Girls Weekend in Chicago: Recipe for Fun!

This is a break from regularly scheduled programming to bring you a post about girls weekend! Last weekend I spent 4 days in Chicago with three of my favorite girls: Mom, Aunt Rita, and Madison.

We picked the girls up at Midway Thursday morning and headed into downtown. We stayed at the Conrad Hilton (very nice).

Our first adventure was the Wendella Architecture Tour which was very fun and informative. Perfect sunny day activity. Actually our first stop was Bandera for some lunch on Michigan Ave, then the boat tour.

Naturally we did plenty of shopping!

On Friday we spent the day in Lincoln Park and did more shopping and a lot of walking! We had brunch at Nookies (highly recommend, all fresh and delicious) and then shopped on Armitage, and then walked all the way to the zoo and saw some of these guys:

For dinner we went to Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders, so very good. It is located across the street from the location of the St. Valentines Day Massacre.

On Saturday we went up to Nick and Nicole's new home in Buena Park and then had lunch with them in their neighborhood. Afterwards we came back and assaulted Water Tower Place. Success! Back to school clothes, a homecoming dress, and some jeans.

We began most mornings with girl talk in our room over coffee and muffins, we rounded most nights out with girl talk over dinner and dessert. There is something therapeutic about spending time with dear friends. I had a great time, thanks for making the trip girls!

Staying in touch with those that mean the most

Let's face it, it can be challenging to keep up with friends and family that you don't see very often. I have a lot of these people in my life: Grandma(s), Grandpa, BFF's (Carrie, Kylah, Amy, Zac, Court, the list just goes on and on...), Godmother, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins.  Thanks to a little invention called Facebook I believe we all have an easier time keeping up with the day to day activities than our parents did with their loved ones. But is Facebook really a good substitute for face to face visits or chats on the phone (or a good old fashion letter)? I don't believe so (is your Grandma on Facebook? Mine either).  The thing I love about the people I miss every day that I can't see them, is that when I do see them it is as if we haven't missed a single day and that is so much fun.

I got the idea for this post after having a special visit with one of these special people (Kylah).  She gave me a tip for doing better at staying in touch with Grandparents:

• Mail pictures of you and your activities, they want to see what you have been doing
• Call on your way into work at 7am. Let's face it, they've been up for at least 2 hours.

After recently losing a Grandparent this is more important to me than ever. I am really going to make a better effort at staying in touch with my long distance loved ones.

 

And how about a shout out to those people who become your own special people because they are your special peoples' special people?  Courtney's bachelorette party was an absolute blast (she thinks so too based on her expression)!