Wild in Chicago

Good morning everyone. Another busy week in the books with what feels like Summer speeding quickly by. Tuesday I went to the last league home match between the Torrent and GRFC. We had a 2-0 lead before giving up a pair of goals to end the match in a draw. It was a frustrating match that had a lot of missed calls, but we chanted and cheered anyways. Next blog, I'll give my full review and thoughts on our frustrating season. Wednesday afternoon, Mia went to her friend Cecilia's house for a few hours. For some reason, she was hella shy with Cecilia's Mom Andrea. I don't know why. She's seen her before at school and outside of school but decided she would just be shy for the day. The kids played, watched a movie and later, Cecilia's neighbors and fellow classmate Harper and Hayden came over. Harper is such a sweetheart for playing with her sister and her friends. Hayden is a ball of crazy fun that loves to give hugs. Before long, it was time to go. I've been so grateful that the parents that I've met so far in Mia's grade school are genuine and incredibly friendly.

Later, I went out with old college friends Nicole (and her boyfriend), Steve and Shawn. We met at the Karaoke bar Shawn works at during the week. Both Nicole and Steve did karaoke but I did not. Just not my thing. I play drums for a reason. No matter how much I may enjoy singing songs at shows, I'd prefer to stick behind my kit playing the best that I can. I think I'd need a lot more Guinness in me to do karaoke. We had a good time catching up before I headed home. Saturday, we left early for the Brookfield Zoo and after visit Whitney and Matt in downtown Chicago. The zoo was a lot of fun and we got to see some animals Mia hasn't seen in person. The first stop was her favorite-The Red Panda. Although the little fuzzy one was asleep, she's always happy to see her favorite animal. We got to pet a wallaby! That was something unique for the diva. William the wallaby was super soft and adorable. Mia also got to see an emu up close in the same attraction. She fed some goats and really enjoyed feeding all of the parakeets as well. The underwater viewing of the sea lions was really nice. Mia liked the ones that would swim upside down backwards. Her favorite thing we did was the dolphin show.

She purposely picked for us to sit in the splash zone. Jill had told her that we'd probably get like a misting of water but it was more like a wave. The dolphins played a game of "who could soak the most people" and just as Jill handed me her camera to stick in my backpack, we got hit. Mia thought it was the greatest thing. "I CAN TASTE SALT WATER IN MY MOUTH AND I DON'T CARE!" She was worried we wouldn't get wet, but was pleasantly soaked and had a great time.

We stopped by the arts and crafts area before hitting up the butterfly garden. She was bummed none landed on her, which was the signal that it was time to go. We soon met up with Whit and Matt in their new condo. Beautiful place with a nice rooftop area to enjoy. They made us pizza and tequitos. Mia had fun being silly with Matt and it was overall, a really fun night catching up. She fell asleep shortly in the car on our trek back home, arriving at 12:30am.

Sunday, Jill and I cut the grass before going to a cookout at her parents house. I couldn't stay for long and had to work at 2. This week, Nothing in the books. Mia may hang out with friends at some point. We have to do some back-to-school shopping at some point (school items are on sale). At this point, nothing going on for the weekend.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!