Chicago to Detroit to Rockford to Detroit and Back to Chicago

All of that in 4 days!
We started our weekend journey Saturday after Danny got off work- and arrived late to his parents place to have some great food that his mom had waiting for us. At 9:45 pm that night....... we heard from Jed that Mandy had "the baby" which we learned his name is Julian!

And that is when the plan that Danny and I had schemed days before was actually going to work! THE PLAN: go to the BLACKHAWKS- red wings game on Sunday- meet Julian on Monday and back to the next hockey game on Tuesday. It was Perfect!

Sunday we had breakfast with Danny's parents, went to Chelios' for some beers and Coney dogs. My dad and some friends met us here- then we all ventured over to the game together. If you would like to know the score of the game... it will not be disclosed here (you can ask Danny). :)

Then there was Dinner- meeting of the fathers- and it seemed to go very well! We were all pretty tired from the long day at the game, and with all of the traveling, so it was a perfect low key dinner.

The next morning we dug up some hostas- and were able to bring back something else from Danny's parents house back to ours in Chicago :) Our drive to Rockford seemed to be a very quick drive! We had a awesome time playing with Owen- playing with rocks, pitching and batting with his new ball and bat and just running around with all 4 dogs! I love this photo of Danny with Julian..... too cute! He is a beautiful baby boy and we can not wait to see him and again!

The rest of out trip flew by.... driving back to Detroit to spend a few hours with Ari, Parker and Kristen. We drove to the hockey game and met Ken and Kristen there..... got home late. Then got up early to make it back to Chicago. It was a quick trip but it was great to see everyone (and we can't wait for Abby to be up North soon)!

Maddie @ the Beach

Maddie's First Trip To the Montrose Beach Dog Park!

Maddie has seen Lake Michigan before... but that was in November, up in Cross Village. There was no way that we were going to get her in the freezing water then.

We took her to the Montrose Beach dog beach after Danny got off work a day this past week. It is great to just let her off leash so she could run around and play with the other dogs. And best of all.... go into the water.

Maddie at first just stuck around the shoreline by us... not sure of what to make of the water. After we tossed her ball in the water a few times she slowly began to get a little deeper and deeper.

She watched as two fellow Labs went way out into the Lake to retrieve their ball & Maddie's ball when it went out too deep for her to get.

Maddie would only follow them to a
certain point and then turn back around once it got a little bit too deep or a wave came near. Maybe she will actually swim on her next visit to the beach!

Goodbye to my First Place

310 W Miner St #3B
Arlington Heights, IL 60005

This past weekend, I packed up all of my remaining things in Arlington Heights and moved to the city to live with Danny. My place in Arlington Heights was my first apartment where I was solely responsible for everything!

I had a great landlord, Phil, and a perfect location to downtown Arlington Heights. Jewel-Osco was my next door neighbor, and bars/restuarants were a minutes walk away. There wasn't anything more that I could have asked for, for it being my first place.

The U-Haul truck was loaded in less than an hour and then unloaded by Danny, Brad and myself in under an hour as well. Unpacking and organizing everything is and probably will be another story in itself. And I am very excited to begin my new adventures with Danny and Maddie in the city!

erin

Stanley Cup Playoffs- Game 1

Danny, Kris and Tommy made it on TV again (and I saw them)! Blackhawks won their first game in overtime... scoring 12 seconds into the overtime!

When asked for comment about the game... he said "It was awesome & that he is losing his voice".

Cubs vs Yankees

We were very excited to go to New York city to see my sister and to go to a Cubs game.... (the Cubs game that got me out of running a half marathon) ;) We wore our Cubs gear on the plane and most of the day on Saturday!

The new yankee stadium was very cool
and right next to the old stadium. There were a
good amount of Cub fans... and we were only
heckled by a few drunken yankee fans. Before the
game we got to sneak down to the field and see
the Cubs warm up!

(or fall down and hurt themselves??)

So we have a picture of a tie game.....
And if you ask me... that was the final score.
The cubs did not loose like 1-10. haha.
What can I say, I am a true Cub fan and this
is the year that they will go all the way!!!!
~erin

Corner Bistro- New York City

YES... This is the burger that we had that began the cheating for our Lent Resolution of no meat. You can tell that I hadn't had meat in a real long time by the grease stain on my shirt! The burger was thick, messy and delicious!! After having this, there was no going back to a vegetarian life for us.

Anyone who goes to New York and wants a great Burger- go to the Corner Bistro.

Park

Yesterday morning, Erin and I decided to take a walk over to the park in Arlington Heights with Maddie. It was a partly cloudy day, but not much breeze and the air felt warm. We grabbed Maddie's ball and headed out. The walk was really nice, and we admired the houses as we walked by. (we have really fallen in love with a few of the houses in that area of Arlington Heights)
When we got to the park, Maddie met another Lab (yellow) that was a little over a year old and wanted to play play play! We let the two run around a bit, but they were both getting a little too worked up with one another. That's the drawback with two puppy's playing! The older dogs know when to cool it down!
We walked over to a corner of the park (it's really surprising how under utilized it was to me, the parks in Chicago always have a good number of people in them, especially on a day like that - I suppose people have yards, so why would they use a park...) Pulled out the ball and started tossing it back and forth between the two of us. It's become a pretty fun game with Maddie... Erin and I will stand about 30 yards away from each other and toss the ball, while Maddie (The Monkey in the Middle) will run back and forth after the ball.

Maddie ended up getting tired and laid down, I was able to capture a good photo of her though. It has immediately become one of our favorites.