hey, chicago, what do you say?

in mid-may, we got to spend a weekend with our friend josh. he had a layover in chicago, so we took him for deep-dish pizza and spent a day at the ballpark watching the cubs beat the astros (from our great seats in the third row). none of us had ever been to wrigley field before.



as much as i love sports, baseball does get boring for me--too many innings. so i amused myself watching the scoreboard in the outfield (people still switch the wooden signs by hand-- purists, the cubs) and pointing out all the low-flying airplanes approaching o'hare airport. and i totally sang "take me out to the ballgame" all by myself, because todd and josh spent the seventh inning stretch buying food. well, josh bought it and we ate it. visitors who buy us food are the best.



anyway, did you know the cubs have their own song? i didn't. go cubs, go-o! go cubs, go-o! hey, chicago, what do you say? the cubs are gonna win today!



afterward, we walked the path along lake michigan. i think josh and todd were cut from the same cloth. they saw something to explore (rocks! water! danger!) and went for it.

the merry month of may

i officially moved to chicago the first weekend in may. we left provo very early friday morning and drove all day to council bluffs, iowa. we woke up early again the next day so we would have time to stop by nauvoo on our way. though the stop took us several extra hours, it was well worth the time.



since going to nauvoo for the first time last summer, todd had begun expressing an interest in being married in the nauvoo temple. i pretty much flat refused to do that. but after visiting the town for just a few hours, i changed my mind. i love pretty much everything about nauvoo, especially quirky little things like this actual street sign. (it's on mulholland... find it!)



we only had time to briefly stop by the temple, pioneer land and records office and drive some of the old town and the trail of tears. but i loved the town so much and wished we could have stayed longer. though i've been to nauvoo three times now, i still haven't had the chance tour the old pioneer sites. but now that we have a personal connection to the town, i'm sure we'll be back.

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the weekend after moving, we took a drive to wisconsin (because we didn't get enough driving the previous weekend ). todd wanted to take me to see lake geneva, a nice little cottage town just across the illinois-wisconsin border. also the location of the first playboy mansion, but i digress. we ate dinner at some dirty little pub on the lakefront, where i had my first reuben sandwich (love).



the lake has a lot of mansions around it. anyone who owns lakefront property has to clear a path through their backyard, as there is a continuous walking path around the whole lake. some people simply have a muddy path through their grass, others have more fun with the idea and have better pathways-- one we saw even put out guestbooks. we only walked a little distance, but the area was beautiful and the houses were huge!

early spring

the craziness of our newlywed life is slowly starting to... slow down. now to play catch-up for the past few months:


way back in april, before i officially moved to chicago, todd and i visited a nearby nature preserve called volo bog. (i get a kick out of that name, don't know why.) the bog has a long wooden walkway floating over it that takes you through the different areas of the ecosystem.



it was still early spring, so the trees had only tinges of green on them. the water of the bog was inky, we couldn't see anything more than a couple inches beneath the surface.

that same day, we visited a little town called long grove. i loved it. the main part of town is essentially just a collection of shops and we didn't go in a single one. we walked through a park (and over a covered bridge!) and sat on a bench talking for a while. it was a beautiful spring day in a quaint little town, so of course i ate that up.



and todd found some ducklings to bite his fingers.