A much needed vacation

Mark and I just got back from taking the kids to south Florida for 10 days. His parents rent a house every year for a few months so we love to fly down for a bit to spend some time with them and with the warm weather. As many of you are experiencing, we've had quite the winter and we really needed to get away. I felt many times before we left that I was going a bit crazy - lack of vitamin D?? The sun was perfect. I highly recommend it, if only for a few days!

Mark's parents have a pool so we spent a lot of the time swimming (ok I'm a lounger but the kids swam a lot with Mark and his parents!) and took a few side trips to the beach and to the zoo in Tampa (Leo got to feed a giraffe!). There was only one day of rain and one other day was on the cool side, but over all it was amazing weather. It was worth it to go a bit later in the year to catch the warm rays and get away from the snow (did you hear we're getting more tomorrow?? ack!)

To top it off, the kids were amazing. They shared a room (Leo in the bed and Mila in a pack and play) and they slept so well there. They were up pretty early every morning (5 am on the morning of the time change - yikes!) but over all it was a great set up.

Thanks for the visit Nonno and Mimi! xo

How are you keeping warm this year? Did you go away?

chicago - part 2

It just occurred to me that I forgot to post "Chicago - Part 2". Go figure -- my brain isn't working entirely well these days.

Now where did I leave off?

Oh yes. I left you staring at McDreamy and thinking about where we ate. That's really all that's important right?

Maybe I'll talk about what we did -- let's see if I remember:

Thursday night we went on a river tour of the city. I loved looking at the skyline and hearing about the history of the buildings from the water.



Friday we walked to the subway on our way to see the Cubs and found an old fire hall...


...and used the wall to take some hubby/belly pics...



Then we finally made it to the Cubs game (don't I look like a fan??)...



Saturday we went to Old Town and that's where we had the yummy pasta I mentioned in the earlier post. The Sunday we trekked it out to Oak Park to see some Frank Lloyd Wright homes. We saw him along the way and he looked thirsty...


This was one of my faves...


Finally we took the belly up to the 94th floor of the John Hancock building to see the sites.


It was a whirlwind of a trip but so fun. I can't wait to go back some day!

What have you been up to this summer?

chicago - part 1

This past weekend, Mark and I took a super long weekend to check out the sights of Chicago. I don't think I have ever walked so much in my life... Well I'm sure I have but it felt like I haven't this weekend.

One of the highlights of the trip is that we got to see Patrick Dempsey during the filming of Transformers 3. DREAMY. Oh that's McDREAMY I suppose.


Ok so he was far away but it was cool nonetheless and now I'll go see the movie.

The rest of the trip was fun too of course. We ate deep dish pizza, pasta, nachos, steak and Indian infusionish things. We watched the Cubs and trekked out to see some Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

Here's more on what we did:


Where we stayed:

Amalfi Hotel Chicago
This place was perfect. It was close to all the downtown sights but was also close to the "L" so we could go further out into the city. The beds were super comfy -- so much so that I miss ours very much (esp since we have a little double!) and each floor had a complementary breakfast in the morning.

Where we ate:

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria
I think we had about 2,500 people tell us to go to Lou's for some deep dish pizza and he (whomever Lou is) did not disappoint. We ordered a small which is crazy for us because when we eat pizza, we eat pizza. Mark and I can easily polish off a large pizza hands down so we felt a little funny when this mini pie came to the table. But it was ENOUGH. We got a salad beforehand and it was the perfect amount of food.

Sullivan's Steakhouse
We had a hankering for steak the next night so we found Sullivan's Steakhouse. We left it to the last minute to eat dinner so we didn't make a reservation but they had a table in the back near the kitchen so it worked out. We each had filet mignon with horseradish mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms and I have to stop talking about it now because my mouth is watering and I still have to go to yoga before I can eat dinner. The only drawback is that the washroom is on the second floor and being 6 months pregnant and having to go to the washroom every 5 mins (ok 2 mins) meant that I had to trek up a million stairs to go.

Topo Gigio Italian Restaurant
On Saturday we trekked out to Old Town to see if we could get Second City tickets and along the way we found Topo Gigio. Now a bit of history for you: Topo Gigio is a mouse -- think Mickey meets Italy. He's from the '60s and this restaurant has the rights to the name apparently. Anyway the food was DELISH (I really don't know any other way to describe food it seems) but the portions are HUGE. Like really too big for a normal person. I eat a lot ok... and I couldn't even eat a quarter of the bowl of pasta put in front of me. Look I can prove it:


See? But it was REALLY good. So good.

Ok I have to take a break there because I have to go to yoga. I'll give you part two when I get back.

In the meantime, you can stare at this if you want: