This summer has been a whirlwind of trips for our family and I'm finally back home from another one. We spent 12 days in Chicago and Holland, Michigan and had a GREAT time! My oldest daughters have been able to do a SERVE project at my brothers church for years now and it's still such an amazing week for them to serve others and be inspired by an incredible lady who has a heart for these kids.
Here are some photos from the trip:
I'm kind a proud of myself for navigating around downtown Chicago! It's a crazy busy city and I think I'm starting to feel comfortable with this town... and my wonderful iPhone map that talks to me! :)
Chicago is a town that has so many different transit systems and it's cool to see the bridges, trains, and double decker streets.
Of course while in Chicago you HAVE to go to a deep dish pizzeria! Lou Malnati's wasn't too far from our hotel so we walked here... on a Friday NIGHT. Bad idea. We waited OVER 2 hours for pizza... and it wasn't worth it. We were so exhausted be the time we got the pizza we didn't even think it tasted good! We've tried about all the deep dish pizza places in Chicago and I think I like Pizzeria Uno or Guiridano's over this one. (Sorry to any Lou fans out there)
Walking back after pizza, we weren't too tired to go inside this GOURMET DONUT STORE open at 10pm! Oh. my. STARS.
They were almost sold out, but I tried one of those heavenly peanut butter cup ones and it was Ah... MAZING!! Rebecca tried one with ICE-CREAM in it!
My mom isn't a city girl and she was just loving all the buildings and lights at night. It was fun to take her here and see it through her eyes.
The next day we went shopping. I'm mean come on... I've got 3 girls! Of course we hit Michigan Avenue and did some damage. But is it just me or are we back in the 80's? I feel like the clothes is what I was looking at some-odd years ago.
Love how Chicago has kept their old buildings and restored them into some really cool stores and hangouts.
Soooooooo wanted to go here for dinner! This is Juliana and Bill Ransics new restaurant and I tried to make a reservation from home a couple weeks ago and it's completely booked for weeks in advance! I hear its REALLY good though and if you're in the area, book a reservation about a month in advance. And let me know how it is! Will definitley plan ahead next time.
Walk by some of our TOP FAV restaurants man... wish I could have ate at ALL of them. But we were excited to get on the road and see our little Ella and Megan!
The girls are growing up SO fast and it's great to spend some time with them each summer. I can't believe Megan already turned 2!
Cute cousins out to lunch after church.
Grandma is in HEAVEN with all her grandbabies together! She has 5 grand GIRLS and it was so great for her to be with all of them at the same time.
Then SERVE week started. It's a long week for the kids who come, but such a great time for them to go out into the community and serve others. They work HARD all day, but get to come back at night and have fun, eat dinner, listen to an AMAZING speaker Jolene DeHeer and just have a great week together. Victoria was one of the leaders this year and it's a blessing to see both of my girls doing this!
But while they work during the week, we get to PLAY...
We went to Saugatuck one day...
Walked around Lake Macatawa by our cottage that we rented.
Played with the girls...
Had lots of cousin time...
Took a drive through the countryside...
Had babysitting time
Rented a tandem bike and biked to the beach...
Had this strange girl wash our car... :)
Went downtown on Thursday in Holland for the Street Performers
Felt like we were in Paris while listening to this stylish young man...
Visited a possible future college for Rebecca...
And had a BLAST with everyone!
My two older girls are now past the age of being in SERVE so we will have to wait until Isabella is in Junior High before she can be in it. But I'm sure we will be back to Michigan before that...
While I was in Michigan it was my turn to blog on the Maya Road DT blog. Since CHA Summer just ended, I thought I would share a project I made for their booth.
We all had to make a clipboard about ourselves for the booth. You can see more pictures and how I made mine over on the Maya Road blog here.
Have a GREAT weekend!
Laura
P.S. Believe it or not, but I'm actually getting ready for ANOTHER TRIP! Like I said, this summer has been a whirlwind... I haven't even had a chance to post all the photos from Italy in June and now I'm headed back again soon. I'll try to re-cap my Italy trip(and Creative Retreat) next week and then share some ideas I have for some journals I've made and one I'm making for this next trip to Italy AND Paris! So excited to go back to Bellagio and organize my husbands Summit Club for 14 people and then after that is over, we head to Paris for a WEEK by ourselves, celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary!
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