For my birthday this year, we traveled up north to Chicago and spent a weekend visiting with college friends. It was great and so very overdue. It was amazing to reconnect and catch up with everyone. College friendships are so wonderful. These are the people that I was surrounded by during a very special time of life - when I was deciding upon a profession, deciding what kind of person I wanted to be and realizing that I loved Dan so deeply that I wanted him to be my husband. Pretty influential years. And fortunately, Dan and I were both blessed to have shared this time with amazing people that made the journey incredible. And although we keep in contact electronically, there is nothing that can replace the emotion of physically witnessing my girlfriends, now wives and mothers, beautifully carrying on with the lives we had so very carefully mapped out over ten years ago.
We stayed with my friend Girlie, her husband Jim and their sweet little baby boy, PJ. Girlie is my dear friend who at times, I believe, may know more of the nuances of my everyday life than my own husband does. Although I didn't formally 'meet' Girlie until grad school, she is the type of friend that I feel as though I've known forever. We enjoy early morning commute chatter and we can cover all relevant topics of the week (including but not limited to: parenting, public accounting, purchasing a home, changing jobs, promotion dynamics, exercise, etc.) in the amount of time it takes to get to work in the morning. She is my friend that I have travelled all over the world with and have visited in a variety of cities and whom I respect immensely.
We started the morning in downtown Downers Grove for breakfast and a walk through the market.
The boys caught sight of a train passing through - very exciting moment for my little ones.
My boys were fans of little PJ immediately.
Much to Drew's delight, we spent the afternoon at LegoLand. It was pretty cool and the boys had a great time (although, a bit pricey in my opinion).
We got to watch a show in 3D - this was really cool. The boys had not seen anything in 3D before and they were talking about it all the way home! Drew was so blown away by this and I know that this is the kind of thing he will remember.
Girlie and Jim were so sweet to treat us to Chicago style pizza - it was yummy!
On Sunday, we met up with more friends! Friends with kids! Trying to get a picture all together - yeah, right. But it was worth a try . . .
It was a great birthday - thanks to all of you that made it so fun!
Now, as a birthday treat to myself (from myself), we had to stop in at IKEA before we left the Chicagoland area. I had not been in an IKEA in over a decade and was super anxious to find some treasures in this enormous store. I have been working on a picture wall for our staircase in our house and I was hopeful that I would find some trendy, reasonably priced, accessories for this purpose. One hour and $200 later, I emerged with a cart full of pure joy. I had clearly forgotten what a fun experience a trip to IKEA can be. Can't wait until next time!
