a chicago preview...

david and i had the good fortune of spending our last pre-costa rica weekend with a stellar group of friends in chicago, which became even more awesome by virtue of the fact that in just two months, the city will become our new home.  they literally flew and drove in from all corners of the country (nyc, cleveland, bloomington, la, san diego...) to join us in celebrating our upcoming wedding, and just generally for some good times.  and good times they were...

my wonderful sister emily and her awesome boyfriend eric (see picture below, with me and our cousin marissa)

were generous (crazy?) enough to offer up their new and beautiful home to all of us for a big three day slumber party.  while the gentlemen immersed themselves in march madness, the ladies had a very packed and entertaining itinerary.  

we all arrived late friday night to find the house quite festively decorated, and had a great evening hanging out on em and eric's enormous couch (here is a glimpse of it, though you cannot appreciate the true majesty from this shot alone):

getting to know each other and appreciating some legit chicago deep dish pizza.  many folks were meeting for the first time, and david and i have truly been looking forward to meshing some of our buddies together.  nothing like a weekend of intimate bonding to do just that.  it was so cool to see this group of people in the same room together!  how fantastically nuts is it, for example, to see my two oldest friends, marissa and hilary, hanging out with david's fraternity brother james?

and yes, marissa is fortunate to reside in the tiny minority of people who can make a great kiss face in pictures rather than looking like a complete moron.  i don't even try.

anyhow, saturday brought yet more basketball for the guys, while the girls had a day out on the town.  emily, despite having a terrible cold, totally stepped up to the plate as best-hostess-ever, taking us to a spectacular brunch at "feast," a restaurant in the bucktown neighborhood that you should make a point to visit if ever in chicago for any meal (and showering me with gifts!):

www.feastrestaurant.com

followed by manicures:

which worked up our appetites, so we next continued on to get cupcakes at an extraordinarily mouthwatering bakery called sweet mandy b's (in the lincoln park neighborhood):

in my sophisticated palate's opinion, this place could definitely take nyc's famous magnolia bakery in a cupcake-off, and believe me when i say i know from cupcakes.

after stuffing ourselves with these remarkable confections (oh my god, the thought of the banana chocolate chip one just popped into my head and my mouth actually filled with saliva like a pavlov dog...), we worked off some of the guilt and calories in a...unique dance class which left us bruised and sore in muscles we didn't realize we had:

followed by a night on the town that included a very entertaining live show (sorry, no photos were allowed in there--which is perhaps for the better on this family friendly blog) and then meeting up with the guys, who, out of hoops to watch, actually went somewhere without a tv...and look at all the great mingling that resulted:

marissa and mike making peace regarding some snoring issues the previous night:

hil trying out some of her new dance skills on david, and her brother jeremy (who's like another brother to me) was kind enough to join us for the evening as well:

more coed bonding:

and a wonderful (albeit hazy) group photo (unfortunately, em and eric had to call it a night shortly before this was taken):

this was such a phenomenal weekend in so many ways.  david and i really enjoyed having such a fun preview of our new hometown, and if this weekend was any indication of the next 5 or so years, seriously, look out chicago.  

but more importantly, we were so moved by the time and effort put forth by these friends and family to join us and make this experience all that it could be.  we can't imagine this weekend being any more perfect or any more fun...with the exception of every flight out of chicago on sunday getting delayed or canceled...that was a bit of a downer (and a bit of a mystery).  

if it makes the fliers feel any better, david and i pulled into frigid ann arbor at 12:30 am to find that our landlord locked our deadbolt (for which we have no key) after showing our apartment this weekend.  somehow, despite his sleepy stupor and my sorest of limbs, we managed to throw me up onto our second story balcony, only to discover our landlord *also* locked that door.  this was followed by 30 minutes of me hop-slipping up and down on the ice covered balcony for warmth, calling every number listed for my landlord  on my quickly dying phone until he finally rescued me/us.  clearly, we all should have stayed an extra night in chicago...

anyhow, time and time again we are left speechless with how to express our gratitude for all of the wonderful people who love us so much and have great ways of showing it.  i'll say it again--weddings provide ample opportunity to be reminded of how lucky we are for the people who care about us, and we are blessed to have many such people in our lives.

thanks to all of you for making this weekend so special, especially to em and marissa for putting so much planning into the girl stuff (don't we look like blood relatives?!  we sure feel like it...)!

this was such a great group, and we are so excited to have gotten the ball rolling full speed in terms of making the wedding as personable and intimate as possible--that's absolutely our primary objective (wedlock is merely secondary).  we much look forward to reuniting in just a few weeks, and adding many more to the fun!

we can't wait to see everyone again!