A visit from the Hills (the other Hills, that is!)

This week we had a fun-packed few days with Luke's parents, Steve and Lisa. They came to check out our life in the city, and boy, did we make sure they got a taste of everything Chicago :) And we sure did a lot of walking...

We took a trip to the Shedd Aquarium and stopped for some photos down by the lake.

And Buckingham Fountain was on the way...

to the "bean"!

City streets... and tour guide Luke.

One of Steve's shots of Belmont Harbor.

The Lincoln Park Zoo was also on the list of fun!

Luke and his parents.

And of course, there was a lot of good food! (I mean, it's Chicago!)

Birthday dinner - Mexican style!

Making taco salads for dinner in our cozy kitchen.

You can't go to the Windy City without trying a hot dog (or a veggie dog in my case). Their first Chicago hot dogs at American Dog!

Flub A Dub Chub's is one of our favorite hot dog places, and it's just around the corner.

Deep dish pizza at Giordano's. One word: Yum.

And a spectacular almond joy birthday cake (courtesy of chef Lisa) for the June birthday kids.

And if this doesn't entice you to come visit us, I don't know what will!

Ribfest

Last weekend Luke and I made our way to one of Chicago's many festivals: Ribfest. Luke's mouth was watering the whole time. Since ribs aren't really my thing, I opted for some mozzarella sticks.

Cheers to the rib-lovers out there!

Half of a Master

Yes- it's true. I am now HALF of a Master. I just finished up the first two quarters of my Master's program at Northwestern... and I feel GREAT!

It's crazy how fast the time has flown by, but I have learned so much and am so glad I made the decision to do the program. In honor of my halfway achievement - here are some of the stories I just published.

This is a story about the Near West Little League. Our friends Sean and Kim help coach this team on the West Side of Chicago. The kids were so great!

The link below is about a local teacher who got chosen to do infrared light research with NASA.

Lincoln-Way North teacher set to fly high with NASA

Girl Time

I don't have a great story to go along with this post - other than the fact that I wanted to share these pictures of some of my favorite girls in the world.

Steph is a good friend from high school in Minnetonka who moved to Chicago for college. When Luke and I decided to move here, she introduced me to Kim. Luke ended up living with Kim and her husband Sean for the first month that he was here, until I came down and we found an apartment. And since then, they have become some of our very best friends. We feel so blessed to have them here in Chicago with us!

And unfortunately, Steph and her husband Trevor just moved back to Minnesota. But we were lucky enough to get a visit from Steph last week (this is where the photos are from).

All that to say, both Luke and I feel so lucky to have such great friends here. That's all :)

Steph, Kim and me after going out for dessert

Kim and me hiding from the rain!