Wicked in the Windy City

Our "Wicked" weekend was wickedly fun! After picking up our friends, Dave and Kelly, our first stop on the way to Chicago was to the Four Winds Casino where we donated some money to the local Indian tribe. Then, we continued on to Chicago and stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was awesome! It was right downtown and easily accessible to everything. We met up with our other friends, John and April, at the hotel and went out to grab some lunch. We wandered around downtown a little and then got down to business of planning our summer vacation (it's to Florida - Orlando, Key West, Naples, and St. Augustine). We primped (well, I primped) and headed out for dinner at Tavern at the Park which was a great restaurant. After a fantastic dinner and a few drinks, we were off to hit some clubs. Our first club wasn't much to brag about and was pretty empty, so we only stayed for a drink. We went to a piano bar where there was a crush of people, but we were able to get a table after plowing our way through. We hung out there for a while, but with so many people, it was just loud and hot. The next morning, we headed out for breakfast and did some shopping along the Magnificent Mile. Surprisingly, the only thing I bought was some candy from Hershey's for Keaton. Our next adventure was to head to the theater to see Wicked. We had a little glitch with our e-tickets and they only had four tickets for our group of six people. Uh oh. We had to buy two more tickets and were lucky enough to get some in the sixth row that someone had just returned. So, since I'm the birthday girl, I got those seats and let Matt sit with me since he wasn't getting on my nerves that day. The show was INCREDIBLE and so much fun!! Now I'm spoiled and only want to sit really close to the stage from now on. It was great to be able to see the actors' facial expressions. We said our goodbyes to our friends from Wisconsin (Go Packers!) and headed for home. My birthday dinner was a quick trip to Burger King, but we were all anxious to get home to see the kids. We were happy to have Aaron able to come and stay with Keaton which allowed us to enjoy a fun, relaxing weekend without any worries (thanks, Aaron!). We had a wonderful, wicked weekend!!

New Year's Night

Keaton and Cyrus enjoyed some downtime on the couch New Year's night watching a movie and just being still for a change. After a whirlwind week of Christmas presents, basketball practice, and lots and lots of video game playing with friends, it was nice for Keaton to be home and just relax. Cyrus was pretty happy to have someone to cuddle with too.

Snow Shoeing Adventure

We woke up on New Year's Day to about 6 inches of fluffy, white snow. It continued to lightly snow so we decided to try snow shoeing. We went with our friends out behind our neighborhood on a trail that leads to a park. It was awesome! It really was just like walking, but with really big shoes. The best part was that I didn't fall once!

Happy 2008!

This year we spent a quiet New Year's Eve down at our friends' house. We played cards and counted down to the new year with the kids. After we rang in 2008, we had a great time playing Rock Band (or trying to play!). We hope that 2008 is a memorable year for everyone - filled with lots of laughs and love!