Birthday and Mother's Day Weekend

My birthday fell the day before Mother's Day this year, so we decided to make a special trip to Chicago to celebrate the "big" weekend.

It also just so happened that Wisconsin is one of the states we have never traveled to and Milwaukee was only a few hours from Chicago...so it also worked out that we could check Wisconsin off of our state list.

Killing two birds with one stone, that's how we like to do it : )

Chicago by far blew me away. I had low expectations and I was absolutely surprised how beautiful the city was. It is now my top favorite place that we have visited. I would go back in a heart beat!

First things first, we had to eat at a famous Chicago style pizzeria. It takes about an hour to cook this kind of pizza, but it was totally worth the wait.

 At the John Hancock building observation deck. Great views of the city.

On my birthday we traveled to Milwaukee, WI and visited a recommended cheese store. We loved sampling all kinds of cheeses, yum!

We then came back to Chicago and hopped on an architectural boat tour of the city. 

 ...and visited Millennium park.

Sunday was Mother's Day so we had brunch and explored the city a bit more before having to catch our flight.

The place where the Valentines Day Massacre happened (or at least what's left of it). Kind of a downer place, but a great picture at least :) 

 And lastly, the whole reason I celebrate Mother's Day...this sweet boy!

Until next time, Chicago.

Our Week in Tennessee

Wow, I am behind in blogging! But in all fairness, we have been very busy traveling over the past few weeks.


Emerson and I braved traveling alone all the way to Knoxville, TN. We flew by ourselves for the first time and it was...sometimes challenging, but overall not too bad. On our flight there, he was actually quite the funny boy and loved playing peek-a-boo with all the passengers around us. The way back was a different story : )

We got to do lots of fun things while we were there visiting the grandparents including going to Dollywood, eating with the great-grandparents at a food truck, lots of playing with new things (including the dog and cat), trying new foods, and celebrating Emerson's Aunt Molly and baby Martin at a baby shower.

Lunch time at the airport.

Thank goodness I brought his tractor to play with to kill time waiting on our flights.

Visiting with the great-grandparents.

Emerson loved the dog, Chloe! He was glad she could go on our walks.

Eating an orange for the first time. He bit right through skin to get to the good stuff.

With Gramma on a carousel for the first time...he really liked it!

Lots of fun at Dollywood. Such a pretty park.

Playing ball with Pops.

Time to shower this pretty momma-to-be.

At the shower with both great-grandma's. He was very well behaved as long as he was eating.

That was just a glimpse of our fun week. Grandparent (and great-grandparent) time is so very special.