our first trip downtown

this week we hopped the metra train a block from our apt and rode the hour train downtown with absolutely no plan what-so-ever, cause that's kinda how we roll around here

we had a blast wondering around and looking like tourist

we made our way down to michigan avenue and millennium park

and took our picture in the bean, of course

we were totally impressed with how clean and safe chicago is and how nice the people are

anytime we asked for directions, people were so nice to help and point out the way. one man on the L even let us follow him all the way back to our stop.

we had a blast and can't wait to go back for more exploring. high on my list - navy pier and sears tower

gotta love ikea

and my amazing husband who put all this together

and only had one extra teeny tiny dowel at the end of this.
how impressive is that?

progress

slowly but surely we're unpacking and getting settled in.
so now all my sit-arounds need to be sat

and the pictures need to be hung

we'll get there eventually!

we made it!

12 hours of traveling on wednesday and 3 more on thursday morning, and we finally pulled into wheaton! it's even cuter than i remembered.

this was my view for 15ish hours. i'm just glad i wasn't the one driving the uhaul with no cruise control. poor james. thankfully the uhaul got a wopping 8 miles to the gallon :)

we got to cross over the MS river twice in one day. once james almost got run into the river by a huge 18 wheeler. it was a bit scary for both of us.

and then we were finally in illinois. only 350 more miles to wheaton...

in all our moving and driving, i've become a huge fan of gas stations that have sonic ice. it got me through the last couple hours on wednesday.

fyi - don't drive from ms to illinois for the scenery. i'll save you the time - this is it between mississippi, tennessee, arkansas, missouri, and illinois. pretty farmland, but not too entertaining.

and then we were finally here. the kents flew up to help us move in and this is what our apt looks like now. off to unpack more boxes.

happy day

note to self

i love love this room

source

27

what's better than celebrating a birthday?
how about celebrating for 4 days
so fun

day 1. car filled with balloons from james



and transformers in 3d with gracie and james


day 2. amazing italian with my fam





day 3. steaks on the big green egg


and birthday cake, picked out by james


day 4. pizza and ice cream with sweet friends


i've got a feeling 27 is going to be a good year.

happy day

the beach

i love, love the beach



love




and am already missing it.

lately...

i can't believe we've been home for a month! it's been awesome getting to hang out with family and friends and soak up this time before heading to chicago at the end of july.

it's been especially fun hanging out with this cutie


a couple weeks ago we headed back to chattanooga for kirk and cole's sweet wedding



and had a blast hanging out with joy and jason for the weekend. when we lived in chattanooga, joy fed us at least once a week. seriously. so now we're just adding more to our tab. it's ok with me 'cause that means we'll just have to keep going back to try to make it up to them.


slow down, summer!