Our First Guest

My dear friend and college roomie, Kathy Shields came to visit us over Memorial Day weekend. We wore ourselves out, but had a blast doing it.

On Friday, Kathy and I ventured into Chicago on our own. I was nervous taking a guest into a city I barely know myself. But we nonchalantly foraged through the streets and found the key sights we wanted to see without incident. Some of the places we stumbled upon were: Millennium Park, Navy Pier, Michigan Avenue shopping and a delicious gourmet popcorn store. We then stopped by Mark’s office building and the three of us went out for Chicago-style deep-dish pizza at Gino’s East.

On Saturday Mark, Kathy and I all took the train into Chicago for a second day of pounding the streets in the name of tourism. The highlights of the day were viewing the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park and taking the Wendella Boat Tours’ river and lake architecture cruise.

After church on Sunday we walked over to TY Warner Park and checked out the Red, White, and Bar-B-Q festival. Yummy.

It was sad to see Kathy go. I really enjoyed having a friend to hang out with, even if it was for a short time.

Back to School

As if a new state, new house, new church, and new baby weren't enough change for one year, Mark will be going to graduate school in June! He'll be taking part-time classes at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, in the hopes of earning his MBA sometime in 2011.

Mark will continue to work full-time at Qualcomm, so it'll be a bit of a juggling act when the baby arrives in October, but by God's grace, we'll be able to fit it all in. As for sleep, we're not expecting much of it over the next few years!

Zoo Days

Mark and I have been avid zoo visitors as of late. We spent a day in Chicago and walked around the Lincoln Park Zoo. It must have been early in the season because not all of the animals were out yet. It was a good day, but a little disappointing because of the lack of creatures. But we did see some pink flamingos.




















Thankfully we had a second chance. We took a drive down south and visited with my cousins, the Indiana Mitchells. Andy, Amy, Anna and Cora were perfect hosts and showed us around the lovely city of Indianapolis and took us to the zoo.

First we went into the butterfly gardens and learned all about the caterpillar to butterfly lifecycle.



















Then we went into the main zoo and got to see all kinds of big furry animals--the polar bear was by far our favorite.

Young Anna and I bonded over the course of the day and we both agree that "we really love each other" and will be friends forever.