Chicago Trip

Brandon grew up loving the Cubs and after we started dating he soon turned me into a Cubs fan. Although they are never very "good" we still love them. Our first trip to Wrigley was after graduating College in 2001. We drove with a friend of ours up there and stayed with another friend in the burbs. Our second trip was in September 2007 and we stayed in Downtown Chicago. Staying downtown is lots of fun and kinda scary at the same time. We decided that for our 8th anniversary we wanted to go back to Wrigley for a few nights. This time in April, but boy that wasn't the smartest thing we've done. We left Charlotte's 80 degree sunny days for Chicago's 40 degrees rainy days... We managed to have fun though and relax a little. We left on Tuesday really early in the morning from Charlotte. I do not like to fly, but since we were only going for two nights, that was our only option. I had a mini panic attack after boarding the plane, but after sitting on the plane delayed for 1 1/2 hours I got over it. Once we landed in Chicago, we had to hop on the train to get to our hotel. We stayed right off Michigan Ave. this time, so it was perfect for shopping before we got ready to do the game. We caught a night game on Tuesday. It was COLD.... I didn't pack enough clothes, so I bought a Cubs hoodie the first night and proceeded to wear it the rest of the trip, hence why all of my pictures look the same!
We sat in the bleachers for the first game.

The outfielders chatting during a pitching change. The Cubs did lose this game, but we always had the day game on Wednesday...right????

We woke up to a cruddy day on Wednesday. Rain falling and the skies were grey! I could never live in Seattle...Anyway... We headed over to the ballpark to grab some lunch before trying to get some cheap tickets for this one.

Inside Wrigley.. hoping for some baseball to be played.

We got covered seat tickets for $10 a piece, but by game time they hadn't taken the tarp off of the field. It wasn't even raining at game time???? About 30 minutes later, it started to lightly rain and we continued to wait, and wait and wait.... still sprinkling rain.

And then the announcement was made! Postponed... Really, we flew 700 miles to watch a baseball game and it gets rained out...really!!!!! REALLY! They only waited an hour after start time to call the game. We decided since we had flown 700 miles we were going to sit our hiney's in Wrigley as long as we wanted!!! About 30 minutes after they called the game it quit raining and didn't rain anymore the entire day! I just think the grounds crew didn't want to prepare the field! Booo hooo...Game to be made up June 27th..

So here are our sad face pictures

But, we did take some pictures

and more pictures

We were able to go back to the guy we bought the tickets from and sell them back to him for $5 a piece. So we only lost 10 bucks.. glad we didn't get those tix ahead of time.

After the no game we took a stroll around town in the cold....

They even have Qdoba's in Chicago

We found this Lamborghini... Someone had just given it a test drive.

We walked to the Navy Pier in the cold.

After our walk, we decided that we would go find some dinner. We had already tried out a lot of local food joints so we thought we would go to one "chain" type place. We pigged out at the Grand Lux Cafe. I knew I wanted dessert here, so I tried to talk B into splitting something, but we couldn't agree on anything. We both ended up getting pasta dishes and the apple pie with ice cream to split... What were we thinking?

We managed to eat all of the dessert. We couldn't finish our pasta though.. Come on, what's more important??

Thursday morning... here I am again in that same shirt. Only today it was so cold, I wish I would have brought my Winter coat. We got some bfast, and some things for the kids, before heading back to the airport.

Here's the hotel we stayed in. It was a cute little historic boutique hotel.

A big tall building.????

We ventured into the American Girl Store.. Lord help us if and when Aubree ever gets interested in these... REALLY... Lord help us!

Getting onto the train for the last time.

Waiting for the train to come zooming in.

There was always a "musician" performing wanting money.

And our last picture in pure Anderson picture taking form. This is how he would take all pictures if we let him.

We came home to a dead car battery in the long term lot with Brandon's sunroof mysteriously open... Who knows what happened. It wasn't opened when we left. Nothing was missing from the car but there was something left....rainwater from last night's storm. We got a airport employee to get the car started for us and we came home to the three sweetest children in the world. They welcomed up with open arms and were super excited to have mommy and daddy back! I think Mattie was pretty glad we were back too! We enjoyed our little getaway even if it was COLD, and the game was postponed.... I guess it was appropriate for rain water to be in the car when we got back...

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

Didn't the Lord give us the most beautiful day to celebrate? We did Easter Baskets first thing, but none of the pics turned out really good. After church we took some pictures outside, well most of us did. Aubree fell asleep on the way home from church, so she made an appearance later. She hasn't napped all week so she was beat!

Mommy's Sweet Boys

Yes, I managed to make it into a picture... or two!

Here's the one Anderson took of us... a little far away and fuzzy... he tried.

More on the porch.. They were starting to get annoyed with me.

Here's where Aubree was. Notice she has a rock lodged in her ear as well. Her pretty rock as she calls it that she got from Uncle Michael and Aunt Brandy when we went to Atlanta. She thought that would be a good place to keep it while she slept, I guess. It came out pretty easily though.

Once Aubree woke up(well kinda), I got a few of the three of them.

After church I cooked a big meal for us and the Holby's and we hung out all afternoon hiding eggs, and playing in the backyard. The big kids (parents) even had a football throwing contest and Jenn and I managed to soak up some rays.. Made us wish one of us had a pool in the works. It was a wonderful day! Hope you had a good one too.

This week Brandon and I are off to celebrate our 8th anniversary a few weeks late with a trip to Chicago to see the Cubs. Forecast is rain all three days we are there, so we'll pack the ponchos and keep our fingers crossed for no rain during game time! Go Cubbies!

Hot Mess!

That's what she is these days! A big Hot Mess! This little gal is keeping us on our toes over the last few weeks. She has decided that if she wants something she will just get it herself. She has also decided that she will do it in the middle of the night as well. About two weeks ago, she stopped sleeping through the night and started roaming the house. First it was roasted peanuts she got into at 2 am, cracked them herself and ate them (ok... I know that's dangerous). My kitchen floor looked like the Texas Roadhouse. Then it was me catching her in the pantry just like the pictures below with her hand in the peanut butter jar going yum yum. Several nights she turns her light on and climbs on top of her dresser and plays with her piggy bank. Last night we were at our wits end and taped all of her lightswitches down so she couldn't turn on the light in her room and get in trouble (we had to lock her in too). Horrible, I know... Anyway, I caught her today in her tu tu in the pantry and just had to capture the moment to blackmail her with one day! In that red Valentines day would be Anderson's candy stash from his Vday party at school... Wonder what tonight holds.