MDW

Memorial Day Weekend 2014

May 23rd - 26th

After keeping last weekend pretty low-key, we were ready to make the most of these 3 days!

We started out Friday night with a date night at TopGolf.

 Saturday morning Brent put in a few hours at work. The rest of us headed over to Uncle Jim's house to celebrate his birthday.

 For years, my grandmother and her best friend, Phyllis, drove to Washington DC for Memorial Day weekend to celebrate with my Uncle on his birthday. It was really special that Phyllis could join us for cake this year!

 Miller, Uncle Jim, Sarah, Mary Grace and Nana

 We came home and the kids spent a few hours in the backyard.

 She is such a monkey!

 Saturday night several of our neighbors were grilling out. Although the kids were invited, we opted to put them to bed since Nana was here and then we headed over. It was so much fun sitting around their fire pit and talking way too late into the night. I'm really looking forward to lots of these backyard nights this summer!

 On Sunday we headed downtown after church to try a restaurant Brent raved about when he went there with his friend, Dave, last week. I wish I'd taken a picture of our food, but Kuma's has the best, most ridiculously awesome burgers ever!

After lunch we walked over to the lake shore.

This day, alone, made up for the 86 inches of snow-

it was SO beautiful!  

 Beautiful Lake Michigan

 Then we walked to Lincoln Park.

How unbelievable is this? Right in the middle of downtown Chicago!

 We briefly walked through the zoo (it was insanely crowded.)

There is a giraffe somewhere in this picture.

On Monday we went to the Naperville Parade.

Mary Grace was actually marching in it with her school, so it was just the 4 of us.

Nana, Sarah, Miller, and Brent 

 One advantage to having a participant in the parade is that we arrived in plenty of time to get our choice of spots along the parade route. The downside was having a really long wait before it even started.

Brent, Miller and I walked down to Starbucks for caffeine and treats-

this guy might be the only kid alive who gets excited to go to Starbucks because they have bananas! 

 Finally the parade started-

 It was very cool- there were tons of veterans who participated in the parade.

 Miller's favorite-

 Finally we caught sight of Covenant Classical School

(they were #60)

 We purposely sat towards the very end of the parade route so that Mary Grace could just join us as she passed by and then watch the rest of the parade.

Mary Grace and Nana 

Although we certainly enjoyed ourselves last weekend, we spent a lot of time thinking about the real reason for the holiday. We are SO thankful for the freedoms we have in this country because of those who have given their lives!