Beautiful Night

We are so lucky to live where we do. While I completely miss some of my closest family and friends who live in Chicago, I absolutely LOVE the beach. Last weekend we had dinner with our good friends Erin and Billy in Atlantic Beach. After dinner we walked out to the beach. It was so light out because the moon was so bright. Here are a couple photos from that night.

Out on the Boat

Last weekend our friends, Jeff and Andrea, invited us out on their boat. It was a beautiful day! We went down to St. Augustine, out in the Atlantic Ocean and had lunch at Caps. All in all it was a very relaxing day and a great day to be out on the water!

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Mary was in the keys over her birthday, so we celebrated when she got back. For Mary's birthday we went to the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse for happy hour and to our favorite local spot, Urban Flats, for dinner. In between we managed to take a few photos and I managed to spill an entire glass of Cabernet on the birthday girl! You cannot take me anywhere!!

Mintu doing a serious demonstration...at the bar

Mary still agreed to take a photo with me after I spilled wine all over her! What a friend!!

A little serenade at Urban Flats!

Nala and the Shedd

On our last day in Chicago we went downtown with Jordan to see the Shedd Acquarium. We were able to park at Marin's condo and see Marin and Nala on our way back from the Shedd.

It was very hot outside, probably the warmest day of our trip. We didn't pre-purchase tickets to the Shedd because we didn't think it would be crowded on a Tuesday...boy were we wrong!! There was an incredibly long line at 11am on a Tuesday! The line probably took 90 minutes and was in 100% sun most of the time. While we were waiting we got hot dogs and took some photos.

The Shedd was pretty expensive, $26 for the least expensive ticket option. There were lots of fish, but we weren't all that impressed. It would definitely be a cool place to take little kids, and there were a lot of little kids there! I think the last time I was at the Shedd was probably in elementary school - not much has changed since then.

After spending a couple of hours at the Shedd we walked back to Marin's and were able to spend some time with her and Nala. On our way back we walked through Grant Park - we had to take a pic!

I am in LOVE with Nala!! She is the cutest little lab puppy ever! Here are some photos of Nala and a link to a video of her playing with her neighbor dog.

We stopped at Lou Malnati's for some Chicago pizza on our way back to the airport. I was sad to go back to Florida, especially since I don't know when I'm going to go back up next! Hopefully it will be soon!

Floating down the river

We got back to Chicago Sunday night post-oral surgery (I milked it for all I could!). That night I was exhausted! We stayed at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Linda's house. It was nice spending extra time with them and my cousin Amy. My Aunt and Uncle showed us photos from their wedding. I was their flower girl 19 years ago and Amy was our flower girl 4 years ago! We watched fireworks and then headed to bed.

In the morning Uncle Dave woke us up for breakfast. We went upstairs in our PJs to find out that we were going out to breakfast! Luckily we had some time to shower and get ready. We went to Egg Harbor with the family. It was good...well my oatmeal and luke warm coffee was good and everyone else's food looked yummy too! Here's a group pic of the "kids" after breakfast.

After breakfast Grant and I were picked up by Jordan. Just as soon as we arrived at her place and started talking about what to do for the day we got a call from Renee...BOAT!! So we quickly changed and headed up to Renee and Glenn's. We met Renee by the water and her mom, dad and brother picked us up at the dock in their boat.

We boated all day, grabbed a bite to eat and visited Renee's uncle's house on the Chain. It was beautiful!! The weather was perfect, the company was amazing and the lake was beautiful.

Renee's uncle lives along a little channel where boats go through. There are homes on each side of the water. Apparently it's an unwritten rule that if you ride by in a boat with water guns you will be sprayed by hoses and/or hit by water balloons/water guns by the homes along the channel.

We had a blast throwing water balloons and spraying the hose at the boats going by. Here are a few short videos from our time at Renee's uncle's house.
The Chain Part 1
The Chain Part 2
The Chain Part 3
We LOVED going out on the boat! Maybe one day Grant and I will get a boat of our own!

Later that night we met up with a bunch of great people for dinner at the Yard House. Grant and I had been to a Yard House twice before, both in Hawaii. It was a great place to meet up with some great friends. Here are some photos from dinner.