we {heart} chicago

it's no secret that we love going to chicago

of course the #1 reason is because we get to see a few of our favorite people -
bekah (my sister) ... ryan ... troy (stacey's brother) ... liz ...
AND
ellie ... will ... owen and marley ;)

BUT ...
that doesn't mean we don't have a few 'side' reasons we love to go as well:)

one of those -
portillos
i LOVE that place!
the boys love their hot dogs and i love their chopped salad
but MOST importantly
we ABSOLUTELY can't get enough of their chocolate cake
it is to die for

we stopped in at portillos on our way into town for dinner
we left with chocolate cake shakes for everyone
figuring the last 45 minutes of the drive would be SO much sweeter



in the morning i was reminded of another reason i love chicago -
WALKING to starbucks in the morning :)
as you can see drew was ALWAYS wanting to give piggy back rides
and it didn't take much convincing to get a rider.



i love waking up in the morning and walking a block to starbucks
i love having so many fun shops and restaurants surrounding us
and
i love that there are so many people out everywhere

although we live in a big city -
we don't live IN a big city.
so living this 'urban life' for short chunks of time
is fun for the boys -
they love all of the parks that we walk to
they love having a SUPER good cupcake shop around the corner ;)
and ...
they LOVE riding the train





they also love doing things we can't do here in mn
this trip we decided to ride the train downtown
and then hop on a tour boat to go out onto the lake and river

the boys have been curious about the lock here at st anthony falls

and
so we told them that sometime when we were in chicago we would take them on a boat to go through the chicago lock



this trip was the time
and we got double the fun ...
as we pulled up there was an emergency out in the lake.
a coastguard boat needed to get through immediately
so they opened BOTH sides of the lock!
apparently they only do that on average 2 times a summer!

we were in the right place at the right time.

in more ways than one this trip ...

on top of the other fun we already had going on
the twins were in town playing the sox
when we realized that a few weeks ago,
we decided it'd be fun to make our first visit to US cellular field
and i will fully describe our game in a separate post

all i'll say is ...
the twins showed up to play
they gave us a SWEET game
and it ROCKED!

the next day we spent time checking a few more things off our 'chicago loves' list

* we spent more time with bekah
she took me to my very first bar method class and it was SO fun
and yes i am still slightly sore

* we went to pequods
seriously the BEST deep dish pizza E.V.E.R
when i am home i crave it like crazy!

* and then ... as if deep dish pizza and fried zucchini slices don't fill me up enough
we finished it off with sweet mandy b's cupcakes

it was close to a perfect day ;)

sadly ...
that was our last day and the trip ended WAY too soon.

i wish i could have bekah closer
and
i wish that i could have a portillos, a pequods, a bar method studio, and a sweet mandy b's closer

there are SO many reasons we LOVE visiting chicago
there are many reasons why sometimes i think we should just live there
BUT
then i sit in traffic and am reminded of a few reasons why we shouldn't

thanks for the fun, chicago ;)

we'll miss you!!