What would you do if the grandparents offer to watch your three year old son for an entire weekend? Well, if you are Jeanine and I, you plan a weekend in Chicago and a big surprise for the little guy.
On Friday, I attended An Event Apart downtown with two co-workers where we discussed design and code for the web. Jeanine, on the other hand, spent a better portion of the day strolling down Michigan Avenue, which was definitely more her cup of tea. After the conference, we met up for dinner and headed over to the Oriental Theatre for the broadway play Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. It was awesome! That evening we spent the night at Hotel 71, a boutique hotel with contemporary flair and a great view of the Chicago River.
My lifelong friend Ryan was getting married on Saturday so we jumped accross the state line into Wisconsin for the ceremony and then back into Illinois for the reception. It was like a who's who from my past with friends from as far back as grade school and as recent as college in attendance. After the wedding, we drove back to the Chicago suburbs to get a jump start on the big suprise we had planned for Jonathan.
We kicked Sunday morning off with breakfast at IKEA—nothing can beat $0.99 eggs! Our plan of attack (one must have a plan of attack before entering IKEA) was to buy Jonathan a new "big boy" bed and have it waiting for him when he returned home. We hit the jackpot when we found a blue lofted bed complete with a ladder. In an attempt to up the ante on our surprise, we picked up a new dresser and finally got around to buying frames for some art that my sister Jamie had given us for Jonathan's bedroom. Upon returning home, Jeanine and I spent most of the evening assembling our very affordably priced, Swedish-designed, flat-packed furniture with an allen wrench.
In the end, I think we did pretty well, but you can have a look and decide for yourself.
