take me out to the ball game

after living in chicago for over a year we finally made it out to our first cubs game. we used to live just blocks from the stadium. we could hear the cheers from our little patio. so when we finally move a little north we decide to go to a game...go figure!  i can't believe it took us so long to get to a game!

we met up with our good friends gabby and jordan to enjoy the game. lets be honest...i watched probably about 10 mins of the game. it was more fun to just chat and catch up with gabby. i think the boys enjoyed themselves though...haha!

i did love our $7 seats, the guys walking around shouting "peanuts...get your peanuts", and just walking around looking at everybody. it was a great night. 

maybe next summer we'll go again...and this time pay attention ;-)

 (gotta love selfies where we try and get all 4 of us in, with crappy lighting, and even crappier camera....i'm too lazy to bring the good one anywhere with us anymore)

so even though the mr is way crazy busy with school, he still takes time to take me out and enjoy our little city. we're slowly but surely making it through our "chicago to-do list". good thing we have at least 3 more years here.

da bears

going to a bears game has been on our chicago "to-do" list since the day we moved in. i tried to get us tickets last year but found out that nfl games aren't as cheap as one would expect. we had to live with seeing the stadium from the freeway as we drove past.

a couple of weeks before the game i decided to check tickets one more time for this year. we were able to snatch up some cheap tickets for the last pre-season game. if wasn't as exciting as a season game but still...it was a bears game.

we got dan and nicole to join us and the four of us spent a time repeating "da bears" lines from the snl skit and learning the bears flight song (seriously...they have one). it may even include the line "bear down". our personal favorite. 

solider field is HUGE. and it is one of the smallest nfl fields in the league. i couldn't get over how many people were there. 

love dan's excited face. gotta love four people selfies

i love adventuring with this dude. nfl games or not he is my favorite person to hang out with. 

even though the nfl made us walk a few miles away to put my tiny purse in a little locker we still had a blast. maybe next year we'll talk the parents into coming to town during bears season and splurging on the real tickets! ....one can wish right!

date night in the city

my mr. took this picture on a recent date night. after we filled our faces with the most wonderful tacos we wandered the nearby neighborhood. we once considered living in this neighborhood. as we walked around i was reminded how much i love our neighborhood. our life would have been completely different if we had lived in this new place. not bad, just different. 

we found a cute little used book shop. we popped in and enjoyed looking at the travel section and the history aisle. i especially loved the section on jerusalem. spence pulled out the camera and snapped this picture. right after a worker came up and got mad at us. apparently photo's aren't allowed in this used book shop (what???). we ran out of there like we were teenagers just caught making out in the back. 

the rest of the night we walked hand in hand. jumping in and out of stores. visiting where "we could have lived". this new place was fun, exciting and very lively for a friday night. we loved the tacos and fun shops. but it wasn't home. 

we got back to the car and drove to our neighborhood. with the quiet tree lined streets. single family houses with beautiful porches and hydrangeas. it is not as happening but it's home. it's safe. and we love it.  

a little date night on the pier

saturday the mr. spent the day studying. by that evening i was ready for a break (and so was he). so we headed out to navy pier. i love navy pier. i know it's super touristy but there is just something about a carnival on the water that gets me every time. i think i'm just a sucker for the lights and the rides.

on our way spend admitted to not ever really riding a ferris wheel before. i was floored. i have the best memories of riding the ferris wheel at lagoon with my family right before closing. it was a tradition of ours. we quickly got our tickets and jumped in line. as luck would have it that night a man was attempting to break a world record of riding in a ferris wheel for over 30 hours. (who would want to do this i have no idea) but it was fun for us. we cheered each time he went around. a little later that night he finally broke the record. it was awesome! we screamed because of course we were so excited for him ;-) and enjoyed the early fireworks from the carousal.

anyway the mr. of course loved the ferris wheel. i think it's safe to say we will be back. after that we hit up the swings. i remember loving the swings as a kid. i told spence (who again had never been on the swings....my poor deprived husband) that they were easy and he wouldn't get sick. after about the 3rd go around i started getting sick. ha. i guess thats what happens when you grow up. spence did fine on the other hand. karma i tell ya.

we finished the night hand in hand on the carousal watching the fireworks. it was a simple night but we loved it. i wanted to get one last "chicago" thing in before we headed out for a few weeks this summer. i have sure grown to love this city. and the cute boy next to me sure helps!

a chicago state of mind

{picture via yellowbrickprints}

lately i've been having a major love affair with this city we call home. maybe its the fact that the sun has decided to join us or the idea of spring break coming up so i'll have more time with my mr.  either way it's got me in a "chicago" state of mind. i want to explore all the great neighborhoods, see all the fun sights, and eat all the awesome food. though, we are in no way foodies. i hate to say it but we're not. maybe we should work on this?

anyway, we've been here for 8 months already but i feel like we haven't seen anything. ahh there is just so much to do. so tonight we're going to go out. date night. on the town. just my mr and i. to celebrate the beginning of spring break. and to fall more in love with our city. 

i have a few ideas up my sleeves. too bad it's still chilly here or else we'd be outside all night. i'm thinking dinner at a new place off of our "to eats" list and some exploring, maybe a art gallery or window shopping. 

anybody ever been to chicago before? if so tell me your favorite things to do, see, or eat. we need advice people...like bad. we may call it home but we're still very much learning. working and med school haven't left us with much exploring time. now that things are warming up...that is going to change. 

play tourist // weekend update part 2

so we live in a very big, very beautiful and very touristy city. we've been here for about 9 months now and i feel like we haven't seen anything (i know thats not true but there is a LOT to see). 

so we decided we are going to do small weekly touristy things in this here city of ours. first stop was the chicago tribune building. we had seen this before but wanted to go and really explore. and of course i made spence take some pictures so we acted even more like tourists. 

we had a blast walking around the building and checking out all the places they had pieces from. of course we loved the piece from the slc temple. love little bits of home in chicago. it was so nice to just have some time, the two of us, and simply explore, walk and chat! 

 as you can see spence was super duper excited to take pictures! ha sorry hun...not sorry!

 loved this one from david's tower in jerusalem. brought back great memories from jeru

 and a course my name sake (well not really but i can pretend). love seeing my name on things!

we were just talking about how they dye the chicago river green for st. patties day when we walked past and spence said "man it already looks green". oh gross it does! so we of course had to take a picture.

it was so fun just exploring the mr. and i. we have big plans for this week! we'll see how it goes.

a little piece of utah in chicago // weekend update

friday night the mr. and i had ourselves a little date night to the jazz game.
yep....you heard me. the jazz game

we have been so excited to see our jazz play the bulls. the mr. has sure missed watching his jazz play so we were even more excited to go in person.

at first i was a little nervous about wearing my jazz jersey. when we got on the bus i heard "oh man, a jazz fan...i can see the jersey". haha i thought we were in for it. i even kept my coat zipped up all the way when i went to the restroom (seriously?)

it actually wasn't that bad being jazz fans. when we got to our seats (which were amazing by the way, thanks mom and dad b.) we were treated just fine by all the bulls fans around us. i would even say they were really nice in saying they were impressed with our team. maybe they said that just because they barely won.

anyway. we had ourselves a great night out. we took a bus half way home which was more like a free taxi  because it was just us on the bus and the driver went straight to our stop and then we were stopped by a friend before we got on the el for a ride the rest of the way. how crazy is that!

going to the jazz game made utah feel a little closer. even though we can't be in utah a bit of utah can come to us!

date night date night // so excited

so the mr. had a test on monday

meaning....our past couple of weeks have been LAME

studying took over his life

so this week i changed that. i planned activities for us for every night. i didn't realize i had planned so much. it just kinda happened.

monday- relax at home and first day of insanity

tuesday - anniversary celebration (more on this later)

wednesday - plans got changed so we could help a sister in our ward but thats okay!

thursday - art institute and dinner 

friday - temple date night

saturday - med school activity (holla)

last night we bundled up (because oh my gosh is it freezing here at night) and headed down to the art institute of chicago. it was free night as well as late night. who doesn't love free date nights?

we didn't have too much time but we had a blast walking around. we found ourselves really loving the impressionist area as well as the architecture and design wing. i could have stayed there much longer. there was this lady giving a tour and turns out she is a big name architect and designer. we jumped on the last leg of her tour. so awesome! 

my favorite piece. i wanted to take it home. spence did not understand why i liked it. haha i guess we do disagree on some things.

 free candy as an art piece? i'll take it!

after the ai we headed to ed debevics for a free dinner (thank you groupon again for your free meals). it was a bit of a walk and a bit of an experience to say the least.

our waiter made fun of me a few times. danced on the tables and accused our neighbors of stealing. hilarious to say the least.

someone's too cool for school...sheesh!

we had a great night. i loved being able to just wander around the museum hand in hand with my husband. we loved looking at all the displays and art and even more excited when we realized we didn't have to rush...we can go back as much as we want. love being a "resident" and getting all the free perks.

it was nice to be downtown. see all the cool buildings at night and really take advantage of the city we're living it. it was a nice treat for me to get out of the house a bit.

love our date nights! so glad spence has had a lighter week....boo med school.

brining in the holiday cheer // christmas in chicago

we bought the holiday cheer this weekend big time

friday night we hung out with dan and nicole and explored some uptown neighborhoods 

it was christmas time in the city

and i loved every min. of it

first stop was our favorite bakery

they had a choir caroling and were offering free goods 

i think i ate my weight in their amazing butter rolls

second stop was andersonville

which is quickly becoming my favorite part of the city

we ran in and out of stores

exploring and finding new fun ways to keep ourselves entertained

we even spotted santa!!!

dan couldn't contain his excitement about the woolly mammoth 

a dream of a store we pass every sunday on our way to church

nicole and i were too freaked out to go inside

so we hung out outside with this champ and let the boys do the exploring!

 we spent the rest of the night at....drum roll please

an ice cream shoppe

yep, we found our first legit ice cream place in chicago

it was a big night for the b. family

we LOVE us some ice cream and finding a good place for it was a big score

check out their hot coco list

man we were in heaven

 we had a great night with great friends

how fun it is to just hang out and explore some new areas

there is always something going on in this city

especially at christmas time

i couldn't be happier

saturday we spent the day cleaning

and i mean a good deep clean

that our poor little house badly needed

we finished off the day with christmas vacation

thanks dan and nicole for showing spence what he has been missing

(seriously my husband had never seen it...is that possible?)

how was your weekend?

playing catch up: nyc day 1

because my blog is basically our family journal i wanted to continue to post about our trip back east in may. (wow am i behind or what). after boston we all headed up to nyc. i am seriously so in love with new york. i have dreams of living there one day. my hope was to convince the mr. that he has the same dreams. sadly that didn't happen. he liked the city but didn't fall in love...oh well! we always have next time :-)

after dinner one of our first nights we found the shake shack. the line was a couple of hours long so we decided to wait...

so we ended up at serendipity. which so happened to be 1 block from where we were staying. so perfect. we ended up getting food and dessert and stayed their till about 1am. the funny thing is that we got tired before our parents. man they are such party animals. who knew?

our first morning spence and i did some central park exploring. it was hot hot hot but we still had fun. i think i changed about 5 times each day. tmi maybe?

just hanging out at rockefeller center.

of course we had to go to the intrepid. my mr. loves airplanes and big boats. this was his dream come true. i thought it was pretty cool seeing all the history.

i am a huge musical geek.  seriously though i would have seen two a day and still not be satisfied. we got tickets to memphis. i didn't know much about the show but best friend meh recommended it.

okay so seriously.....one of the best musicals i have ever seen. the music was incredible. the story line even better. the performers were fantastic. too bad it was the first musical we saw because nothing else could compare. after the show the great jazz band stayed and played music for a bit. thanks dad barfuss for breaking the rules and getting a sweet picture of us with the stage (also thanks papa heaton for the incredible seats).

my cute parents. oh boy do i love them!

spencers parentals. boy do i love them as well!

and us!

our first day was a whirlwind but so much fun. there is seriously so much to see and do in nyc. we only had 4 days! ahh.

day 2 in nyc coming up!