Swim Meet and Chicago

Well, I guess I'll start with the wedding. It was beautiful! The whole thing was gorgeous. The girls all got ready together in Ashley's hotel room. I was lucky enough to get to do Ashley's hair and she paid me back by doing my make-up. We had a great time. The ceremony was gorgeous! We then drove back downtown for pictures with the city skyline. By this time the cole weather had returned. We are freezing. DOn't let the smiles kid you. Then back to the reception. It was a fun night of dancing and eating! The food was AMAZING! We finally headed back around 12:30 to the hotel where Eric and I passed out... but apparently the rest of the party stayed up until 4:30! Crazy young people!


J


Ok. So We flew into Chicago on my birthday.... the big 3-0! As we got off the plane I realized that I had packed entirely wrong. I was going to freeze. Either way. We headed to the hotel and then Eric took me to lunch at the John Hancock Building. Lunch was great, but the view was better! We got a bunch of really great pictures from the top. After that we walked down to Navy Pier and rode the Ferris Wheel, which might have been the warmest we were all day considering it was an enclosed car. Also very fun. After that we took the trolley back to the hotel where I took a nap since I didn't sleep well the night before and then got ready for dinner which I thought was only going to include Ashley and Mike but turned out to inclue Hayley, Matt, Tim, Matt T., Maura, British Peter, Amanda, Chris, Ashely and Mike! I was very excited to see everyone had flown up early! We had such a fun time, even though we watched the Cubs beat the Braves on the TV's in the restaurant.



The next day we tooled around Chicago in the morning with Tim, Matt and Hayley. We went to Millennium Park where we saw the infamous Bean and the Fountain with the people spittiting out water! Here are some pictures of that.


I then left to meet Tricia and Neil at the train and we went back to the hotel and got ready for the rehearsal. Which was amazing. It was held in Aunt Pat's backyard, and despite the freezing temps. We had a great time. (I must have eaten about 16 brownies... amazing).
The next day we had the Bridesmaid luncheon at Coopers Hawk. The food was so good. I did fall flat on my face walking in.. but what trip isn't complete without me falling on my face right!
After that we went to a White Sox game with Amanda and Chris and met back up with Hayley and Matt and Tim... and Richie... who cracked us up the whole game. The Sox (when you are in Chicago you leave off the "white") lost, but that's ok, it was still very fun.



The next day was wedding day full of wedding stuff (See above).
Sunday before we flew out we drove down to Wrigley Field (can you believe the cubs were in Atl?) We didn't get to go in, but it was amazing to see how small an area that stadium takes up. It looks like it was just dropped from the sky!


All in all it was a very fun trip, but I am so glad to be home. I missed my little girls! Which brings me to the next part of my post.

As promised here is video of Emma swimming in her meet. She came in FIRST in her heat of girls! Although there was another heat behind her with some swimmers who I know were faster. Last week she swam the backstroke in 58 seconds and this week she did it in 44! At practive for her freestyle she continually grabs onto the rope and holds on as she makes her way across the pool. On the way to the meet tonight she asked me if she would be allowed to do that. "Nope! You can't do that in the meet Emma.. it isn't allowed." So.... she didn't! I was so proud of her! She didn't place, but she did her best! Here is the video.. and I'm SORRY in advance... I was trying to film and cheer at the same time. Of course I was holding my camera length ways, which means sideways when you watch it... so i stuck it into MovieMaker to straighten it out... while I was there I added a song ;) You love me.. you know it.
I have no clue why the second video is in black and white.... my camera is nuts.