed. I read a book! We hung out with the girls. We sat around and talked. It was perfect.













See all the pictures from our visit to Chicago.

Sleeping on the Porch

Summer is here and the weather is warm. A couple weeks ago it was so lovely at night that we decided to sleep on the porch bed. From a weather standpoint, it was perfect. There were two things that made the porch a less than perfect spot.

1. Stewie gets excited by any noises in the neighborhood. It felt like all night long he was jumping off the bed to run around the yard. Every time he jumps off, the bed swings. Needless to say I woke up a lot that night.
2. On the porch, we wake up when the sun comes up. Since its summer, that means waking up at 5:30am. That's much earlier than I prefer to wake up on a Saturday.

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Chicago Blackhawks Win the Stanley Cup

I'm not a huge sports fan but having worked in Chicago for the past few weeks, I couldn't help but pay attention to hockey. The Chicago Blackhawks have been playing the Philadelphia Flyers in the finals the past few weeks. Tonight, the Blackhawks won. It's their first Stanley Cup in 49 years. I knew there was a game but I wan't watching it. From my hotel room tonight, I learned the outcome. Clearly the Blackhawks had won because the streets in downtown erupted in noise.

There was horn honking, yelling, sirens, air horns, motorcycles revving, and more honking. It's been going on for a couple hours now. I finally decided to go to the street and enjoy some of the craziness.