In Retrospect ...

We have now been in Chicago for about a year. We are settling in, getting familiar with the lay of the land, and getting overall acclimated to our new home. We both feel that it wasn't as hard as we expected getting used to such a larger city than we were accustomed to. And while there are a lot of things we miss about Minnesota (mostly people), we do like Chicago. As has been our tradition the last couple years, we thought we would take you all through the past year in pictures. This year will be via blog posts as Nathan's former website is currently down. We do like the other format better, as it was easier to customize to our liking, but this will do. In each post, click on the photo to see more from that event.

Zoo Lights 2008

We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo for Zoo Lights this year. We happened to go on a very wet and rainy night. We got so soaked that we had to buy ponchos at the gift shop! We did get to see a few animals but mostly lights. Even with the rain it was still a good time (how can you beat being able to wear such high fashion such as yellow ponchos?!).

Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving we went to a friend of a friend's house. We had a very nice and relaxing time visiting, not to mention delicious food! Saturday we went to Stoughton to visit with some relatives. It was good to see everyone!

Holiday Window Displays

We went to see the window displays at Macy's on State St again this year. This has become one of Missy's new favorite holiday traditions! This year's theme was hope and "A Million Reasons To Believe..." On our way there, we also saw another building with interesting lighting. While we were looking at the displays it started to lightly snow. That added to the atmosphere of the evening. 

Fourth of July

We came back from Minnesota in time for the Fourth of July. Missy's brother and family were able to come this way as well so we were able to celebrate the holiday with them. We watched the fireworks from the parking lot of where we ate dinner. We were so close to where they were letting them off that we could feel each one!

Our First Visitors/New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve, our friends Dan and Kayte came to visit us. We did a little sightseeing (not a lot as it was really cold while they were here), toured the Google office, played some Wii (and by some I mean Dan and Nathan played for HOURS ;-) ), and celebrated the incoming year.