Summer Kick Off!

What a blast the last week has been! If this is a preview to what the summer will be like....BRING IT ON!

We are looking forward to our first full summer in Indiana and also looking forward to celebrating the culmination of surviving our first year in Indiana!!! More on all of that later...back to the last week!

Although I know summer officially began today....my summer began last Thursday! That was the night of our concert!!! I was lucky enough to join Holly and Tari from work, along with Tari's hubby Glen, for a great concert! We saw Love and Theft, Lady Antebellum and Tim McGraw at the local outdoor ampetheater! It was a great concert, with great company! It was Tari and Glen's 4th wedding anniversary and I was so glad that they spent the special occasion with us! Tari, Holly and I celebrated with yummy frozen drinks!!! I have to say the whole concert experience was much different in Indiana that those I am used to in Cali. Don't get me wrong, the music was the same, but generally just a different atmosphere. I have to say one of my favorite things...lightning bugs at the concert. I mean how awesome is it to be sitting under the stars watching a hot Tim McGraw up on stage and have lightening bugs everywhere! I loved it! There was not a shortage of drunken morons....but they were entertaining to us, none the less!

I must say I definitely learned one important thing....I was wrong! Yeah....there it is in plain writing....I said it....I was wrong!

So what, you ask was I wrong about....well this is a biggy! I am sure that most of you know that I have a "thing" for cowboy hats. I have been known to say that any guy in a cowboy hat is sexy.

Indiana has proven me wrong....and not by a small margin either....I am talking horribly, utterly and unmistakably WRONG. There is NOTHING sexy about a 500 pound, shirtless, toothless, tattooed and sweaty guy in a cowboy hat.....ok I may have exaggerated on the toothless part...but the rest is true.

And NOOOOOOO.....there was not only one such example, but a few that made me come to this disheartening realization. I learned a few things from this situation....1. Obviously...not any man in a cowboy hat is sexy....2. There was not enough alcohol at the concert venue to make them sexy and 3. There should be a list of qualifications required to both purchase a cowboy hat and wear one!!!!
Despite this visual unpleasantries....it was a good time.

Here are a few pics from our evening!Glen and Tari

Tari, Me and Holly (with our frozen beverages, of course!!)


The next morning....it was off to Chicago!!!

After dropping Sheba off at her doggy hotel, we picked up my coworker, Adam, and hit the road. Although Adam is a Cubs fan, we thought we would take him along for good karma :)

After a small detour through the neighborhoods of Hammond, Indiana and South Chicago...which I do not recommend....we made it to our hotel! Jim and Madi flew in from Cali to join us and met us at our hotel lobby.....then we were off to Wrigley!

We met "Maa-Maw", Ryan's mom, who had also flown in...and watched the Angels take the Cubs in their house! It was great!!!! Hot and humid, but great!

Delainey enjoyed her cousin Madi and Torii Hunter, of course!!!

About 20 minutes before the game ended, they announced that there was a storm approaching and that there was a thunderstorm watch....then a few minutes later they upgraded it to a warning. As the game ended....the sky opened up! We were trying to snap a last few pictures from inside the stadium when they kicked us out.

We looked at the radar on our cell phones and decided that we would wait it out since it looked like a break was coming our way. We congregated in the lobby area just outside one of the tunnels and quickly found ourselves grouped together with the other Angel fans that were connected to Maa-Maw. We watched the wind, rain and hail blow in the tunnel and just stood there enjoying ourselves.

Pretty soon we realized that we had accidentally camped outside the exit to the Angels locker room.....talk about dumb luck. We were able to watch most of the Angels exit after the game and got quite a few pictures. To tell you the truth....I don't even know half of the pictures I got cause those boys look different in street clothes.

We waited eagerly for Hunter....but never got a glimpse of him :( They eventually kicked us out of the stadium and we took shelter at McDonald's.....yeah that's right....McDonald's! Not the most interesting spot to visit in Chicago....but with two kiddos...our choices were limited in that area!

We eventually made it back to the redline and headed back to our hotels to clean up.

Delainey intently watching her Angels

Madi and Delainey
Daddy and his girl!
Even the rally cap couldn't help Adam!!!
Woods and Rivera

Napoli

Hideki Matsui.....about 20 Japanese media members followed him out....it was like watching to see how many people would pile out of a clown car....pretty funny!
I think this is Bulger....and Madi!!

Kazmir and Madi....he was a hottie....probably a baby, too! Oh well!

Shields....he walked by a few times....this time no one else saw him though, cause they were following Scocia!
Howie!!!

Scocia....even Delainey recognized him....it was cute!
Gotta get the official sign!!

Delainey and Madi at McDonald's.....such a cute picture!

Delainey on the red line


That night we headed for some real Chicago pizza at Gino's East. We got a late start and the place was in high demand. The line to get in wasn't too bad....but the wait for the pizza was pretty long. Poor Delainey fell asleep at the table.....it was 11:30, her time....but she has never fell asleep like that before! It was pretty funny!! By the way...the pizza....phenomenal!

Adam and Delainey at the lobby of Jim's hotel.....before the dinner that Delainey slept thru!

Saturday, we headed to Navy Pier for some sightseeing. That was a cool place! Hard to believe that we were just at a lake, because it reminded me so much of San Diego! It was a beautiful day! We even took a water taxi from Navy Pier to the downtown area and walked down Millennium and Grant Parks. And yes we saw the giant bean! Everyone else wanted to go to Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) but the storm the night before had blown out some windows! Apparently it was a pretty bad storm with wind over 70 MPH! We hadn't noticed with all of the fun we were having!!!
Delainey in our hotel lobby
Navy Pier
The view from Navy Pier looking back at the city
The lighthouse at the end of Navy Pier
Madi and Delainey
From the water taxi
Maa-Maw, Delainey and Daddy at Harry Carry's restaurant....grumpy for the camera!
Family picture in the bean's reflection....everyone else was doing it!!
After all of the walking we headed back to the hotel, rested up and headed out for more Chicago pizza.....Ryan had his mind set on getting as much as possible. Saturday night it was Lou Malnati's, which happened to be a few steps from our hotel. Again....great pizza and a nice night out!

Sunday we woke up, exhausted, feet aching, skin sunburned and undoubtedly arteries clogged...and thrilled with the past few days! Home to Indiana we headed.....reluctant to leave, but reassured to know we are only 3 short hours away!

There is definitely a trip again in our near future....perhaps a mommy and daddy getaway...since Chicago with a 3 year old was challenging, to say the least!

All in all....a wonderful trip and a great start to the summer.....now....waiting on the current storm to settle down and the tracks to clear, since Jim and Madi are riding the Amtrak in from Chicago. They have already been delayed almost two hours and hopefully will make it here soon! Interesting way for them to start the Indiana leg of their adventure. More pictures to come, as they will be here all week and then Grammy comes!!!!