I am FINALLY getting this up, our last week has been insane and I have not had a moment to sit down at the computer!

Last weekend our little family took a mini vacay, hubby had some time off work he needed to use and I had a whopping 6 days off in a row. Something that is rare these days.

To start with L came down with a virus the day before we were supposed to leave...of course.... but we went anyway. He was able to sleep a lot and the dr told us he really wasn't contagious. Poor guy at his worst had a fever of 105!! I thought I was going to freak out! It responded quickly to ibuprofen thank Jesus, my little guy did not feel good, although he seemed to maintain his good spirits like such a trooper. He is all better now, Praise God!!

We started out by heading to San Antonio, my family lives there and so does my brother in law and their family. My nephews second birthday was Saturday so while we were able to visit my parents we were able to attend his part as well. My sister in law did such a great job and it was so much fun! Plus, it was fun to see L and his cousin play together. It just blows my mind how much they look alike!! My nephew is 8 months older than L, even though they are about the same size.

After a short stay in San Antonio we headed to Austin for a day or so. We arrived sunday afternoon and we were so bummed because it was raining like crazy and all our "plans" were outside. We really didn't have any plans just an idea of some things we would like to see or do. Unfortunately they all consisted of being outside or walking outside so the rain was a total buzz-kill :(

We need up grabbing a bite to east at Wahoos Fish Taco. It was so yummy, I had a bowl that had fish, rice and black beans. There were some sort of veggies in there too and a really yummy sauce. This was outstanding and really filled me up! After that we just drove around the UT campus, went to check out the sorority and fraternity houses (we always like to do this if were in cities that have our greek organization) and we were going to go to the Co-op but it literally closed 5 minutes before we got there. By the suggestion of a twitter friend we also went to check out BookPeople a really cool bookstore that I could have gotten lost in for hours! L was really good and was napping this whole time. We headed back to the hotel to dry off and rest before dinner. We went to Hula Hut, one of my favorites. It was kind of a bet because it was so late and L was tired and hungry but because he was so tired didn't really want to eat so he was so fussy and we ended up trading off with each other and walking L outside. Oh well, you live and learn right!

On Monday we woke up and went to breakfast at Kerbey Lane This is one of our favorites from college when we would go to Sixth St as they are open 24 hours. This was not the case, but the food was still so good! L started off breakfast really fussy again and we were so frustrated after the previous night and now this. He is ALWAYS so good in restaurants, low and behold the kid was starving. He probably ate 4 eggs, 1/4 of pancake and 1/2 bowl of fruit. I guess thats what happens when you don't want to eat dinner. He was back to his good spirits and we were off to start our day. We started by going back to the Co-op, I wish I had more money to spend there they literally had so many cute things!! We needed up just getting L a pair of cute sweatpants this time.

By this time I had told a previous patients family that I would head over to their boutique to say hi so thats where we went. I absolutely love being able to see patients and their families that I really connected to outside of the hospital. It is hard because I usually only see my patients very sick in ICU and don't get to see the after product of my care. This was so fun because the baby was like night and day!! He was so happy and full of life. Its amazing what a good heart can do for you!! After that little stop off we decided to go park the car and roam around. We headed to South Congress which was so cool, we wished we had waited to have lunch there because the little food trucks looked so fun!! We had pizza earlier so we really weren't hungry.

After our snack we headed back to the hotel so we could get ready for dinner, we were going to The Salt Lick. We drove out and by the time we got there we were all hungry. I was amazed at how fast the service was. That was a blessing because by this point L wanted nothing to do with sitting and eating so we took turns going out and letting L walk around. Poor guy was basically over the vacation by this point. He usually is an angel in restaurants he'll sit and eat or play while we eat and not make much fuss...oh boy not this day! We ate fast and headed outside to the play area so he could blow off some steam! He was in HEAVEN!!

Although when it was time to go a meltdown was had!! He DID. NOT. want to leave!!!

We headed home early the next day and I don't think I have seen a little guy happier to be home than L was! It was a fun little trip and a much needed break from daily life!

I'm back from a blogging hiatus, I just felt there was nothing too interesting worth blogging about so I just took a break. However while I was on that break, we went to Chicago for our little family vacation.

We like to go on vacation every year and there are so many cool cities in the US that neither of us have seen so this year we chose Chicago!

We got there very early last Tuesday and decided it would be much cheaper to take the EL (the city train subway thing) to our hotel. Well we got mostly to the hotel and once we got downtown we decided to take a taxi to the hotel because the subway was a little confusing once you got into the city. We got to the hotel and settled in some then headed out to explore. We kind of wandered around a bit and found some place for lunch. We settled on Giordano's. I ordered ravioli as I am not a fan of Chicago style pizza but luckily they had personal sized pizzas so Mark could have one, He loved it, I tasted it and was not such a fan, just something about all that stuff in the middle of the pizza I just do not enjoy. After lunch we wandered some more and Mark wanted some new sunglasses so we wandered through the mall they had on Michigan Ave and he got his fancy new sunglasses and then we just decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap as we were both tired from all the early AM traveling.

OH I almost forgot before we went back to the hotel we decided to stop at the John Hancock building where you can go up to the 96th floor and look out over the city while you have a drink or a bite to eat

and then from the women's bathroom this is the view:

the whole wall of the women's bathroom is a huge window!!

After our nap we decided to head over to Navy Pier to check things out and find somewhere to eat dinner, we decided on Bubba Gumps it was right at the entrance and we were starving, plus Mark wanted seafood, so we had a shrimp feast!

Wednesday we wanted to check out Millennium Park and the Chicago Fine Arts Museum. The weather was beautiful so we walked there and wandered through Millennium Park

Checked out the Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Checked out the Cloud Gate statue also known as "the bean"

Then we went over to the Chicago Fine Arts Museum, which is HUGE but we didn't really go through the whole thing as it would have taken all day so we looked on the map and hit the rooms with paintings we were interested in checking out. The lady at the coat check was surprised when we came back to get our coat only two hours later...but when you have a city as big as Chicago to explore theres no time for checking out old pots and Asian statues, no offense, were just not into that kind of art.

After the Art museum we wanted to check out one of the Architecture boat tours. So glad we did! It was probably one of the highlights of the tour, the guide had so much great information and it was a nice rest for our feet...although once the tour was over I had a massive headache and neck ache from forgetting my sunglasses thus squinting and also from looking up at the sky for an hour and half at all the big buildings..at that I will leave you with some pictures of my favorites from the tour: