Swimming

Today we went to Michael's parent's house to swim at their pool.  I am trying to be healthy and do at least 30 min of physical activity most days each week.  But I want to change it up, because if I get into a routine it gets booorriiiinnggg.  So today I attempted to swim laps.  I am a terrible swimmer when it comes to proper form, but I did it.  25 min of laps, and 5 of treading water.  The problem...I think I swallowed a significant amount of the water on accident.  I didn't even know it happened until now, because it is a salt water pool and I am feeling nauseous.  All in a days work.  I didn't take any pics today, but here is one of ole Bailey enjoying the pool too.  One of the best places on earth, or at least in Fayetteville.

We should enter a contest

Check out our enormous zucchini!

Chicago, Continued

On Wednesday we woke up early and headed (on foot) to Navy Pier

then to the Shedd Aquarium

By this point in the day we were starving and really tired of walking.  We had read about a restaurant that didn't look too far away that we wanted to try, so we typed it into mapquest and started walking.  An hour to and hour and a half later......we arrived at an empty building.  Not one of our high points.  We spent the rest of the afternoon napping.  Then for some shopping at Urban Outfitters and H&M!  We waited until extra late that night to eat dinner at the John Hancock Center, on the 96th floor!!

Thursday we saw this famous thing (not really a sculpture? more like a landmark)

Then we went to the Art Institute of Chicago for the afternoon

We took a quick break for lunch then attempted to find a photographer museum, which after about an hour of walking and searching, turned out to be a flop (recurring theme?)

Did you know that Ghirardelli has a dessert restaurant !?

This was followed by another late afternoon nap and then more shopping.  For dinner we went to Andie's Jazz Lounge, or Bar, or something like that.  It was great! the music was so fun.  Check out this random group of great jazz musicians: (the pic doesn't do it justice, it really was a really random group of people)

That pretty much sums up our trip in Chicago.  The next day we packed up and drove to Iowa City to visit our good friends Clint and Miranda.  We really liked Iowa City and appreciate their great hospitality. 

The End.

Chicago

As mentioned in yesterday's blog, Michael and I traveled to the Windy City for some celebration.  Here is a re-cap of some of the hi-lights:

We left Monday afternoon to spend the night in St. Louis (halfway point) with Michael's amazing grandparents "CC and B Bear" (strange grandparent names).  Anyone that attended our wedding will know them as the people who did our music.  They took us to an amazing Italian restaurant on "the hill" (check it out if you have never heard of the hill in St. Louis), followed by a brief tour of St. Louis.  It was nice to be "grandparented"  with food and love.  

Terrible pic. Great Restaurant. 

Tuesday we arrived in Chicago in the mid afternoon.  Our hotel was right in the middle of downtown so we spend our first day exploring our surroundings.  Despite the rain, the cold cold rain, we covered a lot of ground- the entire "magnificent mile" and beyond.  We also stopped for some famous Chicago style deep dish pizza at Giordano's

To Be Continued........

2 Years of Marriage!

This Monday, Michael and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary! Time has flown by! Marriage is truly such a blessing and worth any amount of work that you put into it. In honor of our anniversary I am going to put up some pictures from our super fun wedding day.  I tried to post this on Monday, but the blog site would not let me upload pictures.  Sorry for the delay!

How our garden grows. Literally.

Before....

Now...

Zuccini

Squash

Broccoli

Tomatoes

And that's not even everything.  Having a garden is a lot more fun than I expected it to be.

Half of a plan

After 4 months of thinking, waiting, pondering, searching,  we have come up with a little bit of a plan for our lives for the next few years at least.  We are going back to school, but until we are accepted into our respective programs I am going to leave you all in suspense.  Here is a not to0 helpful hint: we are not going to be moving anytime soon.  We are only going to be going part time at least in the fall, so the other half of our plan that is undecided is what to do about money?  We've got to eat.  At least we know what city to apply for jobs in.  That really helps narrow things down.  In more exciting news, Michael and I's 2 year anniversary is on Monday, to celebrate we are going to Chicago! Woohoo! I love to travel and go on vacations to new places.  Looks for photos in the next few weeks.  

Now for some photos:

Here is an action shot of me and my fave kid around.  Really he serves as a fill in for one of my own.

You may see this and think "gee this looks like a fun memorial day celebration" and you would be partly right, because this was taken on memorial day.  However I live in the coolest apt complex with the coolest people, lots of cool people, and a scene like this is weekly occurrence for us.  

Here we are, one week shy of 2 years of wedded bliss.  In all seriousness, I love being married.

Stay tuned, before we leave for Chicago I am going to post a current picture of our garden.  Its huge and we are eating fresh produce a lot!