Girls Weekend 2010

It was that time of year again.  We Bradley Girls met up for our 4th annual girls weekend!  This year we all headed up to Minnesota to visit Cassie.  We had such a good time all hanging out together.  Now that many of us are in different states stretching from Virginia to Colorado, this is sometimes the only time we can all get together, especially now that most of us are married. 

We had a surprise baby shower for Julie on Friday night.  Then on Saturday we spent time in Stillwater, which is a cute town by the river where we went out to lunch and then to an apple orchard.  The weather was beautiful for October in Minnesota.  I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few from the weekend.

County Line Orchard and Family Time

This last weekend was very busy but fun all the same.  Friday, Shannon, Matt and Ruby came to visit.  Their 3 year anniversary was last week and they went out to dinner Saturday to celebrate and Luke and I kept Ruby.  She is such a good baby and it was fun to play house for a couple hours.

Sunday Luke and I went to County Line Orchard with some friends.  We picked apples and hung out for most of the afternoon.  It was a lot of fun.  I made 2 homemade apple pies with the apples we picked! YUM!

Also big news this weekend.  Luke found out that he passed the Bar Exam!!!  So exciting.  Not that we were that worried but it is still such a big relief to know that he passed!  I am so proud of him.  All that studying and hard work has finally paid off!

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Fall is here!

I really do like fall.  I just don't like knowing that next comes winter because aside from the holidays, I HATE winter!  Oh well.  This weekend as Luke and I were walking Bradley out on the path behind our house I was thinking how I can't wait until all the leaves change color.  Even though we live so close to Chicago you sure wouldn't know it based on these pictures!  I'll post more once the leaves actually change but I couldn't resist posting this one.  It makes me feel like I am back in central IL....if only I had a view of some corn fields too:) 

This past week was also Luke's moms birthday.  Last weekend we met up with her and Anna and Dave to see a movie and go out to dinner.  It was a lot of fun.  I think Jeanne is VERY happy to have both of her kids back in town again after being so far away for the last few years.

Here are some of my recent pictures of our baby Bradley.  He loves his new favorite spot...on top of the couch!

Holiday weekends and such

Not much new going on this week but I thought I would just update anyone just in case I have any dedicated blog followers...which I doubt...but I like to pretend :) 

Luke went to Florida over Labor day weekend to visit his friend Steve from law school.  It was just a guys weekend so I wasn't invited.  Steve's parents live on the beach in Jacksonville so they hung out there on the beach and went kayaking and bike riding.  It sounds like he had a good time!

Meanwhile I went home to see my family while Luke was gone.  Sat night I went to my aunt and uncles house and got to hang out with my cousin Lesley and some of our friends from high school that I haven't seen in too long!  I also got to spend a lot of time with my mom and my grandparents which was nice. 

So far moving back to Chicago has had its benefits especially now that I am able to go home to visit my family more often and be there in just 3 hours instead of 6!  Work is also going really well.  I have adjusted to my new staff and practice and I am staying very busy!  The only down side so far?  The weather is already starting to get cooler which means winter is just around the corner.  For those of you who know me, I HATE WINTER!  Living up here again will take some getting use to! 

Well that's all for now.  Hopefully next time my post will be more interesting!

Centennial Beach in Naperville

Last weekend Luke and I headed to Naperville with Nick and Meredith to go to Centennial Beach.  It is an old rock quarry that they turned into an enormous swimming hole and beach.  It is quite large and deep with multiple diving boards, docks and slides.  It was really a lot of fun.  It was perfect weather and we wanted at least one more weekend at a pool so it didn't feel like summer was quite over yet.  Afterwards we walked to Mongolian BBQ, my favorite stir fry restaurant in downtown Naperville.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Ohhhhhhh.......the DMV....sigh....

Luke and I had the not-so-great pleasure of going to the DMV today to finally get new IL drivers licenses and license plates.  This may seem a little overdue since we moved a few months ago but can you blame us?  It has to be the least favorite thing anyone ever has to do!  I swear people who frequent the DMV must be some of the most ignorant people in the world.

Let me just start by saying that it was actually one of the best DMV experiences I have ever had but that still isn't saying much.  For starters, we left at 7:30 am to get there before it opened so we wouldn't have to wait for too long.  Well, we had semi-wrong directions and managed to go about 10 miles out of the way in rush hour traffic on a Monday morning in Chicago.  It took us over an hour to go what was supposed to be about 15 miles (Of course the closet DMV to our house had to be closed for the entire month of August and the second closet is closed on Mondays!)  Fortunately we got there just shortly after 8:30 and the line wasn't too long.  Next, just because we moved out of Illinois for a few years we had to retake the written test......something I for one have not done since Drivers Ed when I was 15.  Good thing we knew about this in advance before getting there so we could at least review a few things...and don't worry we both passed with flying colors :)  Then after I got my drivers license printed I realized my address was spelled wrong.  The guy at the desk said he couldn't do anything about it and told me I had to go back to the first lady I saw and have her correct it since it was her fault (and not mine).  See, in case you didn't know, when you move into a new state you have to provide 2 pieces of mail with your address on it so you can establish Illinois residency and when I gave her the mail the first time around the address was clearly written on my mail but she still managed to get it wrong.  When I said something about that she actually said "Oh, I guess I should have paid more attention...the reason I spelled Santa Fe (which is the street I live on) like Sante Fe is because that is how the city Santa Fe, New Mexico is spelled".....No stupid...Santa is spelled with an "A" NOT an "E"!  Luckily they let me cut in line and get a new and corrected license printed.  Last but not least, we were hoping to take care of our license plates at the same visit, but of course, they didn't provide that service at that location.  We did get the forms however and it appears we can just mail that part it.  As long as it doesn't mean another trip to the DMV.......I don't think I could take that for another few years at least!

Moral of the story?  Make sure you are prepared and even when you are just remember "what can go wrong WILL go wrong when going to the DMV!

Five Year Anniversary Picutres

Here are a few new pictures of Luke and I that Shannon took a couple weeks ago when we were at home.  They are AWESOME!  Thanks Shannon!  Enjoy!

Our Trip to Wisconsin

This past weekend Luke and I headed to Wisconsin for a short vacation.  His mom and step-dad rented a cabin on the lake for the week and invited us to stay with them.  Luke's sister, Anna, and her boyfriend, Dave, came for a couple days too and so did his Aunt Mia and his cousins.

The weekend started out with us going for a ride on the boat.  Unfortunately we were all so excited to get on the lake that no one checked to make sure the boat had enough gas.  We also didn’t bother to bring our phones or money.  Needless to say, we ended up getting stranded on the lake.  Good thing we had a couple strong young men to help pull the boat to shore so we could ask for help.  The next day when we had plenty of gas we all went back out on the boat and went tubing.  We had a good time!

The last day we were in Wisconsin we went to Dave’s Falls.  We got to go hiking and check out the very small but pretty waterfalls.  We got a few really good pictures from that too.  Overall it was a good weekend, so thanks to Jeanne and John for a great weekend!