New favorite thing: Girls' Weekend Out

Chicago!

My girlfriends from highschool and I had been talking for a long time about getting together in Chicago. I'd been dying to see "Wicked" and when my (wonderful, wonderful) mother got tickets for my herself, my sis and I we decided it would be the perfect weekend to get together. We'd done a couple of great trips together as teenagers with our moms (New York City, the Mall of America) and it really felt like old times. It's amazing how we can still hang out, 3 marriages and 5 kids later, after maybe emailing a few times a year and still feel like no time has passed. Except we talk about slightly different things (and are a little less embarrassed about our Moms going into Victoria's Secret -- which they did and totally grossed us out as 16-year-olds).

Me, my cute pregnant sis, lovely Mom

My friends and our great moms

Anyway, "Wicked" was great. Just really really superb. Great music. GREAT cast (the woman playng Glinda was the funniest character I have ever seen). Seriously, go see it if you get a chance.

We then spent Saturday just hanging out, getting manicures and pedicures, eating a ton (seriously a ton -- and this great cafe downtown has the best Beignets -- New Orleans powdered sugar doughnut sugar concoctions -- I have ever had), doing lots or shopping and generally reliving some old good times. It was a blast. A few things I learned about Chicago: you can shop all day (and we did)and literally not leave the same block, they have amazing food pretty much everywhere, and the American Girl store is absolutely insane. Our wonderful hubbys held down the forts, watched kids, and generally spent a ton of time building forts and playing games. Thank goodness for old, great friends. This will definitely need to become a yearly tradition.

And then I came back to real life . . . a bunch of night shifts . . which explains my brief blogging hiatus :)

My sis and I

Laura, Christy and I on the streets in Chicago