Twins Win!

Even though we have a special baseball channel so we can watch all of the Twins games while we're living in Chicago, it's still not the same as watching them at the ballpark. Lucky for us, we were able to catch a Twins game this month while they were in town playing the White Sox. And we won!! I'm pretty sure there were just as many Twins fans as Sox fans at the game, which made it really fun.

And to make it even better - there was a fireworks show after the game (not to mention they had veggie dogs at the stadium).

**I've noticed that Luke is conspicuously missing from a lot of these recent pictures. Not sure how he got away with that - but I will make sure to get some shots of him up here soon.

(Belated) birthday post

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of blogging lately - but we have been enjoying the summer and keeping busy. I wanted to share a couple of pictures from my birthday last month because it was SO fun. Luke took the day off from work (what a guy!) and we started out the day with breakfast at the Original Pancake House. For those of you who don't know - breakfast is my favorite meal and this is my favorite breakfast restaurant. It's the only place that doesn't take me 20 minutes to figure out what I want... because I get the strawberry crepes every time :)

After a long breakfast, we walked home, went for a bike ride, watched the Twins game and then Luke took me out for drinks at the Hancock tower. We actually haven't been there since moving here almost a year ago. Let me tell you - it was AMAZING! We went to the restaurant on the 96th floor (it was a long elevator ride) and the view was incredible.

Then we went to a seafood restaurant for dinner and had cupcakes for dessert back at our apartment. It was the perfect birthday!

Luke also told me that night that we had "tickets" for a special event that Friday. Even though he told me not to try and figure it out - I went straight to Google and investigated. But I still couldn't figure it out.

On Friday morning, I got a call from the front desk saying that there was a package we needed to sign for. I was still in my PJ's, so I threw some clothes on and went downstairs. I had no idea what the package could be and figured it was some obscure motorcycle part Luke had ordered. I turned the corner after getting off the elevator, and stopped in awe. Could this be real?
Is it really her?

My very best friend in the whole world, Miyong, was standing in the lobby!! I was so confused and so happy, I just started crying :) Turns out, she was in cahoots with my sneaky husband and surprised me for my birthday! She actually was there for work, but got to take a bunch of time off to hang out with me. And the show we went to that night was the comedy show she was there working on. Now THAT was the best birthday surprise EVER!

So, year 26 got off to a pretty great start...

Stormy night

We had some crazy storms here the other night. Luke shut off all the lights in the apartment and opened the windows so he could take some pictures (of course). However, his photo session was cut short when it started to hail and he had to move the Jeep into the covered part of the parking garage! Here are some of his photos:

All these pictures were taken within a few seconds of each other - so you can see how much the color of the sky was changing with the lightning and clouds passing through.

And this was the hail that hit our car (no damage though!).

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!