Fourth of July

It's been a busy few days around here.

My parents were here for the weekend, so it was a pretty full household. It was an enjoyable visit though.

Friday was spent lounging and relaxing.

Saturday started out with coffee and Beignets. If you ever get the opportunity to have a Beignet, go for it. They are amazing...or at least the mix my mom had that was from a Beignet shop in New Orleans was. They are basically just fried donuts smothered in powdered sugar. I didn't think to get a picture before we attacked the plate of them, but I did manage to get one before the last one was inhaled. Seriously, delicious. (Just don't ask how many calories they have.)

After breakfast, my parents, Hunter and I went to Oak Park, IL, where Frank Lloyd Wright designed some houses from about 1890-1910ish. It rained the whole time, but it wasn't unbearable. And as you can see in the picture, Hunter stayed dry. :) While walking the neighborhood and looking at the houses, I took lots of pictures of different aspects of the houses and neighborhood. I found a blog called Friday "My Town" Shoot Out *thanks to Ellisa, again!* Every week, they post an "assignment" to take pictures. The assignment is a category (for lack of a better word) and you snap pictures that you feel fit in that category, and then post them every Friday. So, starting this friday, I will be posting pictures for the Shoot Out. Hope you enjoy them! I'm very excited about it, and I haven't even been a part of it for a full week yet!

Anyway, after Oak Park, we BBQed a wonderful dinner! I felt like it was Thanksgiving with all the food we had. We made Wehrman Turkey Burgers (except with beef), corn on the cob (what's 4th of July without it?), potato fries (I will post a recipe soon), and baked beans. I guess it really doesn't seem like that much when I type it out, but we had mass quatities of everything, so maybe that made it seem like more. We had 16 ears of corn and 3 pounds of meat...it was a lot of food! Then for dessert, we opted for more Beignets. :) YES, THEY'RE THAT DELICIOUS!

Our little city of Streamwood has their own fireworks, and they display them only a mile from our house, so we walked there to watch those. They were pretty good, especially for the size city we are. Even Hunter enjoyed them, just relaxing in daddy's lap the whole time. During the fireworks, I got a childlike feeling of what the 4th of July is about. Shooting of fireworks, to me, has always been a celebration of our freedom we have in this country. Having been a military wife and knowing first hand how much our freedom costs, I still get choked up when I think about how blessed we are to have the freedom we do. We are a very blessed country, and I'm thankful that I live here. I was reminded of that during the display last night.

Even though Sunday is supposed to be my long-run day, I woke up with bothered ankles this morning. So, I decided to blow off my 9 mile run, and instead cashed in my Mother's Day gift and had a day at the spa. It was absolutely wonderful and so relaxing. The massage was really good for me too, especially from all the running I've been doing. The rest of the day was spent in the same relaxation manner...I didn't even cook dinner! (Thank you, Pizza Hut!)

Tomorrow starts another work week...but Greg and I are definitely counting down until we move. I can't believe we have less than a month left! 4 more full weeks left, and we'll be on to another chapter...