My Birthday Weekend

Today starts my birthday weekend. At work my manager planned a great birthday lunch for me at one of my favorite restaurants in town : Zoe's Kitchen. It was nice to have everyone together outside the office for a bit.

I also was greeted at my desk by beautiful roses from Marin and Jordan! What a surprise!

Finally, knowing how much I like Camilo Villegas, one of my coworkers even signed my birthday card for him! I also got this fabulous digital card from him:

Tomorrow Grant and I are spending the day at the beach and going out to Morton's Steakhouse for dinner. Afterwards we are going to meet up with my family for ice cream cake (made by Grant) and presents. On Sunday, I am going to Orlando with my Mom and Tess to shop til we drop! It should be a fun weekend!!

Aunt Dorothy's 80!

This past weekend I traveled to Chicago for my Great Aunt Dorothy's Surprise 80th Birthday Party. It was a quick trip, but loads of fun! I was able to see my family and friends. I even got to see Jordan and Ryan's new house! So fun! I left on Friday around 2P. I flew to Atlanta and had to catch a connecting flight there. Apparently there were really bad storms all up and down the US. As such, my flight was delayed about 4 hours and I got into Chicago at 10P instead of 6P. So much for a fun dinner in the city!

On Saturday I got to spend some quality time with my Grandmother. It was super nice to see her at her new home. I also got to see my Aunt Margie and my Aunt Denise, who both stopped by while I was there. That afternoon I spent some time with Jordan. We went to a craft fair in downtown Western Springs (where several cicadas landed on me! ewww!!), visited my favorite bakery, went to lunch at Portillo's and went to the mall. After all that fun, Jordan dropped me off at my Aunt's surprise party.

Aunt Dorothy was very surprised to see all of her family and friends gathered to celebrate. I got to meet her best friend from when she was 8 years old! Betty went to grade school with Dorothy and they still talk on the phone daily and get together at least once a month. What an amazing friendship! It was also nice to see the rest of my family all together.

That night Marin and David came over. Marin showed us her Save the Dates and we all went out for a few drinks in LaGrange. It is hard to believe that their wedding is just around the corner!

On Sunday, Jordan and I slept in and went to get pedicures, to lunch and met up with Kaylan, Brittany and Marin at the pool. It was very strange to pay $12 to go to a community pool when I have my pick of several free pools and the ocean at home. It was pretty funny going with Kaylan. She was so afraid of the Cicadas! They kept landing on or near us. It was pretty gross.

That night Ryan joined Jordan, Marin and me for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was a beautiful night and we were able to sit outside and really enjoy it. Afterwards we stopped by Jordan's parents' house to see the kittens that the neighborhood cat had just a few weeks ago. They were super cute!

Then came Monday. Jordan, being the great friend that she is, got up super early to drive me to the airport before work. Both of my flights were on time and I was super excited to see Grant. This was our first weekend apart since last summer. I missed him a ton! Unfortunately, he drove me home to our condo....with no a/c! Luckily my parents live nearby and we were able to stay with them until the a/c was fixed yesterday!

Here are some more photos from the weekend:

Uncle Jim and Aunt Sandy at Dorothy's Party.
Me and Kari at Dorothy's Party.

Me and Amy at Dorothy's Party.

Me and Uncle Jim, Uncle John and Uncle Mike -- what a good looking group!

Me and Aunt Sandy at Dorothy's Party.

Megan and Aunt Linda at Dorothy's Party.