A day at the Beach....of Lake Michigan

A couple Sundays ago after church we decided to take advantage of our day off and explore the shores of Lake Michigan, which I had never seen before. The night before we'd purchased plenty of snacks and sodas to last us, and I made Egg sandwiches which we loaded into a cooler and packed with us!  We arrived excited to get some sun and ready to play in the waters and on the sand, but were stopped short when we were informed that we had to PAY to use the beach. 8$ a person. RIDICULOUS. However, we weren't about to let this dampen our spirits so we paid the stupid fee and complained about the expenses of Illinois for a little while, set up camp, and ran to the waters. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the glee which was evident on the faces of Weston and Carson. They were definitely in need of a "play day."

Weston wasn't about to let me stand by and watch them in the water..so I had to quickly put my camera away before he pulled me with him to the lake 

After cooling off the brothers got out the baseball mits and gloves, and began to play catch.

Which, of course, turned into "Which-Brother-Can-Throw-The-Ball-The-Farthest." A competition which I am proud to announce that my husband won. Easily :)  Maybe next time, Carson.  

Not a good angle to show how far it was going, but they were easily 90 yds apart. Nice work fellas

I was just happy to sit and enjoy some sun

Following baseball, another dip, and some food, they playing in the sand began!

So excited!!

No sand castles or angels for these boys, though.  All they wanted to do was dig a grave...For me!

Didn't they do such a great job!  Thanks, Guys! :)

It was hard to get out of, let me tell you!

So tired after all the digging

But still as handsome as ever!

I tried to get my name burned onto his chest....but it didn't work :(

Despite the limitations (P.S. we were only allowed to swim in an area set apart by two buoys, approximately 50 yds apart and only 25 yds out into the lake. if you even stepped outside of them, even if your father was there watching over you ankle-deep, you got a whistle blown at you. Super dumb but we made due) we had a great day in the sunshine!

And the Lighthouse was cool too

After the beach we slacklined at a nearby park, and these two had the wonderful idea to drink soda and try to walk at the same time. Balance was impaired. They couldn't do it. But I got a good picture!

Obviously, they had a good time

This boy is TALENTED! And so strong

Carson got in on the fun, too, which made for a cool shot.

Obviously, I'm the worst of the bunch. But I still really enjoy the hobby. I'm hoping to get better at it! :)  

We drove around for a while to check out the rich area where they'd been knocking and see the (sometimes) historic houses there and happened upon this AMAZING cemetery chalk FULL of gravestones like this.  All were HUGE and so elaborate. I was really impressed.  So we took a walk through some of it.

This one had the best detail- such pretty statues. It might be weird that we took pictures by a random person's grave but...oh well! It was cool to see the history of the whole thing. I think the oldest one we found dated back to 1814.  So cool!

All in all it was a great way to spend the afternoon!  Next time we'll wear sunscreen so Weston's back doesn't peel QUITE so bad :)

Chillin out max

Once Weston has left for work in the mornings, I have a lot of spare time on my hands. I usually fill it with cleaning, exercise, dishes, laundry, library, groceries, or other various errands. But a few times a week, especially after a hard work out, I like to head out to our apartment building's pool and take a nice dip and then dry off under the sunshine.  It really is a nice pool in a beautiful area, and I'm lucky to have something like this to help make the time go by quickly before I, too go to work!  Again, we love where we live!

Chicago March

Within the first couple weeks of us being in Chicago we overheard rumors of some riot that was to be taking place in downtown for NATO and Occupy Chicago and some other things...Obviously it wasn't very organized. Regardless, the salesman and our boss, Jared, got together and decided they wanted to check it out..and THEN they decided that they, too, wanted to march. But not for any of those causes.

We took the train into Chicago which was really awesome and I was surprised how exactly it matched the train in the movie Source Code, which is really good by the way you should see it if you haven't. Anyway, it took us about an hour to get in to the city from where we live due to all the stops we made, etc, and I loved watching the great skyscrapers loom closer and closer as we came up to the city.  It really is quite an impressive city.

I don't think I could ever LIVE in a big city, but I did enjoy looking at everything as we walked to the area where the "march" was going to happen- found only by following fellow marchers with signs as well.

Since we didn't want to march for the causes already present, Carson decided we'd march for Boise State...hence the BSU Jersey :)

So many cool sights!

I loved the opera house cement work outside. So cool. made me really want to go see one of the operas :)

This is what Carson's sign said..."Coach Pete 4 President." Love the "tunnel" behind him. 

Sunshine! 

This looked like Wayne tower to me from Batman...wish I could have seen it closer.

The Bean! Courtesy of AT&T, I believe. It lived up to all my expectations. Really quite neat. I liked how they kept it clean, too, so the reflections were really clear.

Zickgrafs at the Bean! Cool shot of the city via the reflection as well

What the inside of the Bean looked like. Reflections all over the place! Try to find me :)

We eventually found the crowd that we'd been looking for..and boy it was CRAZY. So many random people coming together to protest who KNOWS what. Unorganized, dressed like clowns (which is ironic because they really are clowns...bunch of fools most of them) marching along protesting....escorted by police dragged there from pretty much everywhere in the city.  All very interesting to me

The men in black! Making sure the "peaceful protest" remained so. I thought this was really cool. 

the boys and their signs. All of which brought smiles to the faces of all policeman, stand-by's, etc. I'm sure it made some of the protesters mad, but most everyone else there thought we were the greatest. 

This guy was pretty cool. He goes to Notre Dame and even he said BSU should have made it to several Championship Bowl games....Which made Carson, especially, very happy since he was protesting the unfairness of it all. 

I found this interesting- A peace sign in the midst of all these people that were disturbing the peace of the city.  

We were lucky enough to, at one point, get close to a group of the clowns which, at random, would fall to the ground for a demonstration chanting some strange things. I never could quite understand them. but they were fun to watch!

Jared even got an interview with some news channel for his sign.  I'm tellin ya people loved us

Standing in front of "The Barrier" once we left the march. These guys looked awesome. Not something I would do again, but it was an adventure to say the least and I did get to see a lot of the city! Next time we go it will definitely be more "touristy." There's a lot I'd like to see :) We finished the day stopping at a Jamba Juice to wash our hands of the creep that might have rubbed off from others marching, and got a refreshing smoothie to satisfy our hunger/thirst.  

The Beginning of Our Happily Ever After