April in Paris, I mean Chicago?

In April we traveled to Chicago for a long (turned short) weekend to visit the cousins and see some sights. Above with my cousin, Sean and below with Mike's cousin, Missy (and dog, Tucker)

We spent the first night at Aunt Elisa's in Skokie

We started our chilly Friday avoiding an accident on Lakeshore Drive and sight seeing on Navy Pier

Then Maureen was kind enough to meet us at Navy Pier and treated us to the architectural tour boat ride

About half way through the boat ride, a crack of thunder/lightening and the Heavens opened and it down poured! So we headed to the Shedd Aquarium indoors to end our day.

Saturday we were going to check out the zoo but since daddy wanted to just leave early, we opted for cousin time and went with Maureen and Alex to watch Maggie play Lacrosse! She won!

Maggie was even gracious enough to pass on some of her American Girl doll toys to Lu after playing with her!

One of my favorite parts of my job is helping students who have run out of federal funding find institutional (or other) funds to finish their degree. I was blessed to attend this Road to Completion event and not only meet some of the students I have helped, but the donors!!

Da Homies: Etta, Paulina and Liliana ~ these girls FaceTime several times a week and we've been able to get them together for hangouts thanks to grandma Paula's generous Sunday dinners!

Because we came home from Chicago early I was able to attend my BFF's first grandchild's FHC on Divine Mercy Sunday!

Over the course of the month we got a couple visits in to Hudsonville which was nice b/c we didn't get to see the Devries for Easter or Mother's Day unfortunately.

We got to watch Tomas actually play in the spring game and bonus! no stadium cleanup since it was Holy Saturday!

On Holy Thursday the girls and I visited seven churches. Usually I make a pilgrimage on Good Friday but since it was set to rain all day and I didn't have use of a vehicle, we decided to try this - I think I'm going to do it again next year if we can! Also below is a picture of Claire, Lucy's classmate, who wrote to Pope Francis to ask for prayers for her mom who has brain cancer and his card arrived after his death, having been mailed as one of his last acts of mercy most likely ~ wow!!