Chicago

Justin and I had a great weekend in Chi-town! We decided on doing this whole weekend after I found out that my favorite Christian artist, Sara Groves, was going to be playing a concert in Wheaton. I've seen her once before but I check her concert schedule frequently because I've been wanting to see her again. She just so happened to be playing with some other great artists (Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Charlie Peacock, and Brandon Heath) at Wheaton Bible Church.. the church I grew up in. So, we met my long-time friend Amy and her husband Brian at Portillos for some yummy Chicago dogs and then went to the concert. Since my family has moved away from Chicago, Wheaton Bible has built a brand new church building and it's HUGE!!!! It was fun to see the new building and also run into some people I haven't seen since high school. After the concert, we headed out to North Aurora to stay with my college friend Rachelle. Although her hubby (this is the one that also happens to be my second cousin..) wasn't around because of a missions trip, we had fun with Rachelle and loved seeing their adorable townhouse!
On Saturday, we headed downtown to visit The Museum of Science and Industry. After telling the lady behind the counter that we wanted two tickets, she said, "Okay, it's free." We just so happened to be there on free admission day.. what a fun surprise! The main reason we wanted to go to the museum was to see the baby jar display. Those of you who know what that is will understand why I was sooo disappointed when I found out that part of the museum is closed because they are creating an exhibit there and won't be on display again until next summer!!! We were so bummed!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't ask. There's no way to explain it that doesn't sound extremely morbid.
Anyway, after checking out some exhibits, we left and did the Lake Shore Drive/Sheridan Rd route back to the suburbs. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed driving by the lake and the huge houses on that route! We drove right past my brother and sister-in-law's old stomping ground in Rogers Park. When we passed Albion Ave, I got very teary-eyed... I just wanted to stop by their place and say hi. It made me realize just how far away they are. :(
After checking into our hotel, we ate dinner at one of my favorite Chicago-style pizza places, Lou Malnati's. Yum, yum!! We went to Babies R Us after dinner to check out their HUGE inventory of baby items... it was very overwhelming, but we had fun. We ended our evening with a delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks... mmmm.. the taste of fall!
On Sunday, we went to Ikea, Trader Joes, and Old Navy (this one had a maternity section, so I was excited about that!) and then had lunch at Egg Harbor. Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit all of our favorite restaurants, but we sure enjoyed the yummy food we had! Oh, how I miss those places! Being in the suburbs makes you realize how much we DON'T have in Iowa... we kept passing places we used to like going to. I guess we'll have to settle for trips out to Chicago every now and then to get our fix!