Remember these two from the lake?!? Well we got to see them again sooner than the kids expected. Ryan and Josi were gracious enough to bunk in with friends so we could take over their 2nd floor apartment for 2 weeks! (Yes, you heard that right. We hope the retired couple (their landlords!) that lives below them still liked them after we left.)
Living directly in Chicago has always been a pretty intimidating thought to me. Although I've lived all over the country and internationally, I'm really more of an acreage in the country sort of girl. But after bumping a couple cars trying to parallel park and earning our first parking ticket, we deemed ourselves official city-dwellers! I was pretty proud of myself every time I managed to get us to our destination and back and over the 2 weeks, we proved to ourselves that a big family COULD take on the BIG CITY! (as long as Ryan is close by to park my car!)
Uncle Ryan playing follow the leader at the park.
We kept our schedule pretty busy in Chicago. We were hanging out with people every night (and some days) of the 2 weeks we were there. (Don and I even got to have a couple dates!) We had some really amazing conversations. We got to share our story and got to be really encouraged by hearing other people's stories. I never ever tire of hearing God's heart through the many different stories of the people we meet. It was truly good for our souls and I determined that Chicago has an abundance of AWESOME people living in community there. They love JESUS and love EACH OTHER in a way that is evident to all. And for 2 weeks, we had the privilege to be a part of that. We can't wait to visit again!
One of our favorite people that we got to spend time with was Don's cousin Cameron. In the whole city, he happened to be a 7 minute bike ride from where we were staying. It was fun spending time with him and the kids loved him coming by during the days. Cameron heads off to physical therapy school soon and you never know, there's a wandering family that may need to crash his new place in Texas! (Just kidding Cameron...we'll be sure to call first!)
We also got to spend time with the Asper clan! We invaded their home in the suburbs for the weekend (with our Ikea bags of laundry!) and shared some fun play time with Ben, Julie, and their 4 kids. They are a special family who love well and we really enjoyed spending time with them. Love them!
The secret to getting them all to sit in one place...Movie Night!
Pure Cuteness!
We loved our time in Chicago and will cherish the old and new relationships we have there!
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