4th of July Weekend

It was a great Independence Day! Whitney and Ian were able to come and visit us for the 4th weekend and Nate was able to get home by 9 p.m., which is early for this week. They got in 2 days before the fourth and we all quickly discovered that Merrillville, IN is pretty much the firework capital of the world! Seriously! Fireworks (including the $1,000 finale pack that people actually buy and let off in their backyards) are completely legal here for a week surrounding the 4th of July and for New Years Eve. Let's just say the four of us blasted off PLENTY of fireworks and gave ourselves our own show. It was so much fun! Here are a few pictures. (No, you aren't supposed to shoot roman candles out of your hands, but the firework boy assured me that this was the only fun way to do it.)

These boys had so much fun!

We had lots of fireworks!

The weekend following the fourth we did lots of fun things with the Dawsons, including seeing Wicked! (Thanks to Whitney for giving that to me for my birthday!) It was the first time Whitney and Ian had seen it and the cast was simply amazing. Before seeing Wicked we took a tour of Chicago on a double decker bus and got to know the city of Chicago VERY well. We learned all about its history and saw many HUGE buildings. The next day we were able to go to the Taste of Chicago, an event that hosts close to 80 of Chicago's best restaurants. They have you buy tickets and then walk around to the different booths where you are able to buy a "taste" portion of the food--AMAZING! (Of course, Nate spent a lot of his tickets on TWO chocolate bananas.) After the taste we walked around to expereince the fabulous shopping found in downtown. (Nate even let me LOOK in Tiffanys.) Then we went and had some famous Chicago pizza at a cute little Italian place in the city. We will sure miss Ian and Whitney and can't wait to see them again at Christmas!