A Fun Fourth of July Weekend

Stephen and I were stoked to be spending the 4th of July Chicago.  With all the back and forth traveling we've been doing to Louisville, Tennessee and Pittsburgh, we were excited to just hang low and spend time in this city that we love!

We started the weekend by sleeping in and then heading off to the Farmers Market in Lincoln Park (Green City Market).  There's Stephen showing his excitement at waking up to go to the market and to purchase some potted basil and oregano :-D. The rest of the day was spent running errands and just enjoying a lack of schedule (that never happens to us!).  On Saturday night we headed over to our good friend's apartment to enjoy a scrumptious dinner and to enjoy The Kings Speech.  Stephen rarely stays awake while watching movies, and thankfully to a bet that our friend made, Stephen was able to stay awake for the whole movie - he scored himself a big pasta dinner as a result :).

We had our usual day on Sunday: going to church, spending the afternoon getting some stuff done and then small group on Sunday night.  This past week I was in charge of making the main dish for my small group.  I decided that in honor of the 4th, I was going to make us some ribs!  Let me tell you, these were super duper easy and super duper gooooooood!  I'll share the recipe with you when I get my friend Amanda to resend it to me because I lost my card behind our cabinets...darn it!

On Monday, Stephen and I got out and enjoyed the beautiful weather!  It was an absolutely PERFECT Chicago summer day!  We started our time together by going for a walk to the lake...

 Sooo pretty!

 Trying to avoid the dreaded farmers tan...

A great map to help you get out there and explore!

Look at all those people on the beach!

After our walk, we geared up to head to a picnic with our good friends and some of their friends.  I was in charge of dessert so I made mini fruit pizzas (aka: sugar cookies with all the toppings for patriotic fruit pizza)

I love me some fruit pizza!

And then off we went to Northerly Island - a little peninsula at the southern tip of Chicago's lake front.  It's a beautiful area (close to all the museums) and so as a result, I got a million pictures...

 Downtown in Grant Park

 Looking on the city from the south

 Field Museum                                           Soldier Field

 Drew and Stephen - friends fo'life!

 Don't mess with us.

 Just kidding! (liking that Team Libby shirt, aren't you???)

 Shea and Drew make cute babies....

 OMI!

 Stephen and Omi: friends fo'life part dos

 All the ladies :)

 Northerly Island

So pretty and perfect!

Great friends with a great city in the background

Stephen and I decided that on our way back to our apartment, we would be touristy and walk around downtown and snap some pictures.  Unfortunately for you, you've fallen victim to those pictures right here....

 Planetarium                                 Oceanarium/Aquarium

 Did you know that the source to the Buckingham fountain was me???

 Stephen swimming in the fountain (or right outside of it) :)

We ended our wonderful day with a wonderful dinner...the only all-American dinner we could think of: burgers and fries and a brand-spankin' new coke machine that is amazing...

 Have you seen these machines before???  They're like computers and you can add different flavors to whatever choice drink you choose...like I had a Strawberry Sprite Zero...incredible!

Our last stop was to a friend's apartment to enjoy their rooftop deck in honor of what every American was doing on the same night...watching fireworks.  The cool thing about being in the city was that when we got up to the deck, everywhere we looked we could see fireworks being set off.  I think we saw maybe 20-30 different displays of fireworks.  What a site!  What about you?  What did you do to celebrate our Nation's independence?