On a Mission...to Chicago

I promised there would be a post about our trip to Chicago to visit my AXO sister Rachel and her boyfriend Ollie, so now, since we're about to have our own visit from the Londoners, is a good a time as any!

As you know, we moved into the new house in less than three non-vacation days because we'd already planned our Chicago vacation with the assumption that we would have closed on the house by the time we flew out.  We thought we would be a bit stressed out to leave behind such a mess, but the trip was actually a welcome distraction from the madness awaiting us at home.  We spent the first day flying, doing a little shopping, socializing, and regressing on the Scott family trampoline.  Eric split his pants during the making of this photo.

The next day we ventured from the suburbs into the city for authentic deep dish Chicago-style pizza on our way to the Cubs game!  They lost (no surprise there) but we have now had the official bleacher bum experience.

Our third day in Chicago was spent sightseeing in the city.  We rode the El, stopped by Chicago Lyric Opera, and found ourselves at the Bean.  (See our reflection behind us?)

Then we happened to run into the crew of Transformers 3 filming on location.  There were more childhood regressions when we sneaked a peak at Bumblebee!  Further down the street was faux destruction and controlled mayhem for the shoot.

Then we had a tasty lunch on the river and explored the Tribune building where we found a little piece of central Florida all the way up in Illi-noise.

Our final stop in the city that day was the Museum of Science and Industry.  We experienced a bit more regression mingling with the field trip kids, stopping by the ice cream parlor, and playing around on the exhibits.

The rest of our time was spent relaxing and spending time with our friends.  All in all, it was a sweet little taste of a city new to us and a great time with Ollie and Rachel.  They're flying in from England for a visit on New Year's Eve, so we're bound to have more adventures to write about in a few short weeks!

Alpha Chi Omega Alumnae Chapter

At Stetson, I was a collegiate member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority for four years and it was an experience unlike any other. Before I got to college, I could never have predicted that I would join a Greek organization, but it shaped my college life like no other activity would. After graduation, my life was swept up in a whirlwind of living on my own, trying to build a career and make a name for myself, and of course, meeting the love of my life. The Orlando alumnae chapter of ΑΧΩ had been sending me mail describing all of their fun events for the year, and now that the storm has settled, I decided it was time for me to get involved again in ΑΧΩ.

The first meeting of the year, a tailgate party, was last night in Maitland at the home of one of the members. I carpooled with my pal Rachel whom I met through going to auditions but by coincidence is also a Photopass Photographer and also a member of Alpha Chi! We both had a grand time and funnily enough we both ended up as officers on the board at our first meeting! I inherited the duties of Lyre Editor, putting together articles and photos detailing our activities and submitting them to our national quarterly magazine. Rachel is the Historian, responsible for chronicling the year's events in a photo album. We decided that, since we both love to write and take photos and that those skills are needed for each position, we could make it that much more fun and collaborate on our tasks.

I don't know if any of my fellow collegiate ΑΧΩ alumnae from Stetson follow this blog, but if you are reading this you should totally join in the fun!