The Windy City

This weekend we went to Chicago with a couple of our best friends! We have been planning this weekend trip since this summer and we were so excited when it was finally time to go!

We all took off on Friday and left early in the morning. After the 4.5 hour drive, we finally arrived in the windy city (and yes, it's extremely windy)!

After we checked into our awesome hotel, we were off to walk to city and see all it had to offer. We ate some delicious Chicago style Pizza at Lou Malnati's.

We went ice skating in Millenium park. It wasn't too cold but there were a lot of people on the ice so I was a little scared since I'm not the best ice skater.

That night we ate at Michael Jordan's steakhouse. We all had some huge, expensive steaks!

After a long day of walking the city we found a nice bar and had a few drinks with friends!

On Saturday, we didn't get up early enough for breakfast (walking wears me out)! Once we were up and ready we hit the streets once again.

We did a ton of walking and found some awesome shops like Garrett's Popcorn, Hersey's, the Nike Shop...etc

We made our way to the Navy Pier and it was extremely cold and windy by the lake! I thought we would blow away.

We had lunch out on the Pier at Harry Caray's Tavern. The restaurant had a ton of Chicago memorabilia that was awesome to look at. They had the foul ball that Steve Bartman caught (they have blown it up, but they have all the strands), major sport figures jerseys, tons of pictures with famous people and lots of other stuff.

After lunch we made our way back to Michigan Avenue for, what else, more shopping, until it was time to stand and wait for the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival. Mickey and Minnie came by on their float and lite up the streets one block at a time. We were 20 people deep on the street and couldn't see much! There were sooo many people there is was incredible.

After the first several floats we decided to make our way back to the Hersey's store and get a snack (Yum). Then we made our way to dinner at Weber Grill. This was a really nice BBQ restaurant in downtown that we all enjoyed a lot.

After dinner I was so tired from two days of non stop walking and shopping and eating that I went back to the hotel and crashed!! The boys went walking and had some man time together.

We woke up Sunday, sad it was time to leave the Chicago, but we were determined to use every bit of time we had. We went to breakfast at a place called Eatt, then we walked Michigan Avenue one last time and got some souvenirs!

Then we packed up the car and made the 4.5 hour, rainy drive back to Cincinnati.

Chicago has a lot to offer. It is a huge city, much bigger than Cincinnati and there is so much to do there. I think that we were successful in doing everything that we wanted. We had so much fun with our friends and are already planning where to go next year! It is nice to be able to get away from life for a couple days on a mini vacation, especially before the holidays get here and we are running around crazy and time flies by without us noticing.

Where did October go?

Wow, I can't believe how time is flying by! It's already November and before we know it Christmas will be here. It flew by so fast, it's already been a month since I posted last! There really isn't much to tell about October, it was really a month full of getting back into routine. I started my normal routine at work and I am loving the hours and the location, 15 minutes from our house. The days are long, but it is a small price to pay for only working 4 days a week!

Our weeks fly by with both of us working all day and our weekends are usually full of football. We are very proud of our #23 Bearcats and our Bengals for great seasons so far! We have attended quite a few home Bearcats games, but not one Bengals game this year, maybe we are bad luck!

This month we finally got our wedding video, which was so awesome to watch. There was so much that I didn't get to see since I was last down the aisle and hidden for most of the day. Our videographer captured the entire day and also gave us a separate disc with raw footage of people dancing. The speeches were amazing to see again. We were able to finally here my maid of honors speech that was riddled with tears and hard to understand that night, but on the video we caught every word. It was also nice to hear our best man's speech again, it was funny and heartfelt and I know it meant a lot to Chad.

As for the house, we haven't done much updating. Mostly, replenishing our funds from the last update. We did do some minor work: updated the front door handle/lock and the screen door handle. They used to be an awful shade of bright gold, now they are a much more modern brushed nickle. We also bought an ottoman for our living room, which has proved the come in handy a lot!

With October over, we have a fun-filled November in store. Chad had his first practice has a middle-school basketball coach. I am really hoping his season goes well and the kids win a lot of games. Chad has always wanted to be a head basketball coach and I want him to do well at it. I'm sad I will only get to attend a couple of his games because they are on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:30, and I won't be off work in time. I think this is silly, they should have the games later, what parent or fan can attend at 4:30?

In a week and a half we are going to CHICAGO with our best couple friends Lauren and Blake. This will be the second time I have been there, but the first time I was 11 and I don't remember much. We are only going for a weekend but we have 3 days packed full of fun things to do! I can't wait to go shopping at all the amazing store they have there and see the Navy Pier again. This was the only thing I can really remember about Chicago and I loved it. We are going to eat some amazing Chicago style food and go ice skating! We also have planned to see a parade and lighting of Michigan Avenue which should be fun! I can't wait.

After we get home from Chicago, Thanksgiving will be knocking at our door. Now that Chad and I are married, we have to try to figure out how to split holidays. Neither of us wants to spend a holiday away from our families and we can't do both in one day because Chad's family lives 2 hours away from us. So this year we think we have it worked out to where we can see both families for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Who knows what we will do in years to come. Especially once we have kids to tote around as well.

Like I said, Christmas will be here before we know it. With such a jam packed November, I just know it is going to fly by! Chad and I love the holiday season and all that it brings (except the snow). I have already started to prepare, I ordered our Christmas cards off SnapFish, once again utilizing our wedding photos. Chad tells me people are going to be getting sick of seeing our wedding pictures on everything we send them, but I promised him this would be the last time. I want to be able to enjoy the holidays and not be running around so crazy that it passes me by. I hope that we are able to enjoy our first holiday season as a married couple with few bumps in the road. We will see!

With so much happening in November I should have a lot to post about. Hopefully I will have the time!