Saturday, February 28, 2009

Pasta, A Bean, and Some Ice

Chicagoland

Wednesday, Feb. 25th
Ate dinner with Kim & Sam. Amazing food (pasta!), excellent (real and deep) conversation, and a thoughtful husband who sent Kim and I on a walk while he cooked dinner (aw! You're the best, Sam!).

Thursday, Feb. 26th
Had dinner with Georgia, the woman I student taught with in '02, and her family. I got to meet her two boys and see her husband again. So fun to catch up!

Friday, Feb. 27th
Colleen and I went down to the city and enjoyed a few hours in the Chicago Art Institute. The highlight was probably analyzing the painting "The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise" by Benjamin West. I said that I saw a horse and a lion in the corner, but C. didn't really see it at first. I started pointing at it and then set off the alarm because I got too close. Then she pointed at it and set it off. This was all after C. had set off the alarm at another painting in the same room. ...it's a wonder we didn't get kicked out.

After the Art Institute we walked over (through flurries of snow!) to The Bean and laughed a lot while we took pictures. Here's a few:
















Saturday, Feb. 28th

This sweet family (minus the littlest who was napping) has grown since I saw them last!! Brian and Christina Hagedorn are friends from college who now live in WI with their three little ones. Olivia (to my left) and I have the same strawberry blond hair :) and Gabriel (between his mommy and daddy) has the cutest freckles you've ever seen.


I had a lot of fun being around these kids, especially since I miss the ones I usually see every day at the Richter house. Olivia showed me all her princess dresses and told me that if she didn't have to take a nap, she would be the princess and I would be the queen. Gabriel showed me his super cool room with his race car bed and all his books on tape. After an amazing lunch, I spectated as Brian and Gabriel had a sword fight, then Brian and I played a ping-pong game of sorts with 1-yr-old Anna as she toddled from him to me then back again. It was good to be with this beautiful, joyful family who clearly love each other and the friends who pass through their front door.


While I was in WI, I figured I should hop over to Milwaukee to find my friend Andrew. He and I used to be on staff with Urban Impact, but now he lives up in the cold country. Ice skating seemed a fitting way to spend some time together, so here we are, attempting a picture to show that we hung out on the ice (can you see the ice?! How about the skater in the background?!). Surprisingly, I did not fall on my butt, and neither did Andrew, though he did have a close call and a good recovery that got the applause of some middle school girls. :)

(And that's it. I realized that I used a lot of parentheses in this blog, which can be attributed to the late hour at which I create this entry. To bed now...)

No comments:

Post a Comment