Chicago 2013

We got to spend a weekend in Chicago with our dear friends Blake and Lauren a couple weekends ago. We love going on these mini getaways with them and hopefully we can continue to do them regularly! This was our second trip to the windy city with them and this was a little Baby-moon for Chad and I. This will be our last real getaway before baby girls' arrival in February. 

It was COLD! But we weathered the....weather... and ventured out into the big city. We were a little more adventurous than last time we went (see Chicago 2011 post) and actually took the train this time! We were all super apprehensive at first but it was so easy and totally felt accomplished after successfully getting to and from our destination! 

We checked out the Field Museum, which Chicago is known for. It was HUGE and impossible to do in one day, which we tried. We got really tired and probably only saw 3/4 of it but it was really interesting! I loved the animals and the dino bones! 

Mostly though, we ate a lot of food! Weber Grill is our favorite place from last time we went and we were super excited to eat there again. I'm pretty sure the boys picked our hotel based on proximity to the Weber Grill. ;) We also ate at RPM Italian (Guilliana and Bill Rancic's restuarant) and Yolk (an awesome breakfast place) and White Palace Grill (which was on Diner's Drive-in's and Dives). Everything we ate was awesome!

We walked the Magnificent Mile several times of course and stopped for hot cocca at Ghirardelli! It was Delicious!! I want some now! We did a little bit of shopping, of course we had to stop in the HUGE Nike store and see all the crazy things they have in there! 

It was an awesome trip and a much needed mini-vacation! We are thankful to have great friends like Blake and Lauren to go with us on trips like this and look forward to many more!

Our Weekend in Pictures

We had an absolute blast this labor day weekend. My best friend in the whole world got married!!! We didn't let a little rain ruin our parade! It was a ton of fun, the baby and I danced our hearts out. I'm so glad we got to be a part of their special day! We love you Kristen & Josh! =)

We had an amazing time! I wish we could do it once a month! =) 

Summer 2013

I apologize in advance for such a long post! Go grab a drink, you're in for the long hall. 

Since I've been busy blogging about the pregnancy I haven't really taken time to share all the fun things we did this summer. I cannot believe it's almost over but I am looking forward to fall and all it has to offer (football, awesome weather, campfires..etc)

We kicked off this summer celebrating the wedding of one of our good friends from college, Josh. He met a great girl from Maine and they had a beautiful weeding up there. (fun fact: we found out we were pregnant while in Maine!)

I took a long weekend off work and we made our way to the great state of Maine. The wedding festivities were so much fun and we are so happy we were able to share their special day. (For those of you wondering, and I know you all are, yes I saw a moose... see photo below)

After we returned home from Maine, I got pretty bad morning sickness but I mustered up all the energy I could so we could go out to eat on our 2nd wedding anniversary!

I look absolutely terrible so we will keep this picture small....

Because I was so sick and we didn't really feel the need to get each other gifts this year, we both went with sweets instead. I got Chad a cheesecake (his favorite) from a local bakery and he got me a cupcake and dessert bar from another local bakery. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to eat any of it! I also didn't take pictures of any of it, you'll have to use your imagination.

In the beginning of July we were off on a much needed vacation. We took a trip to South Carolina with my parents and my sister and her two kids. Thankfully, I was starting to feel slightly better and was able to enjoy myself. 

We did a lot of laying on the beach (my favorite) and eating (also my favorite!). 

We did a mini photo shoot on the beach, with my new camera, and got some great new family shots. 

We even took a day trip to Savannah one day while it was gloomy and raining. 

On ward with our busy summer... 

When we got back from vacation I threw my best friend a bridal shower. It was so much fun and everything turned out great. 

She got a lot of great gifts and even had 2 surprise out of town guests that she was super excited to see. We got a rare photo of all the bridesmaids in one place (such a cute group!)

We had yummy mimosa bar (that I was unable to take part in, boo) and a delish dessert table. 

Soon after that it was time for her Bachelorette party! We spent the day at the pool with gifts and cake and then hit the town for dinner and drinks afterward. 

Overall, it has been a jam packed but extremely fun summer and it's not quite over yet! Hopefully I will be better about posting updates as they happen to avoid such long blog dumps! Stay tuned...

Summer Vacation 2012: Florida

This summer, Chad and I took a trip to Florida. Along with our friends Steve and Shannon, we ventured over 15 hours in the car, to the sunshine state. First we stayed in St. Pete Beach, where all that was on the agenda was laying on the beach and swimming in the pool. 

The hotel was awesome and the beach was beautiful. My favorite part was sitting under our canopy reading!

After 3 days in St. Pete, we made our way to the greatest place on earth. You guessed it, DISNEY WORLD! We spent 5 of our 7 days in the Disney parks, riding rides, eating deliciously bad for you park food and walking, lots of walking! My favorite park by far was Magic Kingdom. I was suddenly 8 years old again. Seeing all of characters, the castles and the costumes, it was all amazing and overwhelming at the same time. There is truly too much to see in one day. That's why we spend two days there. The first day we got there when it opened and were worn out by 3:00 and called it a day. The second day we went to Magic Kingdom, we got a later start and stayed for the electric light parade at night!  

Epcot was fun in it's own way. There were definitely not many rides there and we spent most of our time in "France" eating pastries! We loved seeing all the different countries and talking to the people from those countries. The architecture was amazing and the food was the best part of Epcot. We also visited this park twice (we couldn't get enough pastries the first time!) The first day we went in the morning and ate to our hearts content. The second day we came later and stayed for the fireworks and laser show at night. (We also ate again... imagine that).

Lastly, we visited MGM studios. This was my least favorite park overall, but it contained my FAVORITE roller coaster. Enter, The Rocking Roller Coaster. We ended up riding this probably 5 times. I was amazing and I couldn't get enough. (This coming from a girl that does not particularly care for roller coasters at all). The only thing I wish is that it was longer. It couldn't have lasted for more than 45 seconds. Other than the rockin' roller coaster, we did a back lot tour, visited the "Honey I shrunk the kids" playground and saw a couple shows: The Little Mermaid live, Muppets 3D live and Chad's personal favorite and probably his favorite thing the entire week, a live performance of Beauty and the Beast!

Disney World was so much fun, but extremely exhausting! I needed a vacation after my vacation to recover! It was so nice to experience the parks and all they had to offer WITHOUT kids. I can't wait to go back WITH kids but I definitely have some insight and tips now on how to travel to Disney with kids just from watching other people and their kids, if anything now I know what NOT to do! =)

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.