Getting Used to It

I spent the weekend in Belvidere with Troy and Ellie.  It was an absolutely wonderful weekend.

Wendi, Larissa, and Brooke met at my house and we drove up Friday night. I love road trips. I got to catch up on all the happenings back home.

Ellie's apartment is really cute. We had a lot of fun that night just sitting around and troy taught us to play the tongue drum. Its a really cool African sounding wooden drum. I think I want one. :)

Saturday morning Darcy joined us and we took the train into Chicago.

waiting for the train

We sat in the upper deck of the train and watched the scenery and people. It was a nice calm ride compared to driving into the city.

passing another train.

brooke, darcy, wendi, me, larissa, ellie :)

Chicago! :)

While we were waiting (for an hour and a half) for the Cheesecake Factory, Brooke, Darcy and I walked to the lake.

too bad the water was probably freezing cold. :)

The Cheesecake Factory was amazing. It was definitely worth the wait. It is Darcy's birthday this week so Troy had them sing to her. 

We actually didn't do much shopping. It was a Saturday and the stores were really packed and we had to get back before the train left.  We did get a nice tour of the city though.

 It was really sad walking around. There were so many homeless people begging for food and money.  Some of them would walk up to you while others wouldn't even look at you.  They all looked so cold, dirty, and lonely. I never know what to do when I see things like that. You can't help them all and you don't know their motives. But, still I feel bad just walking past.   

After a beautiful day in the city we made our way back to the train station. Thanks to Darcy's amazing memory and the help of a homeless man who was walking by we made it to the train on time. Needless to say we gave him a gift card to McDonald's.

Brooke and I sharing some really good chocolate coconut cream cheesecake on the train. :)

Then we headed back to T and E's where we ate pizza, or at least tried to we were so full of cheesecake.  We were all tired from walking around chicago all day so we went to bed early.

To Troy's surprise all four of us girls got ready in the bathroom with no problems and we made it to Belvidere church on time. We left right after church and headed home.

That was such a great weekend. (Thank you Troy and Ellie for putting up with us!) I had so much fun and it was wonderful just to be able to hang out with some of my friends. After a stressful week at school, it was so encouraging to spend time away with wonderful people.

So, I'm finally getting used to the fact that Ellie is an old married woman. :)

In Christ

~Michelle