Chillin’ on a Dirt Road

Before we left on vacation, Nate and I headed out for a drive through the countryside.  And by countryside, I mean 2 miles from our house.

Why? Because that’s what you do in Iowa.  Usually there is beer involved.  And ‘coon beating.  But we decided to keep it low key. Just Nate, Ike, and I cruising in my Jeep…sans baseball bats.

Nate recently read that in order to take great landscape photographs, you need to be able to be inspired in your own backyard.  If you can’t be inspired by your everyday surroundings, how can you easily be inspired in new places that you travel to?

Bring on the inspiration…

At sunset we headed to a little lake….(After we ran back into town for gas.  Note to self…when “cruising the countryside” have a full tank of gas…amateurs…).  They are currently working on enlarging this lake and adding nature trails.  Only 2 miles from home.  We are pretty pumped about this situation…

This last photo didn’t turn out the greatest but it still makes me smile…love that dog!

Have you stopped to enjoy the beauty in your backyard recently?

The Sweaty City

One day of our recent vacation was spent in Chicago.  We both love Chicago.  The architecture, the food, the shopping…what’s not to love?…

I want to move to Chicago for one month.  I’m sure I’d miss my cornfields after that…and have $0 left to my name.  Why?…..the food…and the shopping….at least observing the architecture is free…

I talked Nate into stopping at the multiple stories of wonderfulness that is the Crate and Barrel on Michigan Ave.  He willingly obliged…because they had air conditioning and it was 1 billion degrees outside…and he made the stipulation that whatever I bought…I had to carry home on the train…

He had fun. I swear.

I loved this Lyle Side Chair…for our kitchen eating area…with the District Dining Table.  Nate liked the added benefit of fart holes in the seat.  This is when I began to laugh hysterically and a saleswoman came to kick us out of the store see if we needed assistance.  The heat was definitely getting to us.  Needless to say, we went home empty handed.

We also made the rounds to some of our favorite touristy spots in the city…

The Field Museum…

The Field Museum is packed full of information…like the evolution of my awesome posture…

The Cloud Gate…

The spitting faces…

And Buckingham Fountain…

We are thinking about heading back later this fall to further enjoy the wonderfulness that is Chicago….minus the profuse sweating…

Have you been to Chicago?  What’s your favorite restaurant? tourist trap? museum? etc.

And for you non-Chicago fans…what are you loving at Crate and Barrel these days?

The Hamptons of the Midwest

Thanks to my guest bloggers for holding down the fort last week while I was hanging out in Miller Beach, IN….

The house was very unique.  6 floors total.  The kitchen was beautiful…

Miller Beach on the other hand….not quite the Hamptons.  We wouldn’t recommend the location as a destination for your next vacation (not the safest town, had to travel 20 minutes to decent restaurants/shopping, not the safest town)…but we enjoyed our family bonding and beach time!

The views from the house were impressive…

You could see the Chicago sky-line from the top deck…

The sunset on Lake Michigan was great for pondering life…

and posing with the love of your life….who was DISGUSTING from sand volleyball (we’re closet pros…ask the fam)…but look at that sunset…

Who doesn’t love bonding with their Kindle in a hammock? (P.S. Black Heels to Tractor Wheels and Bossypants….great beach reads!)

Ike had a rough start to vacation….barfing in the car while stuck in Chicago traffic (awesome) and a near death experience falling down some deck stairs (I can never have human children)…but things started to look up after a good run with his cousin…

We also hung out with some cute kids….oh yeah, and their parents…

Have you taken a vacation with the whole family? Did you survive?  Where’s your favorite place travel with the family?

I cleaned up the side bar a little bit yesterday.  You will now find fancy buttons at the top of the blog that better enable you to stalk us on multiple social media sites.  We included a link to our recently opened Flickr account…for those of you who can’t get enough of our vacation photos…and to save the rest of you from having to view them on the blog!