Austin in Chicago!

I returned to Chicago after my whirlwind trip to Louisiana and brought my nephew, Austin, back with me.  He moved in for 2 weeks and it was ridiculous amounts of fun!  We explored Chicago, watched somewhere around 14 million movies, consumed a gazillion drinks from Starbucks, shopped, laughed, competed in GLEE Wii, and much much much more.  He is a great guy and handsome to boot!

Here's Austin's trip in pictures.

His first ride on the train.  He looks like he belongs in the city! :)

 We spent ALL day at Shedd Aquarium.

We celebrated the 4th of July by consuming this deliciousness!

We got our culture on at The Art Institute.

We took the obligatory picture at "The Bean".

We walked down Michigan Avenue and stopped at the River for another obligatory picture.

We drank Cherry Berry Chillers because they are awesome and we are awesome.

We went shopping with Austin's birthday money. Thank you, Dr. Dre.

We went to the Planetarium but it stunk so we left after 10 minutes and decided to take a walk by the lake and take more pictures. :)

We went to the beach and apparently Ric Flair was there. It was too hot to care and who knows who that is anyway?

We went to a midnight movie. The Goonies. Classic. 

We went to the Field Museum.

We went to Willis Tower and braved the Skydeck!

He fell asleep on the train. Too much fun, perhaps?

We went to the Suburbs to shop for skateboarding necessities.

We went to a concert in Millenium Park.

We went to the insanity that is Blue Man Group.

We went to Indiana Dunes State Park.

In short, it was FANTASTIC!

Dear Austin,

You are the most fantastic nephew ever.  

Thanks for still wanting to spend time with your old but waaaay cool Aunt.  

I love you!

Aunt Queen

Prepare yourselves.....

...it's bloggy blog time!!

I've been trying to come up with reasons why I haven't blogged in a million years but can't think of one plausible excuse so I'm just going to go forward from here and do my best to catch up.  

Our precious students returned this week so I have a lot to fill you in on regarding work, however, I'm going to take it back to the beginning of summer break first.

Okay, here goes.

Summer break started mid-June and I wasted no time getting myself (and my dog) to Louisiana for a visit!  We drove straight to my sister's lake house to enjoy the lake, fishing and hanging out with the family.

Ahhhhh...Louisiana.

Look closely and you can see my Boogs (Tyler) in the pirogue.

It really was great!  I gave me a chance to unwind and decompress from a long school year.

We did venture out from the Lake a couple of times, one of which produced snow cones. Yes, Lawd!  For some strange reason, Chicago doesn't have snow cones. Seriously Chicago, you don't have a clue what you're missing!!

I also had a reunion of epic proportions with the greatest friends ever in life! 

Cantina Laredo + Beautiful People + Tasty Margaritas + Laughter = Perfection

I decided to make the most of my trip home to Louisiana so I decided not to limit my time just to The Dirty Shreve.  So, I went to NOLA for a few days to visit my very wonderful friend-sista-cousin. 

It was so much fun catching up with Bran Bran & Riggins and eating my way through NOLA, especially shrimp po 'boys! :)

Riggins.

The love of my life. I may or may not have consumed 2 of these bad boys within 12 hours.

Beignet Debris.

After NOLA, I spent a lot of time just hanging out at my Parents' house. 

Mostly, putting up with these two:

Other things I enjoyed during my trip:

• Cupcake-making with Jacqui, Sam (Logan), Candace & Tori
• Dinner with Toya & Helen
• Shopping at Dillards (Why isn't there one in Chicago?)
• Craft Day with my sister
• Mowing the lawn and weeding the flower bed
• Swimming
• Having lunch with my favorite VOA co-workers
• Finding Toya's lovely face on a poster at Starbucks
• Eating, Eating, Eating and Eating

Perhaps the best thing was seeing my Dad ride around on his old-school, bootleg tractor! :)

Lastly, while I was home, I was fortunate to be able to celebrate Austin's 14th birthday.  Although it makes me feel super old that he is now 14 and in 9th grade, I was very happy to be able to celebrate with him!

He chose lemon pie over cake.  My kind of boy.

This boy loves cash!

As you can see, it was a fabulous trip home filled with fabulous food, fabulous fun and fabulous people.

 I love Louisiana!!