12,414 Days

Yes folks, as of today that is how many days I've been alive. 12,414. That's a lot of days. Kevin and I had a fantastic time on our mini staycation. We hopped on a train mid-morning and made our way into downtown Chicago. From there we dropped our bags at our (awesome) hotel and jumped on the redline to check out Wrigleyville. That was a first for me. We've lived here for 2 1/2 years and I had yet to see Wrigley Field. But in the words of Simon Cowell, "if I'm being honest" (and you have to read that part with a British accent) I really wasn't as interested in the stadium as I was in lunch. There is a sandwich shop that I've been dying to go to since seeing featured on The Travel Channel's Man vs. Food. Lucky's. The name says it all. You are lucky if you have the opportunity to experience one of these sandwiches. Look at this thing! You are looking at the Capiola....and as if the french fries and slaw aren't enough, we had to go and add a fried egg to it. The challenge we saw on Man vs. Food was to eat three sandwiches in under an hour. We split ours but I really think I could have eaten 5 more halves. It was that good! After lunch we walked off at least a few of the calories. We walked Wrigleyville and made our way back to the train. Rather than rushing off to a dinner reservation we decided to take advantage of the free appetizers at the hotel.

Afterwards we headed over to the John Hancock building to have cocktails on the 95th floor. I honestly think that we scored the best table in the entire restaurant. The view was breathtaking! We got there while there was still daylight:

And we stayed long enough to see it lit up:

I love living here! I only wish we could make it downtown more often. Are you wondering what I got for my birthday? Wonder no more!:

The swing set that we had before was here when we moved in. When we found out the previous owners put it up right around the time the house was built we started to get nervous. I'd look out and see 8-10 kids hanging off of it and cringe, wondering when it was going to give way. So, rather than revamping my entire wardrobe (with that amount I could have even replaced my shoes!) we made the yard safe for the kids. My poor Dad got worked while he was here! He and Kevin put it together over the course of 4 days. He's probably still sore. We finally gave both of my parents a break on Sunday. Brunch was as exciting as it got that day.

This week is Reese's last week of school. It's already been busy and it's only Monday. Today was field day, tomorrow is memory book day. Wednesday is beach day. Thursday is Kindergarten graduation. On Friday we have a parties both before (would you believe that there is a party at 8am at the bus stop?) and after school in our neighborhood. I remember how exciting the last few days were for me so it's a lot of fun to see her get into it.