My birthday is the last day of August, normally I don't really care how we celebrate as long as I am with my family and friends, but this year is a big one (thirty!!!!) and I just really wanted to do something memorable. I decided on what I wanted to do and was sure of it - it would be very memorable and a once in a lifetime thing. I wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. I started looking into it and every company within reason did not allow pregnant women to ride - go figure! So, that will have to wait until next year - which works great as it's my golden birthday! Instead I came up with a few ideas that I thought would be fun and Mark surprised me and had arrangements all figured out for a weekend get-a-way just me and him --including a babysitter! (minus the hotel room which he left up to me!:)
We left first thing Saturday morning to go to Chicago. We made it across the Mississippi by around 10.
and to downtown Chicago by 1. We were surprised to see all of the Hawkeye flags everywhere!
and found our first destination by 1:30...
But our show didn't start until 4 so we got the truck parked and went to find a late lunch - my one food request while we were there - a good slice of Chicago style pizza. We walked by one pizza restaurant and decided it didn't look "Chicagoish" enough so we kept searching. We found a place called Chicago's Pizza and bought pizza by the slice. It was good- but not exactly what we were thinking...
After the pizza, Mark needed to make a phone call that I couldn't hear so I had wait for him...hmmmmm what more did he have up his sleeve?? :)
We still had time before our show so we walked the streets of Chicago near the theater. We both had fun looking at all the close together houses and guessing which ones we thought would be nice inside.
We then ran into a ---- yard sale!! If you know me, you know I'm always up for a good garage sale, so of course we went. We found two pair of binoculars that we thought the boys would like - especially Isaiah while geocaching and a book about good vs bad foods for kids. The binoculars were $.75 & $.50 and the book was $.50 so when she said I'll take $2.00 for everything I was like okay thinking it was a good deal - but after I told Mark what she charged me he was quick to inform me that not only did I go to my first Chicago garage sale, but I also got ripped off at a Chicago garage sale! haha, it was only a quarter and the book alone was worth $2 of entertainment for the drive home.
It was then time for our show -
Neither of us knew what to expect, but we were both VERY excited about it. Mark was able to get us front row seats which was very cool too! (The first 5 rows were poncho seating because you could get stuff on you - which we did just a little bit). The show was amazing! During the show a couple of the blue men painted pictures and Mark was lucky enough to have one handed to him - definitely a fun souvenir! Pictures were not allowed during the show, but here we are in the lobby waiting room area - you can see the black piping behind us - the entire theater was set up with that look to it.
After the show we had just a short time to make it across Chicago to Schumburg where our dinner and evening entertainment was to be held...
We've wanted to go to Medieval Times for years but have never made it. It was a lot of fun and really neat! I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to do something different but neat! Mark surprised me by having them say my name in the list of celebrations!
After the show we went through their little museum and then got our pictures with a knight and the king and princess.
We headed back to our hotel which was in Schumburg and were excited to sleep in as late as we wanted, but 7:30 came and we were both awake! We ate the hotels breakfast and then drove back into Chicago to the Sky Deck. Once again we parked the truck and walked towards our destination and as soon as we walked into the Willis Tower (AKA Sears Tower) I saw a special sign posted on the wall...
Our 9 year anniversary was August 3 so the weekend away was a little bit of a celebration for that too. The Sky Deck was really really neat. It was a bit scary to go into the observation areas, but we were brave! We actually went into several of the areas (I think there were 5 or 6), I just couldn't get enough! haha.
Then we went on a mission for Chicago hot dogs - Mark's one food request for the trip - and we found them! But in the restaurant they also had more Chicago pizza and Mark decided that looked better. There was a famous Chicago Pizza restaurant right next to the hot dog shop that he decided looked even better...and it was! We opted for half sausage and mushnroom and half spinach. yummmmmy!
All of our Chicago adventures were over so we walked around for just a little while and then decided to go to Ikea on our way home. It was our second trip to Ikea and we had fun looking around, but were definitely very overwhelmed! We did buy curtains for our computer room - which was great! I've been looking and looking for the perfect ones and couldn't find them and thought I was going to have to make some - but we found ones we both liked - and a great price!
It was a wonderful, much-needed get-away for us! The perfect way to celebrate the big 3-0!
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