The 4th and Parents Getaway!

Two posts in one! It's long!

OUR FOURTH OF JULY!

Family time!

We spent the morning at the lake with the Arnold family.  Dylan rode jet skis, went fishing, and ate lots of food sweets!  Caleb was pretty low key!  He ate and took a nap!  Aunt Janell was in town and I can't believe I didn't get a picture with her!  The boys love her to pieces and love that she crashed on our couch and got to hang out with us for  part of the 4th! 

Happy Fourth! 

Ridin' with Daddy!

 That afternoon, we went to the pool.  Dylan enjoyed the inflatables most!  He made new friends that "looked out for him" amongst all the bigger kids.  It is so refreshing to know some (and I do say only some) children still have manners and help a small child instead of mowing them over.  We enjoyed some time with Matt and Lana, and then went home and CRASHED!

So much fun! 

The Big Slide!

Curly Q's!

Our American Baby!

This face melts my heart!

 PARENTS GETAWAY!

Jonathan and I took our first getaway since Caleb was born for the weekend.  We celebrated our 8th anniversary! We flew out of LR very early Friday morning and were in Chicago before 10am!  We took a taxi to our hotel which was the PERFECT  little boutique!  Thanks so much Mrs. Caryn, Lindsey, and Erin for the recommendation!  We love the Talbott Hotel on E. Delaware and WILL be staying there again!  It was quiet, the bellman, and doorman were so friendly!  

Awesome place to stay!

We were a little over 2 blocks from Michigan Ave, but the area was totally perfect!  It is the type scene you see in the movies!  Little eateries with patio seating, fountains surrounded by little tables to relax.  I absolutely love that area!  We ate lunch at the famous Cheesecake Factory!  Our cheesecake was to die for!  On Friday, we headed straight to Michigan Ave. to check out all the shops!  We walked and shopped for a while, then went back and took a nap!  Yes! A NAP! 

Me: Banana cream J: Snickers

 We took a boat ride down the Chicago River and out into Lake Michigan.  It was neat to hear about all of the buildings and why the Chicago River runs the opposite direction!

Amazing scenery!

 We ate supper at Ditka's Chop House!  Jonathan ate "da chop" and I had the filet!  It was a great meal!

Late night supper!

  Saturday we decided to walk down to the old "mansions" of Chicago (recommended by our concierge).  It was so cool!  I picked out my own place, red door and all!  How neat to live on this street that is so full of history!  We found the original Playboy mansion.  I found out that it is now several condominiums that are valued at millions of dollars each!

I picked the house with the red door! 

Enjoying our walk!

Original Playboy Mansion!

 Our concierge recommended Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza!  It WAS INCREDIBLE!  The buttercrust was out of this world.  We had a free chocolate chip cookie with ice cream that was possibly better than the pizza.  We love going to places that the "locals" love instead of the overly advertised ones!

Saturday night was the big concert!

KENNY CHESNEY AND TIM MCGRAW AT SOLDIER FIELD!  We took the L to Soldier Field along with 50,000 of our closest friends!  Our assigned seats were pretty disappointing so we moved on over to the only lower level section that didn't sell out.  Great move and awesome concert! Everyone knows that Kenny is my favorite.  Seen him several many times!  He played some of his older songs and I was more than thrilled about that! The breeze in the evening actually made me a little chilly!  It was so much fun!  I would recommend Brothers of the Sun Tour to anyone!  Tim and Kenny did not disappoint!  The concert lasted nearly 6 hours.  We didn't get back to our hotel until midnight. 

So fun!

Tim McGraw was great!

Kenny!

Together!

 Sunday we decided to take it easy! We checked out at noon and walked across the street to eat brunch at Cru (formerly The Feast).  It was great!  The weather was perfect!  75-sunny-with a cool breeze!  We decided to just walk around some more.  We shopped, and waited in line for Garrett's popcorn!  Caramel crisp did not disappoint either!  We headed to the airport around 3 and were home in time to put our boys to bed!  Thanks to my mom and dad for keeping the boys and for J's parents helping out too!  It takes a village and we have a great one that allows us to take "US" time to refuel!