The Standefords Visit Chicago

This past weekend Jake, Rox, and Baby Nora came to visit us in Chicago and we had an amazing time!

Friday morning I took a train to the Indiana Dunes to meet up with them for a day at the beach (Nora's first trip to the beach). It was so much fun! All of their nieces, Jake's sister, brother, and two sisters-in-law were there for the day as well. Going to the beach with a bunch of little ones is a riot! The girls are all about 3 years old and had a blast running up the dunes and playing in the sand.

Later that day I rode back with Jake, Rox, and Nora to Chicago. We met up with Alex at the apt and went to a Chicago style pizza place for dinner.

Saturday, we hung around the apt for a while then made our way up to Lincoln Park. We got Chicago style hotdogs for lunch then took Nora to the zoo. I love the Lincoln Park Zoo for many reasons, but especially because it is free! And... its a pretty awesome free zoo. Nora got to see rhinos, fish, lions, and some very interesting monkeys....

That night we walked downtown to P.F. Changs for dinner... as Jake said "We ate Chicago style pizza, Chicago style hotdogs, and Chicago style Chinese"... we didn't want the Chinese food to feel left out I guess. haha

Like I said before, we had an awesome time and wish these get togethers could happen more often. Nora is such a sweet baby! She is absolutely beautiful and very happy! She only gets a little fussy when she is hungry, tired, or needs changed... and I don't blame her! We had her schedule a little goofed up for the weekend, but she was a trooper and hung in there with us.

I can't wait for our next visit with the Standefords!

I mean seriously... How cute is she??

The Standefords

Mommy and Nora at the zoo

Look at those smiles! She has Daddy's smile and Mommy's eyes

Uncle Alex and Baby Nora

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I think I'm all caught up on my blogs now. Not too much else on the agenda until school starts August 1. Back to the grind.... summer always goes by too fast. :( But, I've tried my best to live it up and soak up plenty of rays. I do love having a pool here.

Nashville

The first leg of our trip was in Nashville and I loved it! For those of you who may not know, this is the place we may end up after our time in Chicago (hopefully!!). Believe it or not... I'm not really a BIG city person for many reasons that I won't get into now. haha So, Nashville is a great size where there are still things to go to and see, yet its not quite as busy, crazy, or expensive as Chicago. We were there for three days including the 4th of July... which was awesome! We spent a lot of our time walking around, stopping in honky tonks and listening to live country music (again... loved it!), and we spent a little time driving around the burbs of Nashville to check things out.... just in case we end up there. :)

Lots of pictures below...

Cumberland River

Alex enjoying a drink at a honky tonk on Broadway... Whiskey Bend

A group we listened to our first night there. It was so awesome to walk into any bar (and there are about 100) and have live music all day everyday!

City view... much, much, much smaller than Chicago (I'm fine with this).. closer to the size of Indy.

Country Music Hall of Fame

Taylor's dress and Brad Paisley's suit- two of my favs!

The Cleverlys- a folk music group meets The Office. They were hilarious! Basically, they take popular music and put a folk twist on it. They performed songs like: "Single Ladies", "Tonight's Going to be a Good Night", "Forget You", etc. Youtube them for a good laugh!

Waiting for the shows along the river on the 4th. Definitely one of the best 4th's I've ever had!

Main event- Darius Rucker. All of the shows along the river were free that night, plus an awesome fireworks show.

Happy 4th!

I can't wait to go back! We're thinking over New Year's because they do a big thing, similar to the 4th I think for that. Apparently they drop a large guitar, rather than a ball at midnight. haha Plus I need to get myself a pair of boots- there is a store where you can buy one and get 2 free!

Daytona

I've been a bad blogger because we have been super busy! I feel that I'm about 3 blogs behind so here it goes...

We got back about a week ago from our trip to Nashville and Daytona Beach. We had a great time escaping the midwest, seeing new things, and enjoying the summer weather.

While in Daytona we spent most of our time on the beach. When it would rain we went and saw movies: Transformers 3 and Horrible Bosses. It was just great being in Florida- I love Florida. I haven't been there since college and having to leave made me really sad. :(

Here are some picts from our stay in Florida.

View of the ocean from our balcony. There was a storm coming in so they began clearing the beach.

Alex out on the boogie board.

Me out jumping waves.

The hotel we stayed at

The crowd on the beach when Atlantis took off. We were about 40 minutes away from Cape Canaveral, but we were still able to see the flames from it. Which was really cool! About two minutes later we could hear it, sounded a little like thunder, but I'm pretty sure it was the sound finally reaching us. We tried taking pictures, but it disappeared into the clouds too fast.