Girls Trip to Chicago 2013

Love these girls.  Loooooooove them.

To say I have a bit of history with them is an understatement.  They've known me longer than my husband has.  Nearly 30 years to be exact. 

There is something special about spending time with someone that has known you for that long.  Someone that remembers details about your life that sometimes even YOU forget.  Someone that helps connect the dots between your past and your future.  

We plan this trip every year, but for the past two years one of us wasn't able to join the others (I couldn't go last year because of some pregnancy complications).  This year we were FINALLY all able to go!!!

We took the train this year.  One of my favorite parts of our time together is the trip to Chicago and back.  We always spend all that time catching up.  

We spent the day shopping.  We found lots!!!  Our dinner reservations weren't until nearly 9:00 so we headed back to the hotel....and in true girl fashion did little mini-makeovers.  SO FUN!

That night we had dinner reservations at a restaurant I've been dying to try....RPM.  For those of you that don't know about this restaurant, it's partially owned by Bill and Guiliana Rancic.  He was the winner of the first season of the Apprentice and she is a host on E! News.  They also have their own reality TV show which I like to watch when I get a chance.  Simply put, SUPER cute couple and I'm kinda in love with them.

Sooooo.....we are standing there waiting to be seated and guess who I notice is dining there?!!!??!!  BILL AND GUILIANA!!!!!!!  They were there!!!!  The other bonus is that when we were seated we were literally just a few tables away from them.  To say we were a bit star struck would be an understatement.  We MAY have been spying on them the whole night.  Looooove them!  What an amazing evening.  On a side note, I LOVED RPM!  If you venture to Chicago you should most definitely give it a try!

The next morning I was up bright and early at 5:30 (having a baby will do that to you) and I knew my friend Stacey would be too.  Jill and Krissy are both sleepers - love them!  I whispered over to Stacey and asked if she wanted to go get a coffee together.  We slipped on some shoes, slipped out the door.....and sat for 2 hours curled up by the fireplace in our lobby, enjoying a coffee and chatting.  Such special times.

The weekend wrapped up with a MAJOR trip to Garrett's popcorn (Krissy MAY have nearly wiped them out of popcorn with all the orders from friends she had to pick up), lunch at Chipolte (another favorite), and then the train ride home!

I truly cherish these yearly trips.  The giggles, the serious talks, the deep connections with people I have known for so long.  I am so very blessed to have girls like this in my life.