MY KIND OF TOWN…

 

April 3, 2019

Sometimes we plan far ahead for our trips but more often than not, we love to do last minute family getaways.   It’s one way to keep the kids from driving us crazy about when we’re going to leave. For the record, Jeremy plans all of our trips.  It’s kind of a hobby for him.  He loves to travel, but he loves doing it affordably.  As a result we’ve been able to take some pretty fantastic trips over the last 17 years of our marriage.  Like this trip in 2015 to Chicago, just he and I, celebrating our 13th Anniversary.

One thing that is a bit difficult for Spring Break is our anniversary is March 24th so it is almost always sandwiched somewhere in Spring Break.  That 2015 trip was the last time we actually celebrated our anniversary, just the 2 of us.  The past few years we’ve been with the kids doing various little trips, mainly to Branson and Ozark to send time with family.

This year, just about a week before spring break we decided to take the kids to Chicago.  They’ve never been to a big city, so we thought it would be fun. Jeremy got a really good last minute deal on a room at the Embassy Suites right off of Michigan Avenue that not only fed us breakfast, but they had a complimentary cocktail reception and snacks every evening at 5:30.

And wouldn’t you know…4 years later I’m STILL wearing my polka-dot coat.  It was a Target find I think right about the time we went on that last trip.  It’s actually missing 2 buttons now, but that doesn’t stop me, I love it!  I do have plans to take it to my favorite dry cleaners the French Laundry and have it cleaned really well as soon as the cold weather decides it’s tired of showing off.  I’ll have Lorianne sew a whole new set of buttons on it for me too.  I don’t even care if the buttons cost me more than the whole coat cost me originally, I just love it that much.

The kids really liked Chicago.  We walked over 20 miles in the 3.5 days we were there.  The Girls would say their favorite activity was SHOPPING!

We let them each take some of their own money with them that they had saved up from birthdays and christmas.  I’m not even going to tell you how many new stuffed animals we came home with.  BUT, We told them for every animal they bought they had to get rid of 3 when we got home.  The amazing thing was they got rid of about 5 times more than we told them they had too.  So I’ve got a huge box of stuffed animals (clean and in good shape) in my garage to donate soon.

Sometimes we plan far ahead for our trips but more often than not, we love to do last minute family getaways.   It’s one way to keep the kids from driving us crazy about when we’re going to leave. For the record, Jeremy plans all of our trips.  It’s kind of a hobby for him.  He loves to travel, but he loves doing it affordably.  As a result we’ve been able to take some pretty fantastic trips over the last 17 years of our marriage.  Like this trip in 2015 to Chicago, just he and I, celebrating our 13th Anniversary. One thing that is a bit difficult for Spring Break is our anniversary is March 24th so it is almost always sandwiched somewhere in Spring Break.  That 2015 trip was the last time we actually celebrated our anniversary, just the 2 of us.  The past few years we’ve been with the kids doing various little trips, mainly to Branson and Ozark to send time with family. This year, just about a week before spring break we decided to take the kids to Chicago.  They’ve never been to a big city, so we thought it would be fun. Jeremy got a really good last minute deal on a room at the Embassy Suites right off of Michigan Avenue that not only fed us breakfast, but they had a complimentary cocktail reception and snacks every evening at 5:30. And wouldn’t you know…4 years later I’m STILL wearing my polka-dot coat.  It was a Target find I think right about the time we went on that last trip.  It’s actually missing 2 buttons now, but that doesn’t stop me, I love it!  I do have plans to take it to my favorite dry cleaners the French Laundry and have it cleaned really well as soon as the cold weather decides it’s tired of showing off.  I’ll have Lorianne sew a whole new set of buttons on it for me too.  I don’t even care if the buttons cost me more than the whole coat cost me originally, I just love it that much. The kids really liked Chicago.  We walked over 20 miles in the 3.5 days we were there.  The Girls would say their favorite activity was SHOPPING! We let them each take some of their own money with them that they had saved up from birthdays and christmas.  I’m not even going to tell you how many new stuffed animals we came home with.  BUT, We told them for every animal they bought they had to get rid of 3 when we got home.  The amazing thing was they got rid of about 5 times more than we told them they had too.  So I’ve got a huge box of stuffed animals (clean and in good shape) in my garage to donate soon. The boys…they like the  FOOD!  (This was Jeremy’s first time to actually eat a Chicago Style Hot Dog).   I was not going to touch that thing with a 10-foot pole.  I had heard of Chicago Style Hot Dogs but had no idea this is what they had on them.  I did love the fact that it came on a sesame seed bun, but the onions, tomato, pickles and jalapenos…no thank you.  (I don’t think Jeremy is too eager to try another one anytime soon either, if we’re being honest) Any Chicago-Style Hot Dog lovers out there? Let’s see what else did we do besides eat and shop?   We did go to “the Bean.” Kind of hard to get a decent pic in front of it.  Jeremy may have a better one of the whole thing on his phone somewhere.  You can pretty much see the whole skyline in the reflection at once.  Even though you can’t see that in this picture because we were too worried about trying to get a picture of ourselves instead.  But It’s pretty neat.   (I love seeing a rare pic of my eldest daughter hugging me.  She is not a super touchy feely affectionate person, so this pic will be one I treasure!)

We went to the top of the John Hancock building twice.  I loved it up there at night the best.  We went back during the day so the kids could do the TILT.  You can literally get in this amusement park-like contraption and they tilt you out over the edge of the building so you can look down.  94 stories down.  Nope, I didn’t do that either.  Luci and I opted out but Anni, Chance and Jeremy did it.

We also went to the Shedd Aquarium Friday where the highlights were the Penguins for the kids and the Beluga Whales for me.  Then on to the Field Museum on Saturday. I enjoyed seeing SUE, the giant T-Rex fossilized skeleton.  (They don’t actually know if SUE is a She or He. “She’s” named SUE after the rockstar archeologist who discovered her!!   I also oddly found myself a bit emotional in the Mummy exhibit.  Did you know they don’t actually unwrap mummies anymore to look at them? It does too much damage to them.  So they now use CT scans to view the bodies inside and leave them wrapped.  I got teary as I looked at a couple of the wrapped mummies and realized one was a mother and baby wrapped together who had likely died during childbirth.  Another was a mother and her 2 children, ages 2 & 5.   If something happens to my kids, Yep, you might as well just wrap me right up with them too.

Saturday, our last night there, Chance was thrilled when we got last minute tickets to the Bulls Game.  His favorite team is the Warriors but he’s pretty much up for Basketball anytime.

Not a great game for the Bulls.  They lost to the Raptors.  But it was fun for us.   We literally sat in the very last row of the arena.  There wasn’t a single person behind us.

Our kids are good little travelers.  We drove the 6 hours there and back with very little drama and I would say we all enjoyed ourselves.   Of course when we got back late Sunday I needed to tend to the dog, the groceries, the house and attempt to get Plume ready to open back up again by tomorrow!

 

A big shout out to Ald’s for the BIGGEST STRAWBERRIES I HAVE EVER SEEN!  These things were huge.  Unfortunately they could have been a bit riper and sweeter, but still fun to eat them.

It’s workshop week this week friends.  I’m sorry to say that if you are not signed up for our Felt Flower Classes most of them are CLOSED.  However, we do have 5 Spots left for this Friday 4/5 at 10AM.  Its the perfect way to spend a Friday Morning if you find yourself with a random day off, or you have kiddos in school and want to treat yourself to some creative therapy. You can read more below and still time to sign up if you’d like.

And…we are launching a brand new Hand Lettering Workshop with Christy Asper from Paper Baristas on April 11th that you may also sign up for.

Welcome April, you’re looking GOOD!

 

P.S. We’re Wednesday – Friday 10-6 and Saturday 10-4.  Come by and see us!