An Independence Day Retrospective

I'm going to claim it took me this whole week to digest all that we did in Chicago over the 4th of July. It certainly was a jam-packed weekend of fun.

Not quite a scene from "On the Town," Owen's downtown romance with the pretty girl dressed in the lemon colored frock was fully sanctioned by both sets of parents, as we delighted in meeting our long-time friends Jake and Laura for the weekend, along with their daughter Annabelle.

My parents played host to all seven of us, joining us for our planned trip downtown ... and patiently enduring a day of cabin-fever activity planning when the 4th itself arrived both cold and wet.

Our big Friday outing was a trip downtown for lunch at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill. Jake and Laura are long-time devotees to Rick's Mexican cookbook. They even gave me my copy ... to which I gratefully returned the favor by giving them the book Rick wrote about cooking with his daughter, "Rick and Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures."


The train trip downtown was an adventure for everyone ...

... as was the lunch itself.

And it turned out Lanie Bayless herself was our server.

We then walked down to explore Millennium Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we all enjoyed our first look at the Pritzker Pavilion and the glorious "Bean" sculpture.

Maya was energized by walking on one of the walls ...



... just as Owen was feeling the hang-dog exhaustion of a four-year-old who has walked too much, missed his nap, and was desperately thirsty.

Independence Day Saturday, as I mentioned, was cold and wet. Jake and I spent some time rehearsing the duet we would sing at Dad's church on Sunday, and then we all made ice cream, as is Jake's family's tradition on the 4th.

The kids were exhausted and it was too drizzly for an official fireworks show. But we tried our best with sparklers. Although, as you can see, Owen was less than impressed with my dizzying light show.

Not wanting to let him down, we took him out later in the night into a park where we could see some of the fancy "neighborhood" displays around Mom and Dad's.

All in all, had a wonderful time.

And Owen's got his eyes open for when he'll see Annabelle again ...