Chicago {Part 3}

Sunday morning, we got up and headed to Millennium Park for a few quick pics with “The Bean” before we left. Everyone was right, it was definitely a “must see”! Luckily, we made it before the Bears game traffic started getting too congestive!

    

    

    

      

Millennium Park was gorgeous and the weather was perfect!!

After a quick stroll around the park, we headed a few blocks over to Willis (Sears) Tower to visit the Skydeck. We were able to walk right in, but could definitely tell that it gets super crowded, super quick! What an amazing view!!

      

We definitely went out on the decks! We got better pics on Chris’ phone, but I still need to upload those. I’ll post those soon!!

      

After visiting the Skydeck, we got on the interstate to head home. We had an amazing weekend! We were not ready to leave at all. We could have definitely spent another week there just being carefree and doing whatever we wanted! We already can’t wait to go back and take the kiddos along!

Now, we are back into the reality of everyday life… tutoring, flag football, cheer, school, and everything else. Not to mention that Chris headed out of town for work for 14 days! So, he’s busy working super long days down in Louisiana and I’m busy pulling super long days by myself with the kids! EXHAUSTED! But, that’s life and we love it! :)

Chicago {Part 2}

We spent Saturday celebrating our anniversary. We started the day by sleeping in! Unbelievable!! That definitely never happens at home. Then, we headed to brunch. We ate at a small place right on the Chicago River. The view was amazing, the food was delicious, and the atmosphere was very enjoyable! It was the perfect way to start our day!! Not to mention the mimosas and bloody marys were super yummy!!

Chicago River at Clark Street Bridge

      

This is where we ate. It was wonderful! It was too cold to eat outside, but even eating inside was worth the walk!!

After we ate, we walked the River Walk back to the hotel. It was a little colder than we (Chris) had anticipated, so we had to change out of t-shirts and chacos to something a little warmer. ;)

      

 

Happy Anniversary Chris Stickles! I love you so much!!

After warming up a bit, we headed out to spend the afternoon on Michigan Avenue. This was the part of the trip that I was most looking forward to! And, let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint!! I fell I love and probably did entirely too much shopping! I just couldn’t help myself!! We definitely made a stop by the American Girl store and helped Santa out a little big. ;)

The store was HUGE and quite overwhelming!!! Chris spent about 10 min with me and then called it quits and headed to the Lego store! ha! I loaded up!!! Practically bought LK’s entire Christmas list!!

After a fun afternoon, we got ready for our evening outing. We decided to take a sunset cruise on Lake Michigan. We were worried that more ran was going to come in, but we didn’t see a drop all day! 75 and Sunny!! The weather held out and the cruise was gorgeous!

      

I too WAY too many pics of the skyline, but I just couldn’t resist.. incredible!!

      

      

Amazing husband!! I am so incredibly lucky!

      

      

      

      

We returned from the cruise and had dinner on Navy Pier. Yet again, DELISH! I swear, if we hadn’t walked everywhere I probably would have gain a good 15lbs by everything I ate! We ate all local, and it was all amazing!!

After dinner, we finally got to ride the ferris wheel! The views were incredible!

      

We got back to the hotel room late from enjoying our evening on the pier. I think we were both passed out within 20 min of our heads meeting the pillows! So worth it though!! AMAZING DAY!!

We made a few more stops on Sunday before heading out.. post to come! :)

Hey, Chicago! {Part 1}

Last week, Chris and I headed to The Windy City to celebrate our anniversary. We had an amazing time!!! We were only gone a few days, but it was great to get away and get some alone time. Huge thanks to Noni and Papa for keeping the kiddos and managing their schedules, and also to my mom and Grams for taking care of our Huck. We were at ease while away knowing that every child (2 legged and 4) was well taken care of!

We got into Chicago around 7 on Wednesday evening… just as the sun was going down on the city. It was gorgeous!

I snapped this in the car while driving! Breathtaking!!

We found our hotel, gave our car to the valet, dropped our bags off, and immediately headed out to eat. First stop on the Chicago Tour of Foods (b/c I promise you.. I ate the entire time! ha!) was Gino’s! DELISH!

  

Everything was great! The atmosphere, the people, the food… great!

We actually got seated next to a group of guys from Memphis. Although they were all wearing Mississippi State shirts, they were great company! ;) They were in town for a “guys weekend” – Cubs game on Friday, Michigan v Notre Dame on Saturday, then Bears game on Sunday!! Chris was definitely jealous! What a weekend!!

We woke up Friday morning and headed to Lake Michigan and Navy Pier. Our hotel was right off of Michigan Ave, so everything was within walking distance. It was only about a 3 min walk to the lake and pier. It was cloudy and COLD! The views were still amazing though and I definitely loaded up my camera with some skyline shots.

   

We stopped by Navy Pier. The shops and rides weren’t open yet, but it was a great to walk around.

After walking around for a while, we went back to the hotel to get ready for Chris’ favorite part of the trip…. Cubs/Cardinals game! I had bought him tickets way back in March and he had been anticipating it since then! He’s grown up a huge Cubs fan, but had never been to Wrigley Field. The entire way to the field I heard “We’re going to the Cubs game!” over and over. It was like I was Ethan, not Chris! ha! I couldn’t blame him though!! Boys and baseball! ;) The meal of the day… Italian beef and sausage sandwiches in the ballpark! Heaven!

      

      

The area around the stadium, Wrigleyville, is super fun! We had a great time walking around before the game taking in the sites and sounds. It definitely puts you in the mood for baseball!

Little did I know, but I purchased awesome seats!!! We were literally right on the field! I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chris so happy!

      

The players were warming up right in front of us! He was like a kid in a candy store!!

    

Even though I’ve grown up a Cardinals fan, I sported my blue and red for my hubby!

Mid-way through the game, it started raining. We were prepared though with raincoats and boots! I was afraid that they’d end up calling a rain delay but they never did. Thank goodness!! I would have had one disappointed 28 year old on my hands!

Score of the game… 5-4! CUBS WIN!!!! We got to see the W flag flown!! Chris was ecstatic! Especially since they came from behind to tie at the bottom of the 9th, then won in the 12th inning. It was the perfect game!!

After the game, we hung out by the stadium and grabbed a burger at one of the burger bars in Wrigleyville. Again, super yummy!

It was a great day!! It rained the rest of the day and evening, but that didn’t stop us from wandering around Michigan Ave a bit. By 9pm, we were exhausted!!! We had been out and about since 8am!

More to come…..