After the Schletz wedding Friday night, we all woke up Saturday morning and headed into the city!! The one downside was, the weekend we were there happened to also be Lalapalooza, a huge music event that happens right in downtown Chicago every summer...so we were a bit worried about crowds. It ended up not being too bad and we grabbed the 9:00am train with ease.
Brainstorming our plan for the day!
Anna, Nattysue and Liana! What babes!!
Nothing like running through a city with your favorite people :)
Downtown Chicago is really a charming place with the riverwalk and all the boats cruising by...and the weather happened to be perfect this day!!
For breakfast we hit up BEATRIX which ended up being a funny story...so the bride and groom (Anneke and Jeremy) stayed in downtown Friday night after the wedding and then had Saturday morning free before they flew out to their honeymoon! So, Anneke being the amazing human and friend that she is, said she wanted to meet up with everyone and spend time with us since we all flew in for her wedding! haha. I loved how it wasn't awkward! And she told us to meet her and Jeremy at BEATRIX. So we plugged it in to our phones, walked to the restaurant, and managed to get a table for 11 even though it was jam packed!! BUT (there's always a BUT to any good story) WHO KNEW THERE WERE 3+ BEATRIX RESTAURANT IN DOWNTOWN?!!? UHHH NOT US!! So we were all at one, and Anneke and Jeremy were at the other. FAIL! We were already sitting down so we just ordered, ate quick (food was amazing. Waffles, and cauliflower grits) and then jammed out to meet the newlyweds! haha.
We finally met up with them and walked over to Navy Pier. On the way we stopped by Molly's cupcakes, which is famous for being on cupcake wars and everything. We all shared four cupcakes (thanks Jeremy!). The birthday cake cookie dough (blue one) was amaaazinggggg!!!
Navy pier with my roomies!! From L-R...Natty Sue is a nurse living in Napa, Liana is working at Point Loma in San Diego, Becky works at a lab and lives in Milwaukee, Anna is getting her masters in applied math and lives near Seattle, and Anneke worked for Young Life and is now looking for a new job. We are just missing Nati, Katelyn and Megan! I love these ladies so much.
Hugs as we sent off Anneke to her honeymoon!!
have fun in Italy lovebirds!!
Last stop in the city...CLOUD GATE aka the bean...and this extremely patriotic man!
We didnt stay in the city too long...for one, the trains run a bit sporadically like only once an hour (come on Chicago!!) and we also didn't want to get stuck in the lalapalooza crowds...so half of us headed back to Wheaton around 3 ish and the others stayed a bit longer.
Natijane and Marty stayed back in Wheaton all day with baby Judah so we met back up with them to get a late lunch! How beautiful is this child. love her.
We hit up Gino's East, recommended by Anneke and it was so yummy!!! The crust was much more cornbready than the others and the breadsticks were amazing!! I also ordered a rootbeer (doesn't exist in Japan) and I was in mid-west-American HEAVEN! After lunch we all headed back to the house Nati and Marty were staying at and hung out all night.
ok THIRD round of pizza for the weekend! HAHA...at 10pm or so, Eddie ordered Giordanos pizza for us to all share and I have to admit...THIS WAS THE BEST DEEP DISH OF THE WEEKEND. Ok, take that back. The CHEESE AND SAUCE were the best of the weekend. I still like Lou Malnatis (aka illuminatis) was the best crust! But this sauce was really bomb. Thank you, Chicago.
We hung out all night playing silly games, drinking the champagne Anneke and Jeremy gave us from their hotel room HAHA, and catching up on life with each other. gosh...it was so good for the soul.
These people are like family to me and time with them is a pure gift. By the grace of God, we all became friends, we all stayed in touch, we all have witnessed each other date, get engaged, get married, have babies, move, get new jobs...and when I sit and think about these people, all I see is the eyes of God graciously looking down on us and saying, "I know you. And I've blessed you." Indeed He has!!
can't wait to reunite with these friends again...and one day have reunions with all our husbands and kids together in some fun city all cozy in a house together...YAY!!!