Visitors!

We had visitors this week! Carly, Micah and their baby girl, Eleni, came to stay with us and we had SOOO much fun! Daci had a blast with her little cousin "leni". She just wanted to hold her and kiss her and wipe her bottom all week long :) Luckily Eleni was a good sport and seemed to love her cousin just as much. We are so glad they came to stay and miss having them around! Here are a BUNCH of photos of our fun-filled week.




On Friday we took them downtown. Carly's childhood friend from Milwaukee, Lindsey, drove down to come with us. Rick even got to get off work early so that he could go around the city with us. We went to Millenium Park, Michigan Ave, a frozen yogurt place, and to Sprinkles (a famous cupcake shop. Carly LOVED it and said the chai latte cupcake and the red velvet cupcake were to die for).

Carly, Micah and Lindsey went to the top of the John Hancock while Rick, Daci, Eleni and I stayed at the bottom and waited for them. Daci had been in her stroller all day long and was getting pretty antsy so we let her out and she went crazy! She was so happy to stretch her legs :)

Our little fam with the John Hancock behind us.

Daci put on a show for the people of Chicago right in front of the John Hancock. It was pretty funny :)






Eleni had fun with us too! Daci was pretty entertaining :)

Carly and Micah in front of Sprinkles


Me in front of the Amphitheater in Millenium Park



On Saturday we went to a fiesta! Mario and Gabriella are people that Rick met on his mission when he served here in Chicago. He is still really close with them and we enjoy seeing them frequently. They have four adorable kids and it was Pia's birthday celebration on Saturday! We went to a big birthday party at their house.

They had a big bouncy castle set up that Daci loved.


The food was incredible! Have you ever seen so much meat on a grill at once!?

Daci loved the food just as much as we did!



Pia right after she blew out her candles. Her sister Martina and her brother Mario are next to her.

They had a pinata and it was so fun watching all of the kids go after it



The Alvarez family, another family that Rick was close with on his mission

Us with Mario and his niece and nephew


We also went to the Lincoln Park Zoo with Carly and Micah. Daci liked it a lot more this weekend than last. She was less scared and more interested in the animals :)



She LOVED the fish



We had a lot of good food while they were here. We all feel like we are going to die of clogged arteries though :) There is so much amazing food in Chicago that you definitely have to be careful that you don't eat it all the time. But when guests come, we throw all caution to the wind :) We ate at Lou Malnatis, Giordano's, Portillo's, Rosebud on Rush, Sprinkles, Berry Chill, and Carly and Micah ate at Solly's Grill and Kopp's Custard in Milwaukee. LOTS OF GOOD FOOD!

This is us at Giordano's

We had a blast with Carly and Micah. If anyone else is interested in visiting the Windy City give us a call! We can show you a good time :)

Daci is 18 months, which means....Zoo Day!

Daci turned 18 months today! We decided to go downtown and see the Lincoln Park Zoo. It is a free zoo right in the middle of Chicago that we had heard was pretty great. We woke up, packed everything in the car, and headed to the city. About 20 minutes into the drive I realized we didn't have the stroller in the trunk, so we had to turn around! We finally made it downtown and right in front of the Zoo is a gorgeous conservatory, I saw it last weekend when we went to the Airshow and I decided I wanted to do Daci's 18 month photo shoot there. We stopped there before the zoo, snapped a few pics and then were on our way.







I was really excited for Daci to see the Polar Bear. She has been really into her "Beers" lately (as you can tell in the photo above, she won't go anywhere without this "beer")

She was really interested in the polar bear, until......

we decided to pull her out of her stroller and take a pic of her with the bear behind her. It completely freaked her out to have this thing swimming straight at her and she couldn't see what was going to happen. For the rest of the day, anytime we tried to pull her out and turn her away from the animals she was afraid they were going to attack her or something.

Looking at the giraffes

Another "beer"

This was the best shot we got of her turned around all day....see that concerned look on her face?

Watching the Ostriches. She loved those.

Another terrified shot of her by all the fish in the African Exhibit.

This bird freaked me out more than anything. Its just this beautiful stork thingy but then I found out it was a bird of prey and it was in this high tech enclosure with the vultures. They actually eat animals and stuff! I don't know why it freaked me out so bad to see this pretty bird and then imagine it being a carnivore. Wierd!

The tiger was by far the most incredible animal we saw. We saw lions and bears and gorillas but most of them just sat around or slept. The tiger actually came out and ran around and did a few poses. It was beautiful!


This monkey was hilarious. He loved being the center of attention and kept swinging from branch to branch and then came up to the window and did a few poses. He had a huge group of people around him because he was so entertaining.


This monkey wins the "gross award". Yes people, that is his poop that he smeared against the glass and then ate with his fingers. Rick was absolutely disgusted...I thought it was pretty funny :)

Can't remember what this is called but the antlers were huge. I can't believe he could hold his head up!

A shot of the city behind us.

We had a great day. We were only at the zoo for 2 hours but we felt like we had spent the whole day there. It was exhausting! Happy 1 1/2 year old Daci!