Eloise

The day after school was out we drove to Atlanta.  On Friday we left for a wedding and week in Chicago.  The wedding was perfect-beautiful bride, handsome groom, great food, picture perfect setting.  The only problem was that I did not take my camera so all I have are iPhone photos.  How do some people get such great iPhone photos????

Bagpiper was a nice touch

 Fireworks during the reception

 Groom (on the left) and friends

 I shoe shopped while K went to camp at the Art Institute of Chicago

K walking back to the hotel from camp-hopefully those braces will be off in 6 months so she will start smiling again

 More shoe shopping-this photo makes my thigh look huge

 Dinner in Chicago with BFF

 Lounging by the pool while K was at camp

 This baby isn't a baby any more!

M's birthday-glad we were in town to help celebrate

 The view from the gym at our hotel

 Lions in front of out hotel wearing Blackhawk jerseys

 Loved the doormen

 View from the other window in the hotel gym-Neiman's and Saks calling my name

K declared that she thought she could live in our hotel if we had a penthouse suite.  I think we both have a little bit of Eloise in us.

From Skating to Shooting

I am so happy that summer is almost here-school is out tomorrow.  We took a quick trip to Sun Valley for Memorial Day weekend.

We stopped in Salt Lake and had dinner with these fun people!

It was really chilly in Sun Valley!

K skating with cousins.

But the girls favorite activity was shooting.  They loved it!  My cousin and I were a little creeped out with how much they loved it!

The guy who taught them to shoot was so sweet.  

Look how happy they look.

Early one morning-it was in the 30's.

The place we stayed was so pretty.

We stopped at Craters of the Moon-it is a 600 mile lava field.  It reminded me of the Big Island of HI except that the fields were formed by fissure eruptions instead of a volcano. 

Must Be Texas

The temperatures were in the 90's. Our weekend included a visit to the new George Bush Library at SMU, horseback riding and a bbq.

Loved the oval office.  You can sit at the desk and have your photo taken.

The 9-11 memorial was so moving.  The two pieces of steel are from the twin towers and the victims names are on the surrounding wall.  I loved listening to Bush's speech after 9-11-it was so inspirational and so calming.  

The library contains gifts that were given to the Bush family when they were in the White House.  This a gift from Kazakhstan.  A jewel encrusted horse drawn yurt.

Earlier in the weekend riding horses.

And only in Texas, a bbq smoker shaped like a gun!

Food Trucks and Bats

K and I took a weekend trip to Austin for Mother's Day.  We had dinner with one my cousin's children who is going to UT but I did not get any pictures that night because it was raining so hard and we were all dripping wet during dinner.  We got up the next morning to a beautiful day and headed out to one of Austin's many food trucks.  I had the Flying Pig, a maple glazed bacon donut-I was only able to eat a few bites.  It was really good but way too big!  We continued our day with a trip to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  I loved the native plants and the design of the gardens.  The architecture was very interesting-textured sandstone and galvanized metal which were used by the German farmers who settled central Texas.    The Wildflower Center also had a garden tour going on so we got to tour the gardens of 5 homes.  We enjoyed seeing the use of native plants and how resourceful the garden owners are in creating unique spaces.
We stopped at the flagship Whole Foods store.  It was both amazing and overwhelming!  We wrapped up the day with drinks at the Four Seasons so we could watch the bats.  Over a million bats come out from under a bridge at sunset.  I was glad we could safely watch the show from inside.  I had not expected the many patterns the bats would make while they flew away for the night.  It was quite the show.

Happy Spring!

K didn't have school on Good Friday so we took the opportunity to have tea at the Botanical Garden.  The tulips were spectacular.  It was hard to choose among the many pictures that I took.  It is hard to believe that this is just a small sample of the many varieties of tulips.  

Love the mix of daffodils and tulips

Spectacular!