More Pictures

I've been working on editing more of the pictures that Megan took of us...

check them out...

I think this one of Brooke should be submitted to Sonic for advertising purposes...

doesn't that make you want to go buy a cool refreshing drink? Wish you could see the Sonic logo on that cup!

Just Waiting...

We are getting closer to having a new addition to our family...
now we're just waiting....

the baby shower is over!

the baby room is ready!

Mindy is DEFINITELY ready AND anxious!

we're waiting... waiting for you to arrive... patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) waiting!

We can't wait to meet you Baby Drake!

New Pics

Recently we had new family pictures taken. It's kind of a funny story how I found the gal that took our pictures. I had never met her until that day...but I felt like I already knew lots about her. I stumbled upon her blog months before and started following it... she has great ideas (some of which I have stolen) for keeping kids busy... she is EXTREMELY crafty and shares a lot of recipes... but more importantly she takes the most BEAUTIFUL pictures. What really caught my eye was the unique angles of her pictures. She was constantly posting pictures of different families or kids and I got the impression that she might take pictures professionally. (check out her blog here) So after a little research and tracking down her email address... I emailed a complete stranger to see if she would take some pictures of our family.

She is just getting started in the professional photo business and was willing to meet up with us for an outside shoot at the Arboretum in Hesston. She did such a wonderful job...especially since Brooke was NOT cooperating! She gave me rights to all the pictures and so I'm still doing some of my own editing and such...so I'll be sharing more soon.

But for now... here is a little preview of what I have ready.


Thanks so much Megan!

Mr. Pumpkin Head

I really don't like the mess of carving pumpkins...

but I do like the girls to have their own pumpkin that they have decorated.

This year we made Mr. Pumpkin Heads!

Maddie's was a princess...

Ashlyn's a witch...

and Brooke's was a pirate.

Chicago: Part 2

Here's how the rest of our trip to Chicago went:

On Saturday we spent the day at the Museum of Science and Industry. Honestly, it didn't sound like fun to me...but it was recommended to us by several different people - so we gave it a try. It was really a cool place.... huge.... so much to see and very interactive.

This was a temporary exhibit they had on a real Russion submarine. They did an reinactment of what it was like living on that sub for months at a time. Pretty cool.

It would have been a great place to take kids. There was so many exhibits that were geared for kids and interactive. They had one exhibit that was called the toy machine and you could make your own customized gravitron top. So, we made one for each of the girls. Maddie got purple, Ashlyn orange and Brooke green. And, we watched each step as it was made.... really cool... not very cheap, but the girls enjoyed them. (Maddie's is the only one left - the other two broke theirs!)

Saturday evening was supposed to be my plans, but since we had both picked a carriage ride, we decided to just do something last minute. We first stopped back by the John Hancock Building to see the city from the 94th floor at daytime! Awesome!!!

This is the city of Chicago from afar... or more like... from above!

and Lake Michigan, including Navy Pier (on the right)...

and the beaches of Lake Michigan...

and this is close up...

the Trump building...
After that we ate at the Weber Grill - which I honestly picked becauase they had a picture of the most scrumptious looking steak in a magazine in the hotel room. Chris and I couldn't get over how good that steak looked - so we tried it out! We weren't dissapointed, but I do have to admit - ours didn't look as good in person as that one did in the picture. But, still a good meal! Then we walked around for a while and decided to check out the boat cruises to see if we could make one of those... and we did. We got tickets for the evening fireworks cruise that took us down the Chicago River and then out into Lake Michigan to watch the fireworks they were having at Navy Pier.

The cruise was very interesting... explaining the archetechure of all the buildings along the Chicago River. We really enjoyed the evening a lot! It was a little chilly out on the water, but at least we had each other to snuggle up to and kept warm that way!

Sunday was our last day in the city. We were scheduled to head home early that evening, so we decided to spend the day relaxing! We enjoyed a couples massage in our room to start! Very nice! Then we walked down to Millenium and Grant Parks. We saw some of the sculptures there...

the bean....

and here's our reflection in the bean...

these building waterfall things....

and Buckingham Fountain...

It was a really nice day and we just enjoyed being outside and with each other!

We checked out one more pizza place... one that had been know as the "best deep dish pizza in Chicago".... Ginno's East. The place was very cool... they allowed people to graffiti on everything... the walls... the seats and tables... the pictures.

Chris wrote a message to me on one of the walls...

and this is what Chicago deep dish pizza looks like...

I have to admit though... Ginno's was not as good as Giordana's from the first night... at least that was our opinion.

We had such a wonderful time! I would highly recommend Chicago as a place to visit if you have never been there. It was nice to visit with just Chris, but I also think it would be a great place for a family vacation as well. There is a lot to do with kids. I hope we get back there soon and hopefully take the girls with us next time.

Chicago

A couple weeks ago Chris and I spent a few days away in Chicago. It was a lot of fun and was nice getting away, just the two of us...a much needed time alone.

We were originally supposed to go to Vegas with some friends of ours that had never been there before, but that ended up not working out. So Chris and I thought we might as well go somewhere since we already had the kids taken care of. However, we have been to Vegas tons of times, so we decided to go somewhere different...somewhere we both had never visited...and we ended up choosing Chicago!

Chicago really is a pretty cool city. There is a LOT to do there. We wanted to make sure we saw a lot of the city; but we also wanted to relax and have a romantic weekend away too! I think we did a pretty good job of accomplishing that!

We stayed at the Swissotel, which was right along the Chicago River AND Lake Michigan! This was the view from the 32nd floor!

Our first evening there we decided to hit a pizzeria...I mean you can't go to Chicago without eating their famous deep dish pizza! We asked around and decided to try out a place called Giordano's Pizzeria. It was fabulous! We STUFFED ourselves on a tiny small pizza that was sooooo cheesy and sooooooo good. We laughed as we decided this pizza was not a "pick up and eat it" type of pizza but that you MUST use a fork!

After dinner we went to Howl at the Moon, a piano bar known for it's dueling pianos! I had been to one of these places before with some friends and I wanted to take Chris there so he could see how cool this place was! I still am amazed at how talented these people are that play up there! They play songs by request...from newer music to old classics. And, they can just belt the songs out and pound on the keys without blinking an eye. It's crazy... and so much fun!!! We had a really good time. The only bad part was that we were somewhat miserable from eating WAY too much pizza!

On Friday, we spent most of the day at Navy Pier. It was a relatively nice day... a little windy... but we made the most of walking alongside the water and enjoying each other's company!

The main thing that I wanted to do at Navy Pier was ride the Ferris Wheel. Did you know that the Ferris Wheel was invented by George Washington Ferris for the World's Fair that was held in Chicago in 1893. It was built to compete with the Eiffel Tower, which was built for the World's Fair held in Paris. This Ferris wheel at Navy Pier is a non-stopping wheel that is 150 feet high.

Fun...huh! I thought so.... until I got to the top. I was FREAKING OUT!!!! I hate heights, but I thought I would be fine. Well...not so much. I couldn't wait to get out of there. I could hardly even look out at the view.

Here I am...trying to crack a smile...even though I was scared out of my wits!!!

Chris didn't have such a hard time!

One things that Chris and I do for fun when we go on romantic trips is for each of us to plan an evening and keep it a surprise. So, we decided to do that this trip as well. Chris' evening was on Friday!

He first took me to Geja's Cafe. When we got in the cab and he said it, I was thinking "a cafe...hum...how romantic!" Well, it WAS! And, it was so cool. It was a fondue place, but it was a very romantic setting.

We started out with a rich cheese fondue for our first course...and they provided different breads, apples and grapes to dip in the cheese! For the main course, we chose our meats and were provided with a huge platter of food...all of it raw!

Because at a fondue place.... you cook your own food. So, after receiving cooking instructions we cooked our own vegetables, potatoes and meat in the hot oil that they provided.

It actually was a lot of fun! Very interactive!

For desert, we obviously were served a chocolate fondue with different fruits and pound cake for dipping! Delicious!

We had a wonderful time and didn't over stuff ourselves this time. After dinner we decided to head over to the John Hancock Building. This is a 96 story building that is known for one of the best views of the Chicago skyline. We decided to do the two time experience so that we could see the view at night AND during the day. It really was a spectacular view!

This a view of the John Hancock Building from the street it's located on looking straight up!

Once we were done there...we walked about a block down the street to where there were horse drawn carriages. Chris had planned to take an hour long carriage ride through the city at night! What a GREAT IDEA!!! So much that I had thought of the same thing to do the next night...on my date! We had such a good laugh at the fact that we had planned the same thing. So, on our carriage ride... we had to discuss another option for our evening the following night! However, we very much enjoyed the carriage ride... in fact, we both felt that was probably one of our favorite things of the whole trip! If you ever get a chance to do this...DO IT! It was very romantic and lots of fun! The only snag was the fact that it started raining a little and we had to put the top on the carriage about halfway through, so it wasn't quite as easy to see the tall buildings with the top on, but it was still VERY romantic!

Well, that was the end of day two in Chicago...I will write about the rest of our trip next time!

So....stay tuned!!!