Heading to camp and girls weekend

Okay.... one last post before we head out tomorrow. Yes... tomorrow we leave to take Clara to camp... sigh. I'm not sure I'm ready for this but I'm going to do it anyway. She's so excited. Jeff will be flying back here but I will be staying in Missouri until we pick the kids up at camp.

I have so much to blog about but I just ran out of time.... I have photos of dropping Alex off at the bus, I have the postcards the boy has sent us from camp (the boy cracks me up)..... but I'm just not going to be able to get to those.

However, I will leave you with a ton of photos that I took while my friend from high school and her daughter were here for a visit.

They showed up last Thursday. We dropped off their luggage at our house and immediately headed out to Ed Debevic's for lunch...

The wait-staff (aka The Ed Debevic's Stainless Steel Dancers) dancing on the counter.

After lunch we walked to Michigan Avenue and found ourselves in the Apple Store...
Above, G and Clara play games while my friend and I shop.

We wandered on up Michigan Avenue and ended up at the American Girl Store and Water Tower Place.

After all of that shopping, we needed a little snack :-)
mmmm..... the Cheesecake Factory!!!

Since we were there at the Hancock and it was a beautiful clear day, we decided to go to the top!

Here's Navy Pier....
And our shadow....
The view to the south...
North Avenue Beach...
Lincoln Park....
Clara enjoying the view....
G and Clara cleaning the windows of the Hancock :-)
From there we went back down south to the Art Institute. We hit some of the highlights since it was getting late and walked through the new Modern Wing.

We took the new bridge from the Modern Wing to Millennium Park...
And ended up at "the bean"...
Clara and "the bean"....
G and Clara...
Me and Clara reflected in the bean....
Next we were off to the fountains....

It was way too cold to be in the water, but Clara was in the water anyway....

After that, we finally went home.

The next day Clara had violin so my friend and her daughter headed out toward Michigan Avenue alone.

We met up with them later and took a few photos by the Michigan Avenue bridge...
Above - The Wrigley Building

Saturday was a day of shopping in one of the neighborhoods instead of the touristy areas. I don't think I took any photos that day.

Sunday we did the Run for the Zoo at the Lincoln Park Zoo (although Jeff was the only who actually ran)... I have photos of that.... but they're on my point and shoot and I have no clue where that camera even is at the moment. Oh... Jeff took the girls to the beach that afternoon and those photos are on that camera too. That night we went to see the Blue Man Group. So much fun!

It was a really good visit!! And it helped keep Clara and I occupied so we didn't get too sad about missing Alex.

Okay.... I've got to run! I'll be back in a couple of weeks with more photos!!!