Chicago-Day 3!

We spent day 3 at the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free! I think its pretty awesome that its free, considering it costs somewhere around $10 to visit the Portland Zoo! Even though the Lincoln Park Zoo isn't quite as big as Portland's Zoo, they had some things we don't have here! It was fun to go, and even more fun to see Royal's reactions to the animals
Royal waiting for a polar bear to swim by

I swear this Sea Lion was staring right at me!

Royal checking out the bears

Checking out the warthogs (an animal I've never seen before!)

Puumba!

Giraffe and Ostrich

Dave and Royal riding the Hippos!

An Aardvark! What a weird animal!

I always love the meerkats. This one was looking right at me, asking me to take it home

Fishes!

A lazy polar bear

This poor Sunbear had part of its jaw removed and now its tongue hangs out all the time. It was a special needs bear. Poor thing.

A very thoughtful bear

Lions

Afterwards we had lunch then went to Molly's, a gourmet cupcake place. My friends and I have an obsession with cupcakes-here in PTown we go to St. Cupcake on a regular basis. These cupcakes were far fancier though. I had nutella and peanutbutter. There was a giant blob of nutella in the center! Yum! Rick had a lemon meringue and unfortunately he didn't eat it right away so the meringue melted, but he said it was still delish! We also loved that they had Connect 4 there to play :)

I love this picture of Royal!

Being silly with 3D glasses

Erin and Dave playing airplane with a confused Roy looking on...

and that was day 3!

Chicago-day 2

On day two-Saturday, Dave borrowed a car from his friend and we drove to a place called Hot Doug's which has been featured on the Food Network several times and is really well known in Chicago. The owner is a chef and makes all these crazy hot dog combinations that are totally gourmet. We actually stood in line for a whole hour to get in!
Before leaving, playing with Royal

Hot Doug's: the cased meat emporium!

Rick and I had: 2 chipotle cilantro sausages with mole and Mexican cheese, one Cincy dog with Skyline chilli and sharp cheddar, one elk and bacon sausage with cubed cheese (think it was Fontina) and an order of fries fried in duck fat. Oh, and a side of nacho cheese. Holy cow! Needless to say it was AMAZING.

Driving back: a view of the water tower, supposedly the only building to have survived the great fire, with the Hancock building behind.

After letting our food settle for a bit we went for a walk along the lake. It was a beautiful day and not as cold as the day before.
Royal bundled up before leaving. I love the sleeping bag thing they have for kiddos now.

Rick and Royal

Rick and I, looking towards Navy Pier

Cute Dave and Erin, you can see the ferris wheel behind them

We can't forget RoyBoy!

I love this picture of the sun peeking behind the buildings

Royal in his Royals shirt, playing on my suitcase

Rick showing Roy the iPhone

That's it for day two! We stayed in and ordered Chinese take out for dinner and hung out. Kind of hard to do much at night when Royal went to bed at 7:30, but we were quite content to just hang out :)

Spring Break!

As you know, Rick and I were able to go to Chicago for part of my Spring Break and we had a great time! We were able to stay with Dave, Erin & Royal which was really fun! We were also able to take a trip over to Indiana to spend some time with Rick's Grandparents and the Enochs side of the family that lives over there.
But first, a pic of Rick and the kitties in the motorhome before we left.

We took a red-eye flight to Chicago so we got in at 4am on Friday morning. By the time we got our luggage and made our way into Chicago on the L, we didn't get to Dave and Erin's until 6 or so. We all chatted for awhile until breakfast time, and we made our way to a Jewish deli and had a wonderful breakfast.
As you can see I had Challuh bread French toast with strawberries, bananas and coconut flakes. It was amazing!

And I finished every last bite.

After breakfast we braved the chilly 28 degree weather and walked over to Millenium Park. I had been there before, but Rick hadn't, so we just got a few quick pictures of The Bean.

Rick and I, and the reflection of our backs

Another one of us in front of The Bean. It really is awesome to see the city reflected in it, especially on a sunny day. (PS If you want to see my Chicago pics from my last trip, in November 2007 click here)

Cute Royal hanging out in their apartment after we all took a nap

Royal and Rick getting better acquainted

My friend Dave (who I went to high school with) goes to Northwestern Law School (hence why they are in Chicago). Northwestern is a top 10 ranked law school, either 7 or 8, I can't remember. It's so awesome that Dave is getting such an amazing opportunity to study law at such a great place! We were able to walk around the campus a bit and it has really old, cool buildings. I loved this old classroom. It's exactly what you'd think a classroom for a person studying law in the 1800's would look like! Sorry it's a bit dark...

After visiting the school, Dave took Royal so Erin, Rick and I could go shopping on The Magnificent Mile. We had a fun time, and spent lots of time in H&M :)
We were all pretty exhausted so we spent the rest of the evening in, and got deep dish Chicago pizza! Yum! More later...

bye bye!

My last final is at 5:30 tonight, then we're on a red-eye flight to Chicago! We are SO in need of a break and a vacation! I'm so happy to have another semester done with. Only 5 more to go...

We get back next Wednesday evening! Happy Spring Break!

a few pics...

I have had enough studying for the evening, so here's a few pictures!

Rocco sleeping on my desk (before the whole mold incident)

Rocco & Penny not leaving me any room to study!

Amy, Brianne and I at the Keller, waiting for Wicked to start!

Moving Penny and Rocco and ourselves over to my Mom's for a few days once we found the mold

The motorhome set up from our backyard. Notice the awesome sewer pipe rigged up...thanks again Dick!

The motorhome (or mo-ho as I've been calling it) from the frontyard

A few more recent pictures of the bathroom...

The ceiling-all the white you see along the top where the wall meets the ceiling is all mold.

The tub and window...lookin' good

The bathtub, complete with the bird's nest we found in the exhaust vent

The whole mess

And my favorite of the mold-the kind that looks like it will reach out and eat you if it could

In happier news, today was Jenica's baby shower. She's having a little girl towards the end of May. It was fun to see some old faces from high school, even though I didn't get many pics, I had a nice time visiting. Jen got a crazy haul of goodies, her little girl is set I think!!

Jen with 2 of the little outfits I got her

7 month pregnant Jenica and I...

I think that's it for now. I've been studying like mad, since finals start Monday morning! Tomorrow Rick is going to get up and look around for the leak and see if we can't start to remedy that. The first of many items to tackle. Life in the mo-ho is going well :)

Hope you all are well!

Lauren