I'm BAAACK! :)

I'm back from a lovely, fun and amazing holiday with my bff Stephanie and her wonderful family. We had a fabulous time in the Windy City!!! :) Here are a couple of photos from our vacation:

*This was pretty much right after we landed and got checked in to our hotel. The nasty trout pout with Stephanie and her cousin Ashley who I absolutely love! This chick is sooo cool! She lives in Austin and this was my first time meeting her.

*Steph and I at the rehearsal dinner Thurs night. They had it at a pizza place by Wrigley Field and the pizza was DELICIOUS!

*afterwards we went to a Irish pub and I ordered a sangria! YUM! I had to take a photo because since I've given up drinks - it was quite an indulgence! :)

*We had such a fun time!! This is me with Stephanie and her cousins (Abby, Me, Steph, Ashley, Carrie (who had nothing to drink because she's having a baby! :) she looked so cute with her baby bump!) and Leah - Stephanie's sister) Bunch of Texas Gals in the Big City! SO glad my bff invited me along on her family trip :)

*cheers to having the most wonderful life partner Steph - I just love this girl!!
*my love of journalism gets me SO excited to see where the big papers are produced in every city I travel to. I was SUPER excited to see the Chicago Tribune! Once upon a time it was my dream to write for a big time newspaper.

*One of the lovely views of the skyline taken from around the aquarium

*One of the things I wanted to do the most was to see the aqaurium. I LOOOVE the sea and all things in the sea :) Steph and I woke up early and hopped on a bus. It was a lot of fun to spend some one on one time with her :) A perfect morning!

*of course the one thing I wanted to see the most is the Seahorses!!! I was one happy girl!

*after a trip to the gift shop - came out with a sweet mood seahorse charm necklace (Steph got a turtle one :) and seahorse postcards! little things to add to my growing seahorse collection

*Aren't they the sweetest little fellas?

*I could watch these sweet things all day long. I just love them!

*BFF in front of the Caribbean Reef - many of the fish I remember seeing for real while I was in St. Thomas

*Bus stop promo for the World Cup! SUPER excited for the games to begin :) GO ENGLAND! So neat that the football players were English and I was wearing my Union Jack tee

*Steph's cousin Jeff and his beautiful bride Natalie. She was sooo beautiful! Natalie is from Chicago and moved to Texas for school and her mom told her "whatever you do don't marry a guy from Texas" and good thing for Jeff Natalie didn't listen :) Another funny thing is that her sisters said "well how many brothers and sisters does he have?" and being that they are from a big Italian family with lots of siblings they were surprised to hear he had none! But Jeff does have some of the best cousins ever :) Their wedding was absolutely beautiful! We had a great time!

*my pretty wedding date

*Part 1 of my reception dinner - Taste of Italy (for Natalie) all the food was soo pretty and so delicious. Micaela would have loveeeed it! In fact I kept thinking this is how I picture Chip and Micaela's wedding will be like

*Part 2 of my dinner Taste of Texas (for Jeff) Isn't that cute how they blended both of their family's type of food?

*before it got dark

*after it got dark it was sooo beautiful and romantic. There were candles everywhere - on all the tables and along all the windows and borders of the room so it cast a glow everywhere. I absolutely loved it. You could def feel the love!

*Take outside of Burberry. You know me :) I couldn't resist

*Leah, Steph and I had lunch here made famous by an old SNL skit They really do say cheezborger cheezeborger you order double cheezeborger! No Fries...Chips!

*Since I ordered what he ordered me to ha he said I was a good girl and gave me a hat that the employees wore haha

*My bff and I in front of the Field Museum of Natural History. I couldn't wait to meet Sue the T Rex!! I LOVED dinosaurs growing up! Loved Land Before Time and Jurrasic Park :)

*They sure do love their sports in Chicago!! Cubs shirts and Blackhawks jerseys were everywhere - including on all the statues! I wish I would have taken a photo of every statue we saw but I thought of that only after it was too late :( This is a statue that was way up high on a corner of the museum ceiling. I took this off the second floor balcony. Isn't that cute? Everyone was sooo excited about the Blackhawks doing really well in the Stanley Cup finals :)

*My favourite bit of the entire Field Museum. The stegosaurus was my absolute fave dinosaur growing up and I had a stuffed animal of one named Spike that I carried with me everywhere. Seeing the bones of one was pretty amazing!

*Our last night there we hung out at the Navy Pier. I loved the atmosphere there!

*I don't like amusement park rides - I don't do rollercoasters or heights - so I was a little weary about riding this with Steph - I'm glad she talked me in to it though :) it went really slow - the entire thing was a 7 minute ride so I didn't feel a thing - but the view was completely worth it!

*We ate at an Italian place called Capi's on the pier. I ordered a delicious Chicago style deep dish pizza :)

*Leah and I got ourselves some Cubs shirts :) I kept seeing seeing so many cute ones all weekend I just had to get one before I left :)

One of the best things about the trip was the chance to meet up with some old friends. When we were in 4th grade Micaela and I moved to Bitburg, Germany. We lived there until the middle of 7th grade when we moved to Texas. One of my best friends growing up was Courtney. She came to my wedding and that was the first time I had seen her since we were 12! My wedding was three years ago so I was SO excited when she text messaged me that she was going to be in Chicago the same time I was! Her boyfriend's mom lives there so they were going to visit her during the long weekend. Since she was with his family and had been at the Cubs game all day and really tired and I was with Steph's family and it was our last night there we didn't get a chance to really see each other but for a couple of minutes at the Pier. Still I cherish those moments just so I could hug her! It's so nice to see the people who knew you as a child.

*Courtney and I best friends in 1996 and have kept in touch until this day. She always had to bend down when she took pics with me :)

I also got to see our darling Michelle. Micaela and I went to Chicago the first time to pick up her up and move her to Texas. She lived with us for a couple of years before going back to Chicago where her family is from. She also grew up with us in Bitburg. She is my dearest friend. The kind of friend who is more like a sister. When I watch movies about friendship like "Beaches" she's the one I think of. I know our friendship will be one that lasts a lifetime. She worked until 11 on Saturday night and came and picked me up at my hotel around midnight. We hung out until 4 AM on my last night and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

*We picked up right where we left off. It's friendships like these that you believe in with all your heart!

I had an absolutely wonderful time in Chicago. I'm so thankful to Stephanie for inviting me to be her wedding date on her family's trip.

I couldn't wait to get home, I had missed Philip so much. I was not expecting to come home to find my sweet husband in the hospital. Philip has Ulcerative Colitis and so from time to time he will have a flare up. It's really scary because it just happens. And of course it happens when I'm out of town :( So he had his sister take him to the ER on Sat night. He didn't tell me about it until I was already in town on the way home because he knew I would freak out (which is exactly what I did - I immediately started bawling) and there was nothing I could do about it while I was in Chicago so he didn't want to worry me. I stayed with him overnight on Sunday and was so thankful to be near him. I'm thankful we came home when we did from Chicago. Philip and I got to come home yesterday evening and I took today off to recover from everything. Traveling is intense at is. But to come home to something like this made it even more intense. Luckily thanks to God Philip is okay and feeling much, much better. I finally got to sleep in our own bed in almost a week last night and I guess I was SO tired I didn't get up until 11 AM this morning! Good thing I took the day off! Anyway, no worries - my love is okay now. Unfortunately his disease is a part of our lives. This hospital stay was but a hiccup in the several hospital stays we've had in the 9 years he has been a part of my life. When we exchanged vows and I said "In Sickness and in Health" those words really meant something to me when I said them to him.

I didn't want to leave this post on a sad note and I debated about whether or not I would share Philip's health issue, but I feel really close to you all and I don't want to keep anything from you. Also in case you are wondering why it has taken me so long to post about my trip. I feel like I have been away for so long, I can't wait to catch up on all your blogs! I've missed you!!!