Andrea's Baby Shower

"The last time I was here, I was getting hitched!!!" -Dave, father of the baby, due in September 2013

That's right!  Andrea and Dave are expecting their first baby in September, and so this past Sunday, we celebrated Baby Girl with a shower at The Stonegate.

As you can tell it was a beautiful day, and as always we dressed to impress, but not to out do the lovely mommy to be.  Andrea looked so pretty in blue, while we surrounded in PINK.  There were about 50 guests, and luckily Dave was there to help her sift thru and open the presents!  

We dined on a light salad, chicken with asparagus and scalloped potatoes and this cake down below.

Lots of laughs and lots of fun was had by all.  It's crazy to think that one of my best friends will soon be holding a small version of herself.  She will be such a wonderful, caring, and supportive mom, and I can't wait to meet her little one.

Happy Baby Shower, Andrea!!!

Burger Fest 2013

Well, we are proud to say that we have been going to Burger Fest for 3 years now.  While the first was completely out of control for me... as I was reminded this year of doing keg stands and trying to hoist the keg above my head when we finished... events were much more mellow this time around, especially with Baby on the way for Andrea!!!  I definitely was a good friend in describing what my Summer Shandy tasted like though. 

Burger Fest is located in Roscoe Village, right outside Dave and Andrea's home.  Street fairs in Chicago are BIG, since we only have a few months to celebrate scorching temps.  And wherever there is a street fair there is a big wooden cut out of corn.  I will always take a picture with corn and send it to Ashley, due to our great debate of 2008... does one shuck their corn at home or in the store?  We have strong opposing theories.  

So much fun!!!!

We waited 15 minutes for our burger and it was amazzzing.

And here we are.. in true Burger Fest tradition... between Andrea's building and the next... hoisting ourselves up between the walls.  This year it took Andrea a bit longer, but all went well.  And next year, her lil' daugher will be in this with us!!!  It's all about tradition, people!

The Fourth Weekend

Our Fourth of July weekend was fun and full of odds and ends... we started out by going to the Sears Center for an outdoor concert to see Thompson Square.  10 bucks.  You can't beat that!  Thompson Square was a little to lovey dovey for our taste, but they still sounded good.  Afterward, they had a local cover band, The Suburban Cowboys, and we loved it!!!  They played all of our favorites!

The actual fourth, we went to Alisa's parent's home and sat in their driveway with this little one to watch the fireworks.  During the day we took the dogs for a walk in the forest preserve.  And then walked around downtown Geneva a bit.

We also squeezed in a Cougar's game Fourth of July weekend.  We sat in the field for Gavin's first minor league game.  

It was a gorgeous weekend, and most of it was spent outside!!! Just the way it should be!!!

And Then There Was Paris

We flew from Venice to Paris, and found out right away, Paris was AWESOME.  By the time we got there we were beat though.  We had put all our planning into Italy, that by the time we even thought about Paris we didn't have a clue.  We couldn't climb another step, walk another mile, see another statue.  Well, we felt like we couldn't, but we really could, and we did.  And so, I paid for 2 overpriced, but very worth it tickets for the Red Bus, that got us into 60 museums, 1 ride on the Seine River boat cruise and tickets to ride the train system.  Done and Done.  We had very little time in Paris and had to get around fast.  We traveled by foot, bus, and waterway.  Since those tickets didn't start till the next day... we got to walking the city after we dropped off our stuff at the hotel.

Our hotel was very close to the Eiffel Tower, so we spent most of our time there, admiring it.  However,  we also spent a lot of time just riding the top deck of the red bus and seeing the sights from the street.  We were able to hop on and hop off whenever we like.

I loved the buildings and architecture of Paris... quite different from Italy.

Arc De Triomphe

Paris atop the Eiffel Tower.  We paid the money and went straight to the top.  While I was scared of the elevator moving slow as molasses I was glad I went up all the way.  The city was absolutely stunning at night from the top.

One of our stops on the bus was Notre Dame Cathedral.  By far, our favorite church (we had been in quite a few), besides the Vatican.  The stained glass was just beautiful.  And I liked the gothic style.  Who knew how different one church could be from the rest.

Fresh flowers were everywhere in France!

This guy made me laugh... he kept shouting "I love Ammmmmerrrriiicca!"

Being at the Louvre was pretty darn cool too.  We were able to see Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.  Other than that we followed the Rick Steves' tour and saw the other highlights too.  They say if you were to look at every piece of art in the Louvre for 30 seconds each, with no breaks it would take like 3 months to see everything.  We also went to the Musee' Orsay, which was full of Impressionism.  There, I was able to recognize more artists that I have studied and it wasn't so darn boring.   

I have so many pictures and we saw so much even in those 2 days, it's hard to present just a few.  Paris, and France in general, is definitely a place I would like to go back to eventually.  There is so much to do.  We didn't receive as much of a warm welcome as in Italy from the Parisians, but we will live.  People can be just as crappy here.  However, I would like to brush up on my french when we go next.  That was the worst part, not being able to understand the menu's, the Parisian's don't even help you with that.  You really are on your own there.  And while we were trying to be very courteous, we were making it worse by forgetting we were in France and using Italian words.  Oops.  It was also much more expensive.  But really, our favorite parts were just walking around and taking in the life that they live, and that part is free.  It is so different than the American life.      

And with this picture, the end of our 2 week adventure....