A Fantastic Vacation - Part 3

The vacation fun continues...

Our third day in Chicago took us to Navy Pier to try out the bicycles built for 6.  The boys got a kick out of sitting up front...

They were much harder to steer and drive than we had anticipated...especially amongst Chicago's thousands of pedestrians out in droves on a GORGEOUS day.

We also enjoyed a lunch at the famous Billy Goat Tavern...

...nothing spectacular but now we can say we've been there.  Haha

We also stopped to get a picture by the pirates...

We spent the rest of our time downtown exploring the PHENOMENAL Chicago Children't Museum.  It blows our museum out of the water.  

One exhibit was like a campsite, with a rock-climbing wall and fishing...

There was another room filled with water activities and they even gave the kids rain jackets to put on so they could splash away...

You could build locks and dams for the boats as well as pump water to get different things to happen, like ringing a bell....

Of course the boys enjoyed playing with the "shooters"... 

You could also redirect the water with pipes.  So cool!!  Can you tell it was our favorite exhibit??? 

We also enjoyed the fire safety exhibit...

And the cooking demonstration where we got to make our own parfaits...

Oh yea, we got to dig for dinosaur bones too...

...and drive lots of trucks...

We will definitely be checking it out again next summer when we are back in Chicago for Abigail and Scott's wedding.  This is only a snapshot of our fun...we could have easily spent the entire day there but the boys were sleepy so we called it a day and headed back to the condo to regroup.  We managed to get a stop to Intelligentsia in so I could get my coffee fix from my favorite roasting company, hands down, and stock up on beans...

DIVINE!!

Abigail and I got to take a run on the lakefront.  I wish we had running paths like that.  It was AWESOME to be out and about with SOOOOO many other runners and bikers along the gorgeous  Lake Michigan. After our run, we hit up Trader Joe's for some goodies...

The boys loved the little shopping carts.  Needless to say, they need to work on their cart driving skills. It was definitely an adventure.  

The next morning, we grabbed breakfast, where I had the best cinnamon roll I've ever tasted along with some yummy eggs at Ann Sather's, before saying goodbye to Aaron and Jenny...

We had SO MUCH FUN and can't wait for our next visit.

It was time to head back to my parent's house in Evansville...the longest car ride of our little vacation so far.  Thank goodness for pit stops to get some fresh air and walk around a bit...

The boys sure do love their grandpa!

The next day, we had plans to help Abigail find her wedding dress.  It was a successful outing and thoroughly enjoyed by her entire consulting crew...

Miriam, Leah and Me

My mom and Aunt Peggy

We had lots more cuddle time in Evansville...

...the boys had their first salon haircuts...

Mason

Colton

...and we had a little pampering with some pedicures...

So there you have it...our vacation in a nutshell.  We are so blessed by our wonderful family and had a fantastic time bouncing around and visiting everyone.  We can't wait til our next visit.  

Sunshine Days

What an incredible day!

My day kicked off nice and quietly with my favorite coffee, just as I had hoped...

...especially when it's the GOOD stuff...

You better believe I had two cups and talked myself out of a third.  YUM!  I made another one of those grain free english muffins to go with it this morning.  This time I turned it into an sandwich with egg whites, garlic and spinach.  YUM!

The boys and I squeezed in a quick trip to the gym for some killer cardio on the elliptical before spending the rest of the day predominantly outside.  It was GLORIOUS!

The boys had a BLAST finally playing with water in this water table.  

I must say, it's a pretty darn cool toy and kept their attention for a LOOOONG time!  So fun!!



Once they tired of that, it was time to finally try out the finger paints.  The boys had fun with it and created a couple of masterpieces.

They still don't love getting their hands all messy so we had to wash them off frequently.  It's funny that they have no trouble making a complete mess at dinner time but are particular when it comes to paint on their fingers...

We also shot some hoops ...

and just goofed around...

 

Those charming smiles and smirks never seem to get old.  

We even waved hello to all our friends who read this blog.  "Hi there!  Thanks for reading!"

While the boys napped, I took advantage of the quiet time and read a little, listened to the Joyce Meyer devotional for today, and did some Fit2Be yoga for my core.  I also threw a chicken, some sweet potato wedges for the boys and some rutabaga for me, into the oven to slowly roast until dinner time.   After naps, we took a leisurely walk around the neighborhood before giving in to the impending darkness and our hungry tummies.  I should slow roast whole chickens more often.  YUM! I even took the time to make chicken stock from the bones after dinner since I had the time and energy to do it.  This rest day did us all a world of good. 

Now, the boys are snuggled up in bed, tuckered out from a fun day, and I'm having another glass of this wine I opened up last night, compliments of my dad who has a knack for finding all the good, cheap wines.  

Apparently it's from Aldi and I must say, it's surprisingly yummy!  Cheers!  Hope your Saturday was as lovely as ours.  

Sleepless Nights Lead to LOOOONG Days

Our dinner with friends last night was so nice!  We're so blessed to have so many wonderful friends.  The boys must have been extra fired up from all of the excitement of a weeknight dinner at a restaurant because they didn't want to sleep at all last night.  It felt like we had newborns again.  Phew!  It's hard to believe we survived all those sleepless nights since I seem to be struggling so much from just one sleepless night last night.  Here's to hoping the boys make up for last nights restlessness by sleeping in extra long tomorrow morning.  It is a rest day after all...  Thank goodness we still had a little bit of this to get us through the day...

Tomorrow we're digging into the caribou coffee bag--another favorite coffee chain from Chicago.  We're so limited here in Florida.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Coffee Bar Blue Door and even would go so far as to say I love Starbucks, but we're seriously lacking in variety here in the Sunshine State.

I was a little slow getting going with my run today, for obvious reasons, and decided to postpone it until after breakfast.  I got in my 4 miles that the training plan called for and then did a little 2 mile walk to cool down.  I was enjoying the calm before the storm I knew was coming.

Today was produce day and our group is growing by leaps and bounds.  We had 18 members pick up today and they've decided to let me be a weekly pick-up location.  I am SOOO excited!  I love all this yummy produce and the opportunity to help others in our community to get their hands on SUPER-FRESH ORGANIC produce.  I was a little overwhelmed by all the sorting and packing but I think I ended up making out ok.  Hope no one's share was too messed up...  I was so busy I never even took a picture of everyone's good jammed into my kitchen but here's what the full share looked like.

Thanks fellow coordinator Bianca for the lovely photo!  My last member finally picked up at 6:30 so needless to say it has been a long day.  This is not typical for me and I'm hoping it's not the new trend.  We ate up a rutabaga tonight and I'm hoping to make a acorn squash and blue cheese pizza tomorrow using this recipe.   Thanks to Cecilia for the tip to check out Smitten Kitchen's blog.  Check out her photo that's making my mouth water in anticipation of tomorrow night...

Source

Looks like the perfect pre-long-run meal.  I have 9 miles to cover on Saturday.  Woo Hoo!

I'm hoping to do the Palm Beach Half Marathon as well in December and then switch my focus back to shorter races again, like the Superhero Scramble!  I'm signed up now and get more nervous by the day!  I think I need to stop watching that video.  The Foam Race in February looks interesting too.  Gotta keep things interesting.  

Speaking of interesting, it was pretty interesting watching my kiddos play with the vacuum today.  Check out what Mason could do with his hair.  Colton was busy trying to control the nozzle every time I put it down.  They're such good little helpers...

Time to call it a night and get some more reading done while I enjoy one of my new favorite things...

If you haven't tried it yet, you should!  Happy almost weekend.  Hope you've got some fun things planned.