Saturday, May 25, 2013

Sweet Home Tucson!

We are back from Chicago and it is good to be home.  The best part for me was going downtown a couple of days.

We got to Chicago on 5/10 and the first place we went to was to eat at Portillos!

5/11, was Debbie Mrazek's wedding.

5/12, we ate breakfast at Faith Baptist for Mother's Day.   After church we went to New Horizon for lunch.  That place has changed a lot and, unfortunately, not for the better.  That evening we went to Olive Garden to celebrate Mother's Day with Paul's family.

5/13, we went to grandma Pat's for a little bit and then we went to Bolingbrook so Nathan could spend some time with his cousins Aaron and Shane.  That evening we met aunt Lisa and Connor at Ledos for dinner and of course went to Red Mango for dessert.

5/14, we went to Lilacia Park in Lombard with my parents.  It was just as beautiful as I remembered.  Beautiful lilacs and tulips.  Afterward, we went to Stir Crazy for lunch.  Yum!  Then we visited the Ganzers.

5/15, we went downtown and visited the Shedd Aquarium.  After the Shedd Aquarium we went up in the Willis Tower.  We stayed in a hotel downtown that night.

5/16, we went to Lincoln Park Zoo.  After the zoo we went over to North Ave Beach and let Nathan put his feet in the lake.  That evening we went to Navy Pier.  We did the ferris wheel, ate dinner at Bubba Gump and we tried to do a boat ride.  It was warm during the day, but got cold once the sun went down so nobody was at Navy Pier that night.  We were the only ones who paid to do the boat ride so we ended up not going.

5/17, we wanted to do the architectural boat ride on the Chicago River.  The one we wanted was already booked, but they had a similiar boat ride that now only toured the Chicago River, but also went on Lake Michigan.  That was Nathan's first boat ride.  After that, we ate lunch at House of Blues.  Unfortunately, my meal made me sick.  We went to aunt Lisa's school after lunch so she could show off Nathan.  Then she took him to All Aboard Restaurant for dinner.  It is a train-themed restaurant and Nathan loved that!

5/18, we stopped by grandma Ariel's to visit with them for awhile.  Then we drove to the Masonic Home in LaGrange.  We did not see the people Paul wanted to see so we decided to go over to Brookfield Zoo.  I went to the zoo and Nathan and Paul went to a local park.  They also went back to the Masonic Home and finally got to talk to some people.

5/19, we went to church.  After church we made a quick stop at Lake Katherine to take some pictures.  Then we went to 94 West to celebrate my grandma's 95th birthday.  We were disappointed.  They were only serving a brunch buffet and I was not thrilled about that.  They were supposed to have ham, but ran out, so there was really no food there that I liked.  They were running out of a lot of other food, too.  We wanted to take her to the 95th floor of the Hancock, but my dad did not want to drive downtown.  We should have went there anyway!

We flew back to Tucson on 5/20.  It was good to be home!

Today I went to the Desert Museum.  I got there as soon as they opened at 7:30 to beat the heat and to see the animals a little more active.  I really wanted to see the new 5 month old mountain lion.  He was shy and was hiding most of the time.  This evening we went to dinner at Hot Rods of Old Vail.  They have an actual hot rod garage attached to the restaurant where they work on the cars.  Nathan loved it!  I can also say now that I have tried a deep fried milky way.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Chicago here we come!

On 4/29, I drove by the building by Creature Comforts and took more pics of their night blooming cacti.  Then I went to DeGrazia Gallery of the Sun because I heard they had some flowers, too.  They had some different species of the night blooming cacti.  They are all just so beautiful.

On 4/30, Nathan and I went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens for the last day of the butterfly exhibit.  That night we went with daddy to a U of A baseball game vs Arizona State.  They lost.

On 5/1, I tried to take Bella to get groomed at PetsMart.  As suspected, it did not go well.  They called me right away and told me that they could not groom her because she was too aggressive with other dogs.

On 5/2, Nathan and I went to Reid Park Zoo and to see the rose garden in Reid Park.

On 5/4, Paul took Nathan to another U of A baseball game while I stayed home and cleaned.  I think they lost again!  What happened to the winners from last year?!

Cinco De Mayo - Bella graduated from dog training!  She did fairly well on her test except her interaction with other dogs.  There were a lot of other dogs there that day and she had several encounters.  She tried to "interact" with about 4 out of 6.  This poor interaction with other dogs is why we started the training in the first place.  The trainer has recommended group training next.  Not sure yet if we will do it.  It was exhausting doing this training.  Group training will be even more intense.  We are thinking she may never get over this problem.

On 5/6, I took Nathan to Build-A-Bear.  Aunt Lisa had given Nathan a gift card at Christmas.  Nathan picked out a dog.  He is strawberry scented, he barks and he has a heart beat.  He named him Harley!

On 5/7, I took Nathan to the Desert Museum.

Today Bella finally got groomed.  We had a mobile grooming service come.  They advised us against the shaving so they just did a bath and brush with the furminator products.  She said if we do this every 6 weeks it should cut down on the shedding about 85%.  We may just do this ourselves then.  This evening I am taking the dogs to the boarder :(  We will see them again when we get back from Chicago!