Picnic in Libertyville

Yesterday, Reese and I went to see Jessie at her new house in Libertyville.  It's so nice to have her closer, so we can see them more often!  We took some lunch to Cook Park in downtown Libertyville.  They had food booths set up and a live band playing for a couple of hours!  It was soooo much fun!  There were so many families and little kids running around.  They even had a fire truck for kids to walk through (Reese would NOT go in!)  I hope we can make it back at least once before this Summer is over!  

We had such a nice day - it was beautiful out!  I'm not ready for Summer to end!

P.S. For my family in Neenah (if you are reading this) I will have pics from Grandma & Grandpa's Birthday Party up by the end of this weekend!  I have to filter through all 745 of them!

Baked Kale & Riking

Yes, you read that right!  I went "riking" this weekend and ate baked kale!  Miss Louie (I call her that because she is a teacher and that is what her kids call her and I think it is cute)...came down this weekend to relax and unwind in Pekin!  There isn't much else to do here and I love that everyone always says they love coming down here because we just hang out and don't do much!

So....a nice and relaxing weekend it was!

In case you were wondering about the whole "riking" thing - it is just a blend of running and biking!  Jessie ran and I biked! We did a hilly route (since Jessie can't seem to find hills in downtown Chicago - that's weird!!!)  Jessie rocked it out and it felt good to get back on my bike again!

 

Shaun wins Husband of the year award because while we were gone her cleaned BOTH of our cars - inside and out!!!  Jessie and I were so thankful and I thought that was so sweet of him to of course clean my car - but also Jessie's?!?!?!?  He is quite the catch!!

In action...

We then started to get dinner ready and started with the baked kale for an appetizer.

we dipped it in ketchup.  It was....different :)  Jessie warned me though that most people do not like it.  I really didn't like it!  I had fun trying it though.  I like to try new things!

Dinner was KILLER!!!!!  We had smoked salmon and asparagus with an awesome salad.  check it out:

It was REALLY good.......

Then we watched a few movies...and relaxed :)

Jessie treated us to breakfast the next morning and then she was on her way!

It was so nice to see Jessie and do some catching up.  Even though we didn't do much - we both had a really good weekend!  

Good friends should be that way - you don't have to impress them, you don't have to make extravagant plans.

Jessie - thanks for being such a good friend and for making the 3 hour drive down to come see me.  It makes me feel so happy when people I love drive down to see us and spend time.

It feels like Spring is on its way!!!  We had a couple of windows open the other day, flowers are starting to pop up and it just smells like spring outside!  I love it!

Cheers to warmer weather and longer days!