Three

Celebrating our third wedding anniversary today...

Birthday Girl!

Miss Brylea turned one while I was visiting and had her first birthday party.

She had so much fun demolishing her birthday cake!

Matching Girls

My nieces are getting so big!

The first time was a great time, the second time was a blast...

I had a great time in Missouri seeing friends and family this past week but my first stop was the NKOTBSB concert in St. Louis. After Amber and I went in Chicago, we loved the show but were sad about our horrible tickets. (We bought them during the pre-sale so I'm pretty sure there was a Ticketmaster conspiracy.) Anyhoo, Amber was bound and determined to see them again but with better seats...and we definitely had better seats this time!

Amber and I before the show...did I mention it was like a thousand degrees outside and inside?

Donnie!! My favorite.

All of the guys. And our really great view.

Look! Joey Mac is in our section...he's headed this way. Amber might be having a heart attack...

And here he is...we shake hands! *swoon*

Decisions, Decisions

I'm packing for my trip to Missouri tomorrow and am not sure which earrings to wear to the NKOTBSB concert (yes, again!)..."I love Donnie" or group picture inside a heart? Hmm...

Under the Sun

My friends Meagan and Josh came to town for the weekend for Dave Matthews Caravan. I bought a one-day ticket for the music festival and joined them on Friday. I didn't think I could handle three full days of sun. As it turned out, I was right. I could barely handle one full day of sun. Even with my obsessive sunscreen application, I still managed to get a little burned in the spots I missed...like my eyelid that was exposed just above my sunglasses...and my scalp where my hair was parted. Awesome.  

Some of the people we saw perform on Friday included Dave Matthews Band, OAR, Amos Lee and Ray LaMontagne.

360

My friend Laura brought her two teenagers to Chicago for the U2 concert at Soldier Field. They had an extra ticket. Guess who they asked to tag along? (Thanks, Laura!)

Laura and I before the show. You know you're officially old when the songs you know word-for-word are circa 1987.

4th of July goodness

• Bicycling
• Napping
• Grilling
• Eating ice cream
• Playing Wii mini-golf

Happy 4th of July, friends!

Hot Air

Joe left today for a weekend retreat in Kentucky at Gethsemani. I had resigned myself to a very boring weekend. Then I found out one of my friends would be coming into town on Sunday (a few days earlier than I had thought) and got a surprise today that my friend Jennifer was in town. I was able to meet up with her and her family at a local hot air balloon festival. Jennifer and I have been friends since college but I rarely get to see her anymore so it was so fun to catch up.

Jennifer and me with her two daughters, Bryttney and Bethanie.

The Humpty Dumpty balloon.

Strawberry Festival

Joe and I went to the Strawberry Festival in quaint Long Grove yesterday. We enjoyed visiting the cute shops, people-watching, listening to live music and indulging in some good but not-so-good-for-you foods. For Joe, that meant a strawberry donut, bratwurst and a deep-fried Twinkie. I had chocolate covered strawberries, crab rangoon and strawberry lemonade. (Ecclectic palates, huh?) Very cute little town. I'm sure we'll be back again for one of their many festivals.

After the storm

This is pretty much what my yard looks like today. We had a storm last night with tornado sirens off and on. Joe and I, along with the dogs, spent part of our evening huddled in our tiny, basement bathroom...glad to say that all is well except for our lovely yard debris. Considering we have to bundle and pay for any yard waste that gets set out for collection we will likely have to hire someone to just haul all these tree limbs away.

Kate

I got to meet my sweet friend, Kate, her boys and family at Navy Pier today. We rode the famous Navy Pier ferris wheel and had such a fun time watching the boys play; Kate even got me to ride on the carousel with them!

NKOTBSB

I am home after a night of boy-band heaven with New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. My friend, Amber came up from Missouri to go to the show with me. The last time the two of us were at a NKOTB concert together was a little over 20 years ago...yes, 20 years. Wow. Back then my parents had to drive us to the show! The concert was so much fun and, sadly, I am not likely to have a voice for awhile - way too much screaming...hope we are still doing stuff like this 20 years from now. Long live the boy bands.   

Minneapolis

This week I took a 48-hour mini-vacation to visit my friend, Kim in Minneapolis. It's hard to believe but I haven't seen her since her wedding more than two and a half years ago. And not only did I get to see Kim and her husband, Chris but I got to meet their year-old daughter, Hannah! We had fun hanging out, went to the Mall of America for a bit, had a great dinner one night in the Nicollet Mall district and visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Kim, Hannah and I standing in front of Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Sculpture Garden.

The famous Mary Tyler Moore statue. And, yes, I tried to do a reenactment of the hat toss.

Gleeks

We are big Glee fans so I was very excited that we were able to get tickets and go to Glee Live this afternoon. It was so much fun and we got to see performances by both "New Directions" and the "Dalton Academy Warblers." Seeing the actors and actresses perform live really made the show come to life. I think I'm going to be on a Glee high the rest of the night.

Summer lovin'

Today marked Joe's first Friday off of the summer. (He will have every Friday off for the next couple months in exchange for working ten-hour days, Monday - Friday.) Today's Friday off meant a morning walk to Starbucks and then to the hardware store, yard work, a movie (X-Men: First Class) and going out for pizza. Can't wait to see what else our Fridays will entail.

African Violet Yumminess

I'm obsessed with this cake from Williams-Sonoma. I can't imagine spending $100 on a tiny (albeit, beautiful) cake but if anyone buys it, let me know if it's this lovely in person.

Facelift

My blog needed a mini-facelift after several years of looking exactly the same. Thanks, Nichole for the new header for the blog!

Memorial Day weekend

Things to love about this weekend:

• Joe taking off on Friday (Technically he took off the entire day but still worked half of it at the office...I'm counting that half day as a win! Nevermind that he was at the office working on Sunday...little victories.)
• Bridesmaids (seriously, hilarious)
• Curling up to watch a movie in the middle of a rain storm
• Napping
• Cooking cedar plank salmon on the grill
• Having dinner with friends
• A trip to Portillos
• Catching up on house work and yard work

Family dinner

It's been a very busy couple of weeks. My parents were here over the weekend and we were able to have my mom's cousin and her family over for dinner. We had a great time and delicious food. (I also got to serve 8 people on our beautiful, new table that just arrived the day before our guests!)

Clockwise: Joe, dad, mom, me, Adam, Declan and Terrie. (Kirk was our photographer.)