6th Anniversary in Chicago

Tim and I went into Chicago for just 24 hours last weekend, but it felt like a week! Our dear friends Kelly and Ryan watched Maddy at our house from 3pm on Saturday until 3pm on Sunday. They did such a great job and we were able to enjoy our time without worrying at all about Maddy girl.

Tim handled the reservations. He found this trendy hotel downtown called "Sax".  We very much enjoyed our stay there. It's one of those places that is so nice that when you walk into the lobby, they offer you a glass of champagne while you are waiting :) 

We decided we would make this a nice weekend as a celebration of the end of Tim's MDiv as well as a celebration of 6 years of marriage. It has been a crazy year for us and we are so glad we invested the time and money into our marriage.

Our room

The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

We walked around the city and enjoyed the beautiful weather on Saturday afternoon and then we got ready to go out to dinner at the Signature Room. The restaurant is on the 95th floor of the Hancock building. The food was excellent, but the view was even better!

We shared "Shrimp Tempura" with a lemon cream sauce as an appetizer

I had the slow roasted duck. It was so flavorful and tender. The weird rectangular-shaped pink thing on the top of the plate was a homemade cranberry sauce. Our waiter (who was this very sweet older gentleman from England named Pryce) said that duck was a good choice because it is very difficult to make at home. At which point, I responded, "Duck?! I can hardly make chicken well, never mind duck!" haha!

Tim had the "Grilled Veal Tenderloin". His was good - but he probably ate half of mine because he liked it so much.

They brought us a fresh fruit sorbet free for our anniversary.

We started our meal at 7:00pm and left at 9:30pm. It was such a leisurely and nice meal (a far cry from one of us holding maddy while eating tyson's  breaded chicken strips and tater tots in front of the tv) haha!

This was our view by the end of the night - stunning!

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called Hot Chocolate. The executive pastry chef there has been a judge on the food network as well has been nominated as for the pastry chef of the year (nationally) for the past three years in a row. 

If you are ever in the area (especially Amanda Lee :) - we HAVE to take you.  It was very reasonably priced and the dessert was amazing!

We shared a dish called, "S'mores and More" It was made of homemade marshmallows, homemade graham crackers and frozen chocolate nugget. In the small glass to the right of the plate was homemade chocolate soda. It was out of this world!

Of course we had to try their hot chocolate. You could get any kind that you wanted (light, medium, or dark). I got the dark hot chocolate. It was 87% dark chocolate and the rest milk. It came with a homemade marshmallow. I would go back just for the hot chocolate :)

All in all, we had a fantastic time together in the city that is under an hour from our house. We have been thankful for our time near the city of Chicago. We are looking forward to enjoying all that the free concerts and activities that the city has to offer this SUMMER!

 I only have 5 more teaching days left until I can enjoy it!!!

Traveling through life together

Last Saturday the day of Tim's MDiv graduation finally arrived. It's been so interesting to look back over the past years to see where the Lord has brought us. In fact, Sunday May 24th is our 6 year anniversary.  It's hard to believe that 6 years ago we were just 23 years old,  fresh out of college, newly married, and moving to Virginia Beach. Tim went to seminary there for 3 years. Then we both taught and coached at Greenbrier Christian Academy. It was in Chesapeake, VA that we bought our first home, loved our first home,  and then sold our first home. We look back at those 4 years in Virginia with fond memories. We made so many great friends and had some really great times! 

I can hardly believe that this summer it will have been 2 years since we moved to the Chicago area for Tim to study at TEDS.

It was a bit of a hard transition, but we are so happy that we made the move. Tim has absolutely loved his study here at TEDS. He has been challenged intellectually and spiritually. Seminary has certainly been a challenge for our family, but we are thankful for God's continual grace and strength in both of our lives. God truly is good all the time. All of these challenges have made us who we are as individuals and as a couple. I wouldn't change a thing. Tim has written a very sweet blog in reflection of our past 6 years traveling through life together.  He is  a much better writer than I am.

 

I am so proud of Tim and how hard he has worked to get this degree and to graduate Summa. His hard work and intellectual prowess have been noticed and praised by professors here at TEDS. He took on a part-time job at the church and a part-time job at Starbucks just to help us pay the bills (Chicago is the 2nd most overpriced city to live in-just behind Los Angeles!) 

And yet, through all of his hard work and dedication, he has made time to spend with me and now with our little girl Madison. 

He truly is an amazing husband and father. Marriage isn't always easy. It's such hard work some days, but he has been willing to work hard with me to make it work. 

 I am glad that after 6 years, we have never given up- it has been worth it all to walk through life with my best friend by my side. Happy Anniversary babe. I Love you.

New Pics

I would LOVE to write more right now, but life is so busy. So I will just post some new pics instead :)