Our First Guest!

Sarah's friend Abby flew up from Atlanta over this past weekend and we delighted in showing off our fair city to her. Visits to Navy Pier and, of course, the American Girl Store are even more fun when you get to bring a friend! And, we made a quick trip down the street early Sunday am to watch the start of the Chicago Marathon. We got there early enough to see the start of the wheelchair races and also, one double amputee on prosthetic legs. Incredible to watch them all, knowing they would be going for 26 miles. After about 10 minutes, the elite runners came by, looking more like they were running a sprint. Someone told me the elite runners would finish in just over 2 hours. It's mind boggling..... The weather was warm---up near the mid 80's....I don't even check weather.com anymore cause it's always wrong! I thought we moved north! Still have that new coat, you know, the sleeping bag with a hood.....

Pumpkins, and Dragons and Camels oh my!

My sister and her family live in Crystal Lake....out in the boonies, if you ask me! But, it's an easy train ride on the commuter line, so we've been taking turns going back and forth. So, a couple of weeks ago, Sarah and I headed out there (it's about 1 1/2 hours each way...but it's comfy and easy) to join them for an outing to a pumpkin farm. We fed giraffes, watched a pumpkin eating dragon, rode a camel and just enjoyed the fall day. Bought a small pumpkin, best for carrying on a train and headed back after dinner. We so enjoy hanging with Tisha and her three girls!

MORE....Millenium Park

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra got a new conductor this season, Ricardo Muti and it's a BIG Deal. They did a free concert in MP to celebrate and man was it packed. The three of us met up with my sis in law, Janet, daughter Jaimie and boyfriend Dan and Dan's mom. The lighting was really pretty, and if you look closely, you can see that the neighboring hi rise buildings spell out Muti, and CSO in their window lights. Again, just a wonderful evening!

The Beauty of HomeSchooling

In September, the Adler Planetarium had a free admission week, so one morning, Sarah and I got on our bikes and rode the Lakefront Path down to spend the day. It was a picture perfect morning and we had such fun on our ride, and of course the Planetarium was great! By the way, I have the coolest bike...a comfort model, in bright orange with white leather seat and grips. It makes me smile every time I see it. And, I see it often since it's parked in my dining room!

While I'm playing catch up

As I was just looking thru iphoto to post the pics to the last blog, I found some other ones....

Sarah had her 8th birthday in July and the whole family came into the city for a picnic and concert at Millenium Park, our FAVORITE hangout....

Illinois Institute of Technology hosted a Lego thing and we invited my nephew Kyle (prince of all Lego things) to join us. He and Sarah enjoyed that, as well as the silver helium pillows---actually an art installation conceived long ago (but constructed for the Lego weekend) by Andy Warhol.

I'll throw in any other summer ones that I find.....

When you can't remember how to start a new post on your blog.....you know it's been too long since you posted! Summer was more like one long vacation, but once September got here, the business of life swallowed us up! It's all been good though! We started a home school program on Mondays called Classical Conversations. We've met several families here in the city and are enjoying it very much. Sarah also does ballet twice a week and I started my first piano student here two weeks ago. Starting, too, to network for Silpada in the city while still caring for my Atlanta customers. So, a lot is going on!

August we headed back to Atlanta to help Elizabeth get back to UGA and then returned to the city to enjoy the Tall Ships events at Navy Pier. We sailed on a replica 1812 warship....and visited the HMS Bounty. It was constructed in the 1990's specifically for use in films and was the featured ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean. It is completely authentic on the outside, but custom built on the interior to allow extra room for lights and cameras. There were a dozen others, all fabulous and beautiful. The ships all sailed in on Tuesday of that week in a parade and we rode our bikes down near the planetarium to watch it all unfold.

The end of the month found us up in Wisconsin with Dick's family for our neice Jessica's wedding to Ben. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding in Dick's folks back yard, along a stream and finishing in their gazebo. Great weather finished a perfect day, and Jessica and Ben are on their way to London where Jessica will finish her medical training. It was so nice to see everyone and catch up!

Well....now that I've a new camera, I've been taking pics and just put them into iphoto. So, let's see if I can post them to the blog......