My 43rd Birthday!

EEEeeeeee!!!  Birthday DAY!!!

French Toast Sticks and Berries for Breakfast, YUM!

 

 

The morning was nice and peaceful.  At least until I took Snowball for walk (cat torture).

  

She meows at the window all the time, then I take her out and she HATES it.

Meow*  Why must you torture me???  *Meow

She has no concept of walking on a leash.

In fact, her goal was to NOT cooperate (check out her back foot and how she digs those toes in).  :)

Sophie played in the yard, and Snowball complained, while I jumped on the trampoline.  It was weird having the trampoline all to myself; like it was missing a few kids or something. 

I tried to show her how to climb a tree before taking her back inside.  She wasn't thrilled with the lesson.

 

Anyways, after a fun-filled morning of torturing the cat, it was time to get ready to head to Chicago!

 

The day before my birthday, Mom and I went shopping and she took me to the cupcake shop in Valpo.

She got me the tuxedo cupcake, which has a cream cheese filling.  It was sooo rich and sweet to me that the kids and I shared it.  I just can't handle my sugar very well, even though I have a massive sweet tooth. 

Next, it was manicure time, compliments of Gladdie.  :)  Yeah, that's NEON GREEN!!!

A quick selfie with Mom-- (Melfie?) and it was time to hit the road!

I know this comes as no shock to most of Y'all, but I'm not really a city gal. 

Jean's flight just happened to be flying into O'Hare Airport (coming back from spring break in Florida), and I needed to pick her up.

Sooo, seeings as how I was passing by Chicago anyways, I figured it would be fun to check out Navy Pier.

On the way, I spotted a, # MARCH 4 KIDS sign.  Hehe, March is backwards.

A view of Navy Pier from Lakeshore Drive:

For as much as Glenn enjoys Chicago, it is surprising that I don't remember ever being at Navy Pier.

I think we may have taken the kids to the Children's Museum a few years ago, but it was so cold out that we didn't go outdoors. 

The evening of March 13, 2015 was totally gorgeous out.  I didn't even need a coat!

We took a, 15 story high, ride on the Ferris Wheel!!! 

Weeeeeeeee!

The Ferris Wheel ride was the highlight that evening.

Of course, the views were spectacular and my snapshots do not do them justice.

Sightseeing was fun, and then there was the supper incident.  

The conversation was one of those continuous loops that went like this:  Where do you wanna eat?  I dunno, where do you want to eat? 

Glenn couldn't take it anymore, and we went into the next eating establishment we came to.

The matredee was sooo nice, he gave us a tour of the highly decorated restaurant before seating us in a romantic nook with a view overlooking the lake.

Little did we know that the least expensive item on the menu was the $56 swordfish appetizer.  As we unfolded our gold trimmed napkins, and sipped on the lemon/mint water, we opened the menus and gasp!!!!! 

Not only was the food out of our budget for the evening, it was almost all seafood or really weird entrees that I've never heard of. 

We enacted the good ole trusty, fake an emergency plan, and made a B-line straight for the door.

We had pizza for supper instead.   
 

The water was so clear and had a green tint; it reminded me of Green Bay. 

It strikes me as odd, to see such a great variation in the clarity of Lake Michigan water.  Specifically, the coffee stained Michigan city pier water compared to the clear, slightly green, Navy Pier water.

This is the view of the lighthouse when standing on the farthest tip of Navy Pier looking south: 

Another amazing fact from the day, is that I didn't see any fish or folk's trying to catch fish.  A pier without fishermen-- Is that legal?  Crazy City Folk.  :)