St. Paddy's B-day the Chi-rish Way

I've been a real slacker lately when it comes to my blog. Three psychology classes, grad school applications, and interviews have caused my blogging to suffer, and I greatly apologize to my 2 faithful followers who have been waiting impatiently for my next post! :) Since my last post, my birthday has come and gone, which was quite uneventful. But, that was ok, because my husband and I were saving up all our celebrating for his St. Patrick's Day birthday, which is two weeks after mine. March 17th in Chicago is much more exciting than March 3rd. I was actually much more excited about Justin's b-day than my own because of all the St. Paddy's Day activities Chicago puts on. Plus, we'll get to celebrate my b-day again this summer when we use my present...U2 at Soldier Field on July 5th!! 

Thought I'd share some of our green clad adventures from March. If you haven't spent a St. Paddy's in Chicago, it's worth a visit at least once! The main festivities started the weekend before St. Paddy's with the dyeing of the Chicago River and the St. Paddy's Day parade. The river is turned a bright green with plumbers vegetable dye that is poured into the river in an orange powder form. When the powder hits the water, it turns green. One boat of plumbers dumps the orange powder in the river and another boat zips around mixing up the dye. People line the river decked out in green and bagpipes play...it's quite the event! A wonderfully unique Chicago tradition!

Justin made it to the parade that afternoon, but I had class. :( Saturday class?? What was I thinking??) I was able to meet Justin after class and see then end of the parade. It definitely wasn't the biggest most extravagant parade I've seen, but the people watching was entertaining! 

more st. paddy's day pics

One of our friends, Jason, came from Colorado for Justin's birthday, so of course we had to show him Chi-rish way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! He missed the parade and river dyeing, but there was still plenty to do. We took him to some bars, Irish of course, showed him awesome views of the city from the top of the Hancock building, took a tour of Wrigley Field, walked around Millennium Park and ate, and ate, ate! 

more wrigley pics

 We had a little teaser of Spring while Jason was here, but it's back in the 30's....ugh! I'm so over the cold weather and actually jealous of everyone complaining of pollen in the Carolinas. (Never thought I'd say that!) It was definitely a good time and we can't wait to have more visitors! 

Happy Birthday to my leprechaun hubby!!

Turkey Day!

Justin and I bundled up Thanksgiving morning and walked down to State St. to see our second parade of the holidays. I'm sure the Chicago parade doesn't compare to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but I still loved seeing the giant inflatable cartoon characters floating along State St....that's about all I could see because of all the people, but it was still lots of fun!

 kiddos watching from their 

warm and cozy hotel rooms

Lucky for me, my husband is a tree and was able to snap some pics. Also, lucky for everyone the wind took a break for this parade so there was no threat of being smothered by Garfield and Friends! Here are some of my favs:

kicking it off Mickey D's style

can't have a turkey day parade without the bird of honor

flash those pearly whites people!

the coolest cat around

heard someone in the crowd say this is bob the builder 

(can you tell I don't have kids?)

best buy elf

underdog to the rescue!

bullwinkle looking very dapper in his tux

scooby dooby doo!

southern belles...or maybe cupcakes??

baton twirlers

crazy hawaiian fire dancers

darth vader??

yabba dabba doo!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the company Justin works for was a sponsor of the parade. We actually had an opportunity to help out with handling the inflatables. At the time we weren't sure of our Thanksgiving plans so we decided not to do it. I'm thinking if the chance comes up again we should definitely volunteer. I'm sure that would have made for a great blog!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Case New Holland, it's a company similar to John Deere. They manufacture agricultural and construction equipment. Hence the ginormous tractor (or whatever it's called) rolling through the middle of Chicago! 

Maybe this parade will be one of our new Chicago traditions! We missed being in the Carolinas with our families for Thanksgiving, but it was also nice to spend it together, just the two of us (plus our 3 furry friends). After freezing at the parade we walked back to our apartment just in time to see the dog show! I have to mention that the black tri Aussie female won the herding group, which Brizz was so excited about! :) 

relaxing with brizz, waiting on the turkey

We spent the afternoon relaxing and cooking and had a nice little Thanksgiving dinner....the first holiday celebration in our new city. Every holiday we share together is special, no matter where we are. Justin and I reminisced about other unique Thanksgivings we have shared:  our first Thanksgiving in France when Justin was studying abroad in college; our Thanksgiving on the Great Barrier Reef with my mom (another study abroad adventure). I think about my brother, who this year celebrated in Italy after finishing a year of duty in Afghanistan. We are so thankful Brett has safely returned and can't wait to see him in NC in a few weeks! We all think about what we are grateful for at Thanksgiving. This year I am amazed as I reflect on everything that has happened in the last year and how different our life is now. We have been so blessed with love and support from our family and friends as we made the tough decision to move to Chicago. We were so fortunate to have made a smooth transition and easily settled into our new home. Even though we may not always be right there with our dear friends and family, they are always with us in our hearts and prayers. 

Happy Thanksgiving!