Lincoln Park Zoo and the baby zebra

We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo this weekend! Mr. F and I got brunch in Lincoln Park and then walked through the zoo to see the baby zebra! The little boy was born this summer on August 23rd.Source: chicagoist.com via Emily on Pinterest

The colt's name is Kito, which is Swahili for "jewel". The mama zebra's name is Adia and the dad zebra's name is Clayton.We had so much fun watching it run around the pen.Kito was so cute with brown and white stripes. He even had a fuzzy mohawk along his spine!Kito reminded me of our baby horse, Zoe, so gangly and uncoordinated. He was all legs.When we walked by the warthogs, Mr. F proudly annouced this was a poop colored Pumba. The child next to him, instantly, goes, "Daddy, daddy, it's a poop Pumba." Now he knows that children repeat everything you say, whether you mean it our not!Surprisingly, Sunday was warm at nearly 70 degrees! 

It was super blustery too.

Shockingly, it dropped 30 degrees by Monday morning and even snowed lightly. Fortunately, the weather is warming up again and should be sunny and about 50 degrees for Katy's wedding this weekend!

Mr. F's parents came to visit in Chicago last weekend

Mr. F's parents came to visit us last weekend!We walked from River North to the Art Institute of Chicago last Saturday. Of course, we took pictures with the Bean when we walked by it!Mom-o wanted to see the Chagall windows. They were a brilliant blue!We also went through many Impressionist galleries. We saw "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte",  Renoir's "Acrobats",

 trapeze artists and ballerinas,

 and horses at Longchamp.I was surprised how many paintings that I actually recognized!

We had a lot of fun with Mr. F's parents last weekend and we'll see them again soon, for Thanksgiving in St. Louis. 

A Miami weekend!

Last weekend, I went to Miami to celebrate Katy's bachelorette party. It was 40 degrees warmer than was in Chicago.  It's a high of 47 degrees today and there's a windchill that makes it feel like the upper 30s. Katy's getting married in two weeks, on November 17th! We all arrived by Friday night, flying in from Boston, Chicago, and Baltimore. We stayed in a cute boutique hotel in Surfside, outside of Miami.It had a little kitchen that we made all our meals in. Saturday night, we had a mardi gras theme dinner and costumes! We ate King's Cake and dressed in green, yellow or purple with lots of mardi gras beads!  We went into Miami to a hip-hop dance club, called Buck 15. We heard awesome 80s and 90s music, including the Ghostbusters theme song, but the best part was our celebrity sighting! Shaquille O' Neal came to the club while were there! Katy gave him beads and I gave his girl friend some beads too. My beads, however, were incredibly tangled and when I tried to give a few to Shaq's friend, they all clumped together. So, Shaq, his girl friend and I spent 5 minutes untangling them together!!! When he finally separated them all, Shaq put them back over my head! I couldn't believe how nice he was, to help me with them all. I was going to give them all to him! 

We didn't get photos with him, but you can see his silhouette in the background here. 

With the exception of Heather, who caught a 6am flight, we woke up leisurely on Sunday to check out of our cute hotel. Fan and I got Serendipity frozen yogurt and saw Dexter's house on the way to the airport!It was a wonderful warm weekend but I'm really looking forward to Katy's wedding. I helped her with place cards this weekend and went with her to pick up her wedding dress!  I just picked up my eggplant Amsale bridesmaid dress and I'm so excited to dance in it! Source: amsale.com via Emily on Pinterest

Miami pictures coming soon!

I'm hoping to post pictures from Miami soon. I've been super busy this last month with applying for jobs, bridal showers, working long hours, and a quick weekend trip to Florida!! I announced to my work that I will be leaving and it feels so good. We will be moving back to Seattle at the beginning of the year! I love Chicago, but it will be nice to be closer to family again!

My cousin, Katy's bridal shower

We drove from Chicago, to Wilmette, on a sunny Saturday afternoon to celebrate Katy's bridal shower.To add to this perfect fall day.......the leaves were changing and the mums were in full bloom! The Mother of the Groom's friends, the Mauies were the hostesses of this lovely party. They greeted us with cute cupcakes with Ks and Rs and St. Louis bacon.  (This is sugar glazed bacon, which is amazing!)

 The mother of the bride, the bride to be and the mother of groom had a few minutes for pictures before the rest of the guests arrived. Katy's nephew, baby Henry was a cute addition too.

 We had a delicious lunch of cheese souffle, fruit, sausages, cinnamon rolls and great company. After lunch, we had a fun question and answer video with the groom that I filmed and edited! (Please excuse some of the background noise. This was my first iMovie!)

Baby Henry tried to help with unwrapping the presents. I gave Katy fine china tea cups and saucers from her Bloomingdale's gift registry. Liz, Katy's family friend, made her a gorgeous fall table runner. Katy got a onion soup family recipe from her soon-to-be mother-in-law and a pot to cook the recipe in!

The groom arrived when the last of the presents were being unwrapped.  Baby Henry loves his Uncle Rob!

 I love making rehearsal bouquets out of the ribbons and wrapping paper, just look how this one turned out!

On our drive home from Wilmette, we stopped at Plaza del Lago to look at a few china patterns, picked up fresh pasta, and took pictures in front of the Bahai Temple!

[I had to look it up "Bahá'í literature directs that a House of Worship should be built in each city and town, and emphasizes that its doors must be open to all regardless of religion, or any other distinction. The Bahá'í laws emphasize that the spirit of the House of Worship must be a gathering place where people of all religions may worship God without denominational restrictions."]