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.  

Weekend Fun

The last few days have been a whirlwind of fun for us and I haven't wanted to miss a minute of the fun to sit down at the computer.  Now that I found a few spare minutes, here comes the recap and photo dump...

Friday morning kicked off with an MRI and NO VOICE whatsoever.  I got the results back today--the cyst is the same, if anything a little smaller, so no more follow-up MRIs are needed.  Praise Jesus!  I also got to deliver dinner to a new momma from my MOPS group.  I always love seeing newborn babies and was bummed I couldn't hold the little cutie!

The rest of our day was spent with my oldest childhood friend and her three kiddos.  I am so glad we've been friends for almost 30 years.  She is truly a gift and it was SOOO good to catch up.  It was a house full of kiddos and fun for almost 24 hours...

Leah was a sport and read them their bedtime stories...and gave up her room to them while risking slipping with me, the sick one.  She's a trooper!!

Once they left, our next outing was our a fellow toddler's birthday party.  The boys loved trying out her new slide and playing with her water table.  I enjoyed sipping on a beer with some friends while we watched them play on a beautiful day.  Birthday parties are the best!!

We returned home with some EXHAUSTED boys and I seized the moment during their naptime and tackled a killer tabata legs workout.  My legs are still sore today from it...guess I should train my legs more often.  

Sunday was spent in the lovely town of Vero with some friends who have become family to us.  It was an incredible day filled with a trip to the most amazing bookstore I've ever visited...

This is just one of the many toys for the kids to play on in the store.  They really enjoyed the train table and the wind-up toys too.  

We got some great new books to add to our collection.  They had tons I had never seen before.  I LOVE children's books and it was hard not to buy them all.  

We will definitely making another trip to that great store soon.

We had a delicious lunch at Gloria Estefan's fun hotel.  The boys liked this fountain out front.  

We also hit up the local park...

Gotta love playgrounds practically on the beach since there was a fantastic breeze there as a result.   We rounded out the day with a stop at the local sweet shop, Cravings, for some take-home goodies and grabbed an ice cream cone from Kilwins to enjoy right away.  I enjoyed every bite of my salted caramel ice cream.  The whole day was incredible--great fun with great family and friends.

Today was busy as well.  The boys played with their friends at their play group while Leah and I treated ourselves to pedicures...

...and a trip to the beach...

I have never seen waves like we saw there today.  There is some serious beach erosion as a result... 

I managed to squeeze in a great workout and run while the boys napped and Leah got some more sun before it was time to take the boys to gymnastics.  I must say I was much more impressed this week than last week.  The boys made huge strides in just one week---the smaller group today was also a nice bonus.  We capped off the day with a quick trip to target and are now finishing up some chores before we curl up on the couch with some wine to catch the season finale of the Bachelor.  I can't wait to see how it turns out...

I'm happy to report that my voice is almost back and I think I'm ready to tackle story time tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to sharing some of our new books with the group.