Rites of "Spring"

So, this blog is often all roses, but I'm not gonna lie - this weekend left a lot to be desired. For starters, our (my) team made it to the brink of the final four but fell a few buckets short. (I know I am supposed to be happy at how well they did, which of course I am, but let's be real - this is not the outcome we were hoping for.) The real loss here is that you will now never see young Georgia saying "Go Tigers!" on video, since I am too superstitious to have posted such a thing beforehand, but now it's pointless and kinda sad to post it after the fact, so you'll just have to trust me when I say that it would've been cute. (P.S. Nana and Pop Pop - I think she needs toddler Tiger clothing - STAT! How could we all have let this oversight occur? I'm not positive, but this may have cost us the game.)

Second, most of our free time this weekend (i.e., Georgia's non-waking hours) was spent working on our 2008 taxes (ugh!), which of course we're up against deadlines on, since for the first time ever we're considered employers. (Oh, and also, we're kind of cheap procrastinating idiots who should have used an accountant. That might have something to do with it.)

Last but not least, we (Joe, my father in law, my sister in law, and I) were all supposed to run the Shamrock Shuffle 8k this weekend. It had been on the calendar since December, which is more advanced planning and prep than we give almost anything! Well, long story short, the weather absolutely BLEW, so we all (wisely, I believe) ended up bagging the whole thing. I can confidently say that it was just not meant to be for us with temps in the low 30's and continual snowfall throughout the race. I really don't think my training would've prepared me for that, nor my gear. At least we weren't the only ones -- of 30,000 registered runners, apparently just shy of 14,000 showed up.

Anyway, I was very happy this morning looking out the window at the snowfall not to be running in it, but less happy that we had spent our Saturday morning paying for parking at Navy Pier and trudging through tourist crowds (in what to us feels like the worst mall in America - that sells only keychains) to pick up race packets that we didn't end up using.

I am leaving out other not-so-fun details (Georgia coming down with a cold today, our church trip this morning, etc.), but enough with the negativity, right? On the positive side, I'm leaving you with a few pictures from the brighter moments of the weekend. Our unnecessary trip to Navy Pier did happen to land us in the "Crystal Gardens" again, which provided a lush green escape from the elements and a nice setting for photos.


No idea what's going on here, but I like it. Caption for this photo?


A while back, we taught Georgia how to do "cheers", and now she usually needs you to clink glasses with her several times per meal. It's quite endearing, and really, an important life skill, don't you think?


Kiss 4,876,591,002.

A highlight of our weekend was attending the fabulous 2nd birthday party of miss Anna Madge. I'll let my good friend Maggie handle the in-depth blogging of that special event, but in the meantime I wanted to post these shots. I guess Anna was expecting a pretty wild crowd, so naturally, she put Georgia on security detail (with requisite pink party favor sunglasses):


Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?.....