Happy Friday Everyone!!!

I can’t believe how fast this week went by!!

 I have TONS of Instagram photos from my week, so without further ado….here is a little recap!

Saturday was Parker’s first tee ball game! It was pretty much the most adorable thing ever! Just a bunch of little ones, totally clueless about baseball, but having a BLAST! Parker looked so cute in his little uniform, but we are gonna have to look into a new pair of pants for him! The ones he wore were WAY TOO BIG!! My husband had picked them up a month or so ago & we had never tried them on him! I had to safety pin them in two different spots, just to keep them on his scronny little butt!!

It was like 90 degrees the afternoon of his game & the pool was READY at grandma & grandpa’s house, so we headed over there for a little swim after the game was over! The boys had a blast in the pool & since they missed their afternoon naps due to the ball game, they were COMPLETELY worn out when we got home!!

Needless to say, they slept GOOD that night!!!!

Early the next morning, (Sunday) we got up & headed back to grandma & grandpa’s house to drop the kids off and the hubby & I were off to Chicago for a business trip for his job!
I tagged along for the ride! 🙂

I shot all kinds of pics during our drive there! It was a long trip, but nice to have some quiet time to ourselves & be able to carry on a conversation without being interrupted a million time by the boys! We ran into some rain as we got closer to the city, but for the most part, the weather was perfect for our drive!

We arrived in downtown Chicago around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon!! The temperature had dropped almost 20 degrees from the time we had left Southern Illinois! I quickly realized that maybe I hadn’t pack appropriately!!!

In my defense, let me just say, 64 degrees in Chicago vs. 64 degrees in Southern Illinois are two TOTALLY different things!!! Have I ever mentioned that we live in the armpit of America?! Seriously, the humidity here is RIDICULOUS!!!

We got to our hotel, only to find out that our room wasn’t ready! So instead of a room with a king size bed, they bumped us up into a suite with two queen size beds instead…..SCORE!!!

 The room was AWESOME & the beds were COMFY!!!!

Once we got settled into our room, we quickly changed clothes and got ready for our dinner reservations at RPM Italian! For those of you who don’t know, RPM Italian is Bill & Giuliana Rancic’s new restaurant in downtown Chicago. My husband has a small man crush on Bill Rancic and made reservations early in the week…..this restaurant was kinda the highlight of his trip!

The food was delicious, but the portions were kind of small. Unfortunately, we left less than satisfied in terms of our appetite, but the experience was great & so was the service!

We were hoping to see Bill there, as we’ve been told he pops in from time to time, but no such luck on this trip! Maybe next time! 🙂

Monday was a rainy & cold day in Chicago! My hubby was in meetings all day & I stayed in the hotel to get caught up on some blog stuff! Monday night, we had the opportunity to meet up with my husband’s cousin (also in Chicago for business) for dinner at Gino’s East…..their deep dish pizza is to DIE FOR!!! We hadn’t seen Dan in FOREVER (as he & his family live in Indianapolis) & it was a total coincidence that he was also in Chicago for work purposes. It was great to see him & get caught up!

I snapped this picture of them on Michigan Ave. before we had to tell Dan goodbye!
 Aren’t they handsome?!

Speaking of Michigan Avenue…..

There was lots of shopping to be done, but my favorite store was this one!

Ahhh…Forver 21 how I LOVE YOU, your CUTE stuff, and your ADORABLE prices! I bought a dress & a few other accessories here & also lucked into a couple more sundresses for summer at H&M.

I really wanted to go in here…..

Biggest Crate & Barrel Ever?!

I’ve never been in a Crate & Barrel and I was really looking forward to checking this one out, however, the store closed at 8:30 and we didn’t make it down that way in time!! BOO!

On Tuesday, the weather was BEAUTIFUL!! The sun finally made an appearance & the temperature was finally in the 70’s! I was able to meet one of my sweet online friends, Katie, from GiGisPetals!!

When I found out we were going to Chicago, I immediately thought of Katie, because I knew she lived in the area! So I emailed her & we made plans to meet up for lunch & do a little shopping downtown! We also got to walk down to see Lake Michigan & I was shocked by how BLUE the water was….

 This was the first time I had ever seen Lake Michigan this close! It was beautiful & kinda reminded me of an ocean, but much calmer!  GORGEOUS, right?!

Tuesday night, we did more shopping & more eating and then we went back to the hotel & CRASHED!!! Between my lunch date with Katie & walking all over downtown Chicago with my hubby that same evening…I was completely exhausted! I really wish I would have had a pedometer on that day! I had to have walked a gazillion miles…..in FLIP FLOPS nonetheless!

 NOT SMART, Tonya, NOT SMART!!!

Here are a few shots of the city I took while we were out walking around….

On Wednesday morning, we got up & got ready to head home, but not before making a stop in Schaumburg, IL to visit IKEA!!!

And that my friends will have to be a post all in itself!! This was my first trip to IKEA ever!! It was AMAZING!! I could have spent days in there….I was even contemplating moving in!!
KID.YOU.NOT!! 🙂

After leaving IKEA, we started our drive home & I snapped a few pictures of the sky….

 I’m not the type to usually get to worked up about clouds, but for whatever reason, I was quite fascinated with them on our way home!

Aren’t they beautiful?!

Definitely one of those moments where I was in AWE of God’s work! What a beautiful place he created for us to enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed this little recap of my week and I hope you had a great one yourself!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Find me on Instagram: loveoffamilyandhome

Linking up here….