Chica-GO!

So we took a (very spontaneous) trip to Chicago. My friend Ashley suggested it last Monday, we bought some plane tickets a few hours later, and we were there less than one week later.

Even with less than a week's notice, Jay's good friend Chad and his wife Shana let us stay with them for two nights and got tickets to the Cubs' game. They were playing the Pirates. Chad is a Pirates' fan:

It was really cold (maybe 58...so not really Chicago-cold but definitely cold relative to Texas). And Mr. T sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Me and Jay at the game:

We also met up with Jay's friend Aaron and his wife Jen, who just recently moved to Chicago from Houston, to eat Chicago pizza (one of the few things Jay insisted we do while there). They had a really cool apartment in Lincoln Park with an awesome view of the city from their rooftop deck:

The weather was hazy the whole time we were there. We went up in the Hancock building to wait out the rain at the bar on the top floor one day. Cool (hazy) view:

Jay at Union Station on the steps of the baby carriage scene in The Untouchables:

We rode the El (Jay called it the El Train and someone specifically told him that is wrong...I called it the Metro the whole time). No matter what you want to call it, why doesn't someone tell Houston that public transportation is amazing and efficient:

We drove out to the south side (Hyde Park) and saw some Frank Lloyd Wright Houses (and drove by where Obama lived). The Heller House (one of his "transitional" designs):

And from the porch of the University of Chicago's business school, the Robie House (full-blown "prairie" style; I'm listening to a free audio tour on my cell phone - you just call a number that's posted outside the house - I thought that was so smart):
We took an architectural boat tour, which is always fun. Chicago has so many cool and architecturally significant buildings that literally tell its history over the past hundred years. This is Marina City, residences built in the 1960s right off the river and definitely one of the funkier things out there. They definitely look like two giant corn cobs in the skyline:

And here's Jay with that bean thing in Millennium Park:

And here's me and Ash (who we stayed with the second two nights) in front of the skyline from across the lake:

So all-in-all, it was a really fun trip to see great friends and great sights. And although it makes me feel like Houston is really NOT interesting, it also makes me appreciate our cost of living!

Birthday Fun for Everyone

A little late on this but...

This year, Jay and I planned birthday parties for each other. Mine was at Chuy's. His was at Kelvin Arms. We also took the opportunity to test out the new camera that he got me for my birthday. Oh and I love that half the pictures from Chuy's are portraits of Jay and Patty that they took of each other (I left most out here). Way to document the evening fellas.

Nashville!

This last weekend I went to Nashville to watch my dad and sister run in the half marathon with the other 30,000 people who run in it - it's huge. Here are the runners nearly done with their 13+ miles:


Hudson skipped along with them for a few hundred feet. I'm sure next year he'll just run the whole thing.


Later that day, Hudson had a soccer game. I skipped out to finish a project for school, but he tells me he's pretty good.

The next day we had Hudson's birthday party (#5) at Glow Galaxy. Here we are after running around like crazy in this glow-in-the-dark place with jumpy things and mini-golf about to re-energize everyone with sugar before sending them home to unsuspecting parents. As you can see, the birthday boy gets a tie-dyed shirt so you can spot him in the glow-in-the-dark:


They really got the candles going on those cupcakes there. Opening presents:


Lucy and I sat in the car for a lot of it doing this:


A girl's gotta sleep. This pretty much sums up the weekend, though - exhausting. Hudson has always been an early riser, so things start early at the Johnson household and don't slow down. What I don't have picture proof of is when he climbed into my lap at dinner (voluntarily). He has never been cuddly (and Lucy's not much better - what's wrong with your uncuddly children, Kath?), but he was just so tired.

Thanks for hosting us in Nashville, Jared and Kath!